The day book. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 1857-1867, 1858-02-17

The Demand for Home Supplies


GENTLENEN In these hard times, when
tbs people are complaining OF their taxes,
would it not be well to call their atten-
! ton to the fact, that Eastern Virginia
pays annually to the North, ior the apparent
~ tritiing articles Of hay, butter, cheese, po-
tatoe5, fruits and other products Of the soil. d
sum equal, think, if not greater, than the
whole taxes Of the State? And to our shame
be it stated, that some OF these very articles
are carried up into our mountains for con-
sumption.
1t is true, our State has increased in popu-
lation and wealth, but can any one doubt
that, so far as our comforts and wants are
concerned, we are as dependent as when we
We're a colony of England And far more SO
now than we were for some years subsequent
TO our separation from the mother country;
for, during that period, we even built vessels
up our very creeks, and the farmers sons of
that day were not too proud to man them,
and to carry to other countries our products
and bring back theirs in return; and then,
too, we manufactured many articles amongst
ourselves, particularly on the plantations,
where most of the clothing, shoes, &C, were
made, as our forefathers went upon the prin-
cipl9 that dollar saved by economy was one
gained. But how are things now changed2
Where are our sailors! Even most of the
shipping owned in the State has been built,
and their crews obtained from, abroad and
SO with manufactures of the most necessary
articles-how few are made at home. New,
how can the people of our State, who call
themselves agricultural, expect to thrive,
when they are constantly sending away their
substance. not only for manufactured arti-
Giles, but millions yearly besides, for the very
food which we and our cattle eat?
Our Eastern towns are now little more
than more suburbs of the Northern cities,
and we have been so long accustomed to look
to the daily and other arrivals of Northern
steamers to supply nearly all of our wants,
that the capabilities of our own great State
have been too long neglected; and it is time
now to rouse up our Western brethren to
supply US with all that we may need, at least
of an agricultural nature.
In few months there will be direct COM
munication from the seabosrd to the almost
Western limits of the State, and could the
farmers of the mountain region then be en-
gagged in any thing better than in supplying
us of the East with their good beef, mutton,
aud such other articles as we now get from
the North7 What would pay better than
good butter put up in small packages of
thirty or forty pounds? We Lave been in
the habit of paying, for years, for our butter
from 20 to 80 cents per pound, and this gene
rally of the most Indifferent kind. Indeed,
our 1ankee friends laugh at us for being
SUCH nlnnies as to buy from them at all, as
they say they have demand at home for all
their Sood, and sends us the most indifferent.
The same may be said of hay. and for which
we have been paying from 81 to l so per
cwt., and the most Of which, too, is of an in
ferior description; and as good, l should
think, as the greater part of this, could be
raised on our poorest lands.
Twas in hopes that our State Agricultural
Society would have taken notice of the wants
of particular parts of the State, and OF others
that we're capable of supplying them, and
thus saving large sum amongst our
selves, which would help to develop the re