The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1871-02-02

always concurring with any or every dis
sentient and enemy, to strip them bare and
repudlate them forever.
| Nor can any one be surprised at this who
reviews the history. When the North-side
| would build its great University the Legis-
lature entered into solemn covenant with
! the South-sde that after the annual income
Of the literary fund reached certain level
its college also should have State aid. Well,
the South-side generously taxed ltseli, and
aided to build and endoW the University.
And then, although the literary fund soon
reached that level, the covenant was bro
ken. and for thirty years the pledged rights
| of the South-side scornfully repudiated.
This one-sided game has lasted long enough.
| OF the millions spent for the North-side, of
the thirty thousand dollars per annum now
expended for collegiate education there,
the South-side has paid one-third. But
since the Commonwealth was Common
wealth not dollar has she ever
spent for that object in our section.
Are we conquered province of serfs to
Virginia? OF are we Virgnians also? These
pleas are greatly aggravated by the condi-
ton of our section. 1t did more than any
other for the defence Of the State. Lying
within Gen. Lees lines to the last, it was
drained, and drained, and drained of men,
animals, provisions, up to the last week.
and then more extensively anc fiercely
ravaged by the conqueror than any other
part. 1t has lost most in the confiscation
of negro property. It is now crushed by
tell our masters of the North-side-we
do not presume, we poor gentiles, to call
| them fellOws-tbat unless they do some
| thing speedily to rcSllscitatc this section 1t
will be past yielding them any plunder to
fattcn their grand universities and instl-
tutcs.
| But the plea is. "Let these agricultural
schools be established at Charlottesville and
| Lexington for the whole State, and the
youth of the South-side can as easily resort
thithcr. They will all be welcome" Thank
you. gentlemen We may be serts, butwe
are not idiots. How does this read p" Let
these schools be established at Hampden
Sidney and Salem, for instance, for the
whole State, and the youth of the North
side and Valley can rs easily resort thither.
They will all be welcome" Why is this
latter reading "petty sectionaism rather
than that formcr9 No; the friends Of Char
lottesvlle and Lexington know very we'll
that State school in another section to
which their youth may have access does not
| benefit them rs the same SchoolamidSt them
does. They desire to receive in addition
the benefit of the expenditure of it's rev.
| eUuCS III lUCll '1D uO We uCS uc-
sire It's advantages to be brought into the
proximity. So do we. They desire the
benefit of all its stimulating local influences.
So do we.
But the case is fur worse than this. Our
Young men cannot 90 to such schools away
in the Valley and in Albemarle for one rea-
son, that they are too poor. They cannot
meet the additional travelling, expenses.
(Ten dollars additional is a woful obstacle
to many OF them). They cannot subsist
themselves under the expenses Of those
more civilized and favored spots. At
lIampden Sidney young man can subsist
for IS per month. He can procure cord
of wood for -. Al the other places it will
: cost him more than double. AS for the
bulk of the planters sons in the South-side,
the schools might just as well be placed in
Paris. Place one of them at Hampden
Sidney, and hundred Of our boys will en-
JOY its advantages the first year. Place the
same school at the University, and if there
are three South-Side boys in it we shall be
surprised. in word, when Il people are
as PROSTATE as ours, the help must be
brought TO them: they cannot go to it.
Again, ii is mockcry to the South-sidc
to offer them access to agricultural schools
in the Valley or the Piedmont regions.
Their soils. their climates, their crops, their
systems, arc necessarily as different as two
different continents, MaXimS anu ptinci-
pies which are true there would be false
here. The only result of sending our boys
there Would.be laundering and diSappoint-
ment; they would have to unlearn, ut the
cost of disastrous tailT,es, the principles
chiefly impressed upon them in those dill
lcrcnt ATTITUDES. Let one OF our young
men 90 to Lexington, for instance ; and
from, bn orpfpSSnr llStnmp1 tn that pnnI
climate, calcareous clay, grain and grazing
economy. and oyerWeGning admiration for
! Valley ways; these are the maXims which
! will be dinned into his ears "Tobacco is
the most exhausting Of all crops; :" "Sub-
selling and lining are the foundations of
=, profitable tillage p "Cleyer and plaster
arc the chief reliance for ameliorating
! the soil - "The mast thoroughbred
cattle are the most remuneratiye, )"
&c. But the old South-side planters
(whom this SNUG Valley professor will
teach the young men to regard as stupid
old io9ics) knoec that on their soils, atleast,
tobacco is the least eXhausting Of crops
because, after tobacco, all other crops,
whether grain or grasses, grow best with
! out farther manuring. They know that, be-
! fore these boys were born, Mr.. Richard
Sampson, Of Goochland, and many other Of
| our wisest agriculturalistS, demonstrated
! lime to be absolutely inert OH most of the
! tobacco soils and SubSOillng In our more
! porous and slllcious subsoils, simply hard
work thrown away. They know that,
while this SNUG Professor was living on
spoon-meat and wearing his bib, South-side
| planters were already making the most lib-
craI and energetic experiments with clover
and plaster, and demonstrating that
our soils, already too friable, were detc-
ricrated, and rendered almost Immediately
"clovcr sick" by clover tallows; and that
| plaster, in many cases, exhibited no virtue
Whatever They have long ago demon
strated the unSuitablencss Of the large cat
! tie to our hot soil and short grass, on which
| they must inevitably be detcriorated. We
want no Valley system here. The system
which is needed for Us must be devised in
our midst by men OF true science, COM
| bined with true practical wisdom, and care
fully adjusted to the peculiarly of our soil,
climate, and productions. When strangers
| behold the ragged and exhausted condi-
ton of our country they jump to the con-
clusion that the planters here have never
attempted to do anything to improve it.
This is Il great mistake. Liberal, costly,
energetic efforts have been made, beginning
forty years ago, by many wealthy planters
to rcnovate their own soils, and to set to
others the example of 4 better economy.
The chief reason that they failed of permu-
nent result was that they were all made
| upon methods and principles dictated to us
| by Valley and northern authorities-me-
thods successful there, necessarily unsuc-
cesslul here. On many a now ragged old
| field, which the se1-sufficient Pennsylva-
| nian or 'Cohoc" now criticises, everything
was done thirty years ago which Pennsylva-
mia or "Cohoe" agriculture dictated to US
done with unstinted cost and labor, and
done without permanent result. The for
eign systems have thus far been the chief OBJ
. II,I