New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-08-02
PIN TBROUGH VIRGINIA.

A RUN THROUGH VIRGINIA..
Though repeatedly visitor to the outskirts,
and even the capital of Virginia, had never
passed through the heart of that State until
last week, when in compliance with an INVITATION
from friends interested in certain Mineral ahoS
on her northwestern border, passed ana re-
passed along her central line of railway from
Alexandria, by way of Culpeper GordonsVine'
Charlottesville, Lynchburg, Liberty, ChIlstiaus,
burg. and so far down the Tennessee haiiroau
as Dublin depot, in Pulaski County tnence
visiting and traversing the adjacent county VI
Giles. which is skirted by New River, on It's
course from the mountains of North Carolih"
to emerge. as it leaves this county, through
oon in tbe mountains, into West Virginia, ana
form. with the Greenbrier, the Great kanawna'
some notes of what saw and heard on this
hurried journey may interest those WHO arc
either already connected with Virginia, OF VINO
contemplate migration thither.
FACE OF THE COUNTRY.
Central Virginia is emphatically rolling"
country. with mountains of moderate ACTIVITY
and steepness, wooded or cultivated to their
crests. almost always visible on the north and
west. Beyond Christiansburg, the Virginia and
Tennessee Railroad passes through or among
some spurs of the Allegheny range; and hence
mountains are often visible if not imminent in
either direction. AS whole, this is hill
Z" country" of remarkable beauty and health
fitness. Underwater Virginia" is subject to
chlls and fevers, which cOmpacter population
and better husbandry will ultimately eradicate !;
but could hear of none that originated IN the
Piedmont or more Westerly region The
cadaverous countenances too often encountered
are the result, not of ague, but of the immode-
rate, incessant use of Tobacco.
SOIL, CULTIVATION, PRODUCTS.
Most of the land / saw is of the "red-land'
variety well known in New.Jersey and Mary
land-a sort of clayey loan tinged with iron
or some kindred mineral, and often testifymg,
where it has been cut through by the rail-
roads, to its marine origin. 1t is naturally
strong and fruitful, free from stone, easily
worked when not too wet, and inviting deep
and thorough culture, while rarely addicted to
weeds. Yet the unwoOded portion OF it has
been so long and so steadily treated as badly as
possible-plowed three to five inches, rarely or
never MANFRED, devoted to Wheat, Tobacco and
Corn, and never seeded when thrown out OF
cultivation, that it seems wholly exhausted
A drouth has prevailed for weeks through
most of this region, and the average
stand of Indian Corn is miserable.
am confident that 1 saw ten thousand
acres that will not yield five bushels
sound corn per acre. l noticed that the shocks
of Wheat and Oats often standing in the field
were small and far apart. Tobacco is favor
tie crop throughout, and it generally makes a
Door show Even where Clover every where
greatly needed has been sowD, it is too often
allowed to stand till dead ripe, and then the
little life left in it is deliberately fried out by
days of needless drying in the swath or cock.
Other grasses may be treated a little less In
sanely, but not much. AS a rule, they are cut
three weeks too late and left out too long to make
themselves into hay that only the severest
pangs of hunger will induce cattle to eat.
There are of course, exceptiOns-helds OF
thrifty Corn or Tobacco, stacks and stubble of
bounteous Wheat or Oats, fair fields of second
growth Glover, &c, &C., to attest the trite
old truth .,--,....or
We ought TO blame the culture, not the SOIL"
and am confident that, even without fertiliz-
ing. these same barren fields, that now serve
no purpose but to repel immigration, would
yield fair crops if simply plOwed twelve inches
instead of four Time and again was told of
the drouth, and the inability of the people to
buy fertilizers, where it was manifest that sim
ply combining to ten acres the labor and care
now absolutely sduandeTed on thirty or forty
would have insured the cultiyatOr decent re-
turn for his efforts, where he will not now re-
ceive twenty-five cents for each fair days work.
Secession was a transient delirium but here
is madness persisted in from youth TO age, and
handed down from generation to generation.
And it seems to me that the habit of slovenly,
niggardly farming is SO inyeterate that only
through large infusion Of new blood is rem
ovation probable.
TIMBER.
Virginia is to-day the best tmbered State in
the Union. The plantation or large-farm sys-
TEN is to be credited with this good in offset
to its many evils. Men who owned 500 to
TO- 600 acres left one-thrd to nine tenths of it
in timber from necessity, or they skinned it by
their wretched chOppng till it would not pro-
duce even MULLEN, when they burned up oil
carted away what little fence still inclosed it,
and left it to be run over by cattle and stray
gle up into wood. Oak and Pine seem to be
Natures favorites; but the timber is in good
variety; Locust is more thrifty here than al
most anywhere else, and seems to be I'M
touched by the borer. In the Western region
/ traversed more deliberately by wagon or on
Observation-Disclosures, Giles, and Bland Coun-
tes-I judge that seven-eighths of the soil
(mainly hills or low mountains rarely rising
1900 feet above the streams and their gener-
ally narrow but fertile intervales) is still COW