Alexandria gazette & daily advertiser. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1817-1822, 1821-07-06
On the advantages ofthe tide uoter land,
1chsn compared NTH the lands near the
Blue Ridge.

phsn compared NTH the lands near the
Btse Ridge.
Mr.. SNowDEN,
The erroneous impression which has
hitherto prevailed with respect to the va
he of the lands, and the profits of the
farmer contiguous to the Blue Ridge, has
now arrived at positive conclusion. The
fertility of that country is not questioned
or doubted; but that it ever possessed in
trinsic superiority over the tide water
lands is positively denied. In general
fertility it surpasses ours; but on the allu-
vial soils of our rivers there are many ex-
ceptions in our favor. The forest of
Prince George is decidedly superior to
any part of the upper country, in fertility
of soil, the value of its products, and the
price of its lands, which now command as
much per acre as Loudon lands did in
1916 Governor Sprigg made ninety-fve
hogsheads of cross tobacco with seventeen
hands; this is about $3.50 per hand. Can
the ridge farmer find a parallel to this in
Loudon, Jefferson or Frederick counties?
Not Mr.. Delaplaine with his 1000 bush
els including all grains can equal it. Our
resources for manurss are greatly more
abundant and various than in the upper
country. The fisheries, the mari banks,
the oyster shells in their natural state,
sea-ore and plaster of paris, are all with
in our reach, and water carriage renders
them extremely cheap; none OF these ex-
cept plaster is attainable by the ridge
farmer, and to him, the Wagon carriage
makes it come high. If our focks and
our herds are not as numerous, our NUT
ton and our beef is not inferior, and in
the luxuries of life we have the world at
our door. In the ridge country the Dutch
man who feeds his family on the sour and
putrescent offal of his dairy and hog pen,
makes and boards up money But the
gentleman farmer of liberality with all
his agricultural skill, fertility of soil s,
devotion to his business, gets in debt; ad
vertises the finest property in the upper
country, negociates lonas at our banks, &
visits - & Co. in N. York The inevi-
table consequence will be that the New
Yorker will, like the centurion of Au-
gustus, say to the ridge farmer. "Veteres
migrate coloni, hec mea sunt," when the
unfortunate farmer can only respond in
the language of Virgils shepherds, Nos
patriam fugimus ct dulcia linquimus ar
va"
In the salubrity of our climate and pu-
rity of atmosphere, we are also more for
tunate. The dense vapours of the upper
country produce catarrhs and pulmonary
complaints The instances of longevity,
exemption from acute diseases, and the
bills of mortality in proportion to popula
ton clearly evince our superior preten-
sions on this head. Intermittent fevers
are frequent along the tide waters of Wiz
ginia and Maryland, but they are
mild in character, and short in duration;
every man is his own physician, and the
disease commonly yields to the first dose
of medicine. Along the whole of the wa
tiers of the Chesapeake and its tributary
streams, know no physicians except in
the towns and cities, who have not been
obliged for want of employment to aban-
don their professions, or retire to the up
per country. In the epidemic of 1915 &
the high grade of bilious fevers of 1920,
the tide water country was peculiarly for
tunate, few deaths occurring in 1915 and
scarcely one in 1880, while it is
fresh in our recollections that during
those periods and particularly the last,
every house in the ridge country was ga
house of mourning" From actual obser-
walton can state, that during the periods
cfdrousht to which the upper country
is SO subject, and the consequent
low state of the current waters, bilious &
intermittent fevers- are more frequent &
more obstinate than on the tide waters
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