The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1866-02-28
The Farming Prospects.

PETERSBURG, February "a, 1855.
Meeting with a gentleman a few days ago
who, before the war, was distinguished as
perhaps the most successful farmer in this
part Of the country-one who has gained
many premiums at our agricultural fairs-l
asked him If he could not favor us with
prize essay adapted to the altered circum-
stances of rural life. Whereupon he gave me
q statement of the present condition of his
farm, and his prospects for the coming season.
All the labor he had been able 70 secure was
one old negro, formerly family servant,
whom he furnished with a couple OF horses,
with the means of supporting them and him
self, In return for which the negro is to give
him three -fourths of the crops. Living but a
few miles from town, where thousands OF freed
men are congregated, nothing in the form Of
wages is sufficient inducement to take them
back to the country Not grain of wheat
was seeded last fall on the land the annual
crop Of which was formerly twelve or fifteen
hundred bushels. The most he expects TINS
spring is to get in small crop Of oats, with
whatever breadth Of corn single hand may
be able tocultiyate.
Such is pretty much the state OF things
within q compass of five or six miles round the
city, as 1 have learned from intercourse with
the farmers Further in the country II Is
doubtless better, but labor IL scarce every
where, and farmers are c9ntinaaaiy sen th IN IN
hire hands, white or black-any kind OF labor
: one fact is clear beyond doubt-that
throughout the WnOle surrounding country, do
Tar as have been able to hear, very little land
was seeded to wheat last fall. Not one.twen-
tleth part of what was formerly considered an
average crop will be reaped at the next har-
vest. After Richmond, this was once the lar
gest wheat market in the State. Anumber OF
Hour mills were kept in continual motion day
and night from August to March, and tens of
thousands of bushels were bought by agents OF
/ northern millers for shipment. During the
grinding season, now drawing to close, 1t
may be doubted whether the supply OF wheat
has been more than sufficient to keep one pair
Of burrs in constant employment. And the
prospect for the immediate future is not more
promising. f.aF
- One cannot recur to the good old days, when
the agriculture Of this region was so pros
porous, without sigh at the change which
has come over II. The neighboring farmers,
most Of them wealthy gentlemen, and all
weil-to-do, were in the habit of meeting in
the city once month to discass topics In con-
nection with the Agricultural Society and the
Model Farm. They were pleasant reunions,
those meetings of Farmers Clubs and Execu-
tive Committees. Bnt the Agricultural So
ciety was swept away by the war, with no
prospect OF Its ever being revived the Model
10 waste, without tenement or enclosure, and
the spirit OF Improvement il utterly extinct.
At Dinwiddie Court last Monday, the recent
fence law was so FAR adopted as TO make its
provisions applicable to the farms lying In the
neighbcrhood Of the city, where the timber
has ali been destroyed; while In other parts
of tbs county Il was decided that the old sys-
rem should continue In 1orce.,, SyoWDEs.