Alexandria daily gazette, commercial & political. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1808-1812, 1810-08-30
From the Agricultural Mltseuw.


CITY of Washington, and the two towns in
the District of Columbia, will be found to
have doubled in the last ten years, unPro-
pitious as these years have been, to the
growth of towns depending for their pros.
peritv on that kind of trade, which has for
its basis, the products OF our own country;
and which are too remote from the sea, TO
rival towns on the sea-board, in what IS
called the carrying trade.
If in such times the increase of popula-
ton has been so great, what may not be
expected, in the next ten years to come, IN
which, and perhaps in all future times, Tor
at least half a century, it seems more than
D, obable, from the state Of the world, we
must content ourselves with that trade only,
which depends upon our own resources!
And it will, / doubt not, be happy Cir.
cumstance for the country, if we can bring
ourselves to so much moderation, as 70 aim
at no more-indeed this, properly cultivat.
ed, will be enough for all our activity, and
all our enterprise. In such a state Of things,
the progress of Washington, and the other
towns in the district, will bear some pro-
portion to the magnitude of the back coun-
try with which nature has connected them.
1t is well known, thai the country west,
and north and south west of the district,
watered by streams tributary to the Poto.
mac, and afording, for some months in the
year, inland navigation for several hundred
miles, is certainly amongst the most fertile
on the eastern waters; and may be Justly
denominsted the srain country OF the At
lantic states. Extravagant as it may seem,
il is nevertheless true, that even at this mo.
mens, an equal market price for -four, and
grain of all kinds. would attract to the dis
trio; more abundant supplies than any one
town in the United States annually receives
and for this, there is the plainest reason
in the world-because the growers of the
article in the largest and finest grain coun-
try, would be sub ected to less expence in
transporting it to the district, than in car
rying it to any otker market accessible to
sea vessels---and this advantage in favor Of
the district, will become more decisive eve.
ny succeeding year, as the inland naviga.
tloa of Potomac, and its different branches,
becomes more perfect.
My present object, however, is not to
point out the.Genl2'4fsstalai or Columbia--but
rather to call the attention of the proprietors
of the lands in the vicinity, to the import
ance of making due efforts for their i'm
provement, with view to the supply of
the growing market at their door-particu-
larly with those articles which either will
not bear the carriage, or which, from other
circumstances, cannot be SO well supplied
from distance.
The kind fland which more immediate.
~ calls Tor Improvement, and which will
best reward the labor OF the judicious i'm
proven, is that which is not bat little better
than an lncumbrance to the owner, but
which is capable of being converted into
meadow, at an eXpence trihing indeed, in
comparison with the annual profits it will
be sure to yield. Meadow ground, under
proper cultivation, is no where so valuable
as IN the neighborhood of the district--n
no other place is there so great demand
Tor grass, and all the articles depending on
grass; hence it is, that the articles, so es-
sential to the daily consumption of towns,
constantly command prices from 20 to S
per cent. higher in the district, than in the
great markets of Philadelphia and Balti-
more-and it need not be unprecedented, that
the improvement of such land can be too
general-or too rapid-no efforts in the
power CT the proprietors to make, can keep
pace with the still more rapid increase in
the population of the District.
Each owner of such land will be able to
calculate tor himself the cxpence of laying
1t down in grass-the profits will probably
exceed any idea he NAV be able TO form on
the subject, without some knowledge of the
value OF such lands near other markets. III
the De,rbhorbool oE