The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1871-11-09
lsoover that while thav faya submttted Ia


discover that while thay have submitted to
the inevitable losa OF their slave labor. they
have been unable to accomplish the simple
EFFORT OF going TO work Themselves. They
still retain their three, four. five, eight, ten,
and fifteen hundred-acre farms. rs though
possession of them was requisite for future
existence, az it Is undoubtedly requisite for
their so-called social standing in the COM
murity. Before the war these farms were
rated at from twenty to one hundred dol.
| lars per acre. and they are assessed ut SINH
lar rates now. You can see at q glance that,
with their limited capital, without farm
stock or agricultural implements re-
CURED by free labor, and, above all,
without industry, they are obliged to
run in debt to pay the taxes based
Of these foolish people, holding their
lands at such biGh rates az TO preclude
every possibility Of selling them, or ref1s-
ing TO sell at all, annually pay taxes on hum
dreds and thousands Of acres which do not
yield them cent Of Income. They are
consequently being gradually but surely
reduced to beegary. They, one and all,
have an underlined belief Of relief in the
future, and are waiting for 1t in The most
listless aud lazy manner imaginable. The
few Of them who have learned to work for
lHcHlsclfcS ItCClNc no HlOIc ICSpcCL tHhu
their lazy ncighhorI. That vague idea Of
future relief is gradually assuming form in
whispered propositions to repudilte both
public and private debts. do not hesitate
to say that unless the sheritf's sales, which
cannot be postponed much longer, do not
intervene to transfer the title of these lands
to others, the present owners will oper-
" advocate reputation within the next
two years. Those .sheriff's sales for
taxes or to satisfy mortgages will, while
reducing mlny to deplOrable beggury, also
reduce the fictitious valuation of property
to something like proper standard. When
men can buy land i'll the North or in other
sections of the South capable Of yielding
ten, fifteen, or twenty bushels Of wheat for
every one planted, for twenty dollars or
even less per acre, they will not buy this,
that only yields six to Que, for the same
price. So it happens that those peremp.
tory sales for taxes, ETC., have thus far dis
appointed the sanguine expeditions Of the
victims, and land held at twenty and forty
dollars has been sold 1t four and ten dollars
per acre.
"Why is it," I asked of an intelligent
farmer, "that you don't make as much
money now, even proportionatcly to the
number Of acres cultivated, is You did be-
fore the war;"
"Well. you sec," was the reply, "we
never did make Anything by crops. We
did work all our land just to keep our mig
gers busy and to get corn and meat for
them but we used to sell i Niger now
and then when we got hard 10, and we
ALWAYS had money by that means. We
didn't understand then, as We do now, that
our land is almost worthless, and that our
profits really came from our sales Of slaves.
We thought that we were making money
by legitimate farming, and I. for one, never
did believe until recently that this section
owed its prosperity to its trade in slaves"
But your land must be goodfor something;
it must have some Indigenous qualities"
"Wcll, it has. think it it the inesttruit,
particularly apple, country in the world !;
but you see our orchards are run out.'
Run out! Indeed they were run out. Not
a young orchard within scope OF twenty
square miles from where we were stand.
ing, and the old orchards-straegiing trees
in The corn and wheat. teldS-were choked
down with suckers at their roots as
thcS as an Usage orange hedge. Many
of the trees were q hundred years old.
Their branches had been free from pru-
niug-knives for at least a generation, yet
they yield every other year with miracu-
Ions profusion. Oh, you thrifty farmers of
Ohio, who prune, manure, and cultivate
YOUR trees, you would hardly believe your
ey esight could you see such crops as these
law people harvest from orchards that are
never ploughed, pruned, or disturbed eX-
cept when the luscious fruit is ready for
market in the fall ard winter. litter all,
the great trouble is the distance to market.
THOUSANDS and millions Of bushels of apples
and peaches have TOtted on the ground in
the Blue Ridge orchards this year on that
account. Yet, at the neatest railway Sta
tiorS apples are worth two dollars Il barrel,
and were it not for the high rate Of tolls on
the turnpike, together with the expense Of
feeding horses, c,c.; it would pay well to
haul the fruit either to Narrcnton or Gull
pepper.
The poor whites and the blacks, and &C.
casi0nally u hard up or industrious land
owner, I often met " carrying" loads of
sumac to market with teams ana wagons
that defy description. The trade in this
article has become more important 10 the
masses Of this section than that in any
other indigenous product. Yet no one
has attempted to cultivate or make it grow
even On the poor lind, where it thrives The
best. It is gathered from the roadside
hedges, dried in the open fields, and taken
to market in bags, bed-ticks, CT boxes.
A dollar for hundred pouads is The
average price received for it from the
commission merchants, who ship 1t TO the
tanneries and other places where it is used.
Even under present circumstances half
grown boy can earn five or six dollars a
week by gathering 1t, and lit was properly
cultivated the yield would lie ten times as
much. But sumac, like grapes, is neglected
in this country, where it is almost impossi-
bic to eradicate either from the ground
when they cnce get good start, and there
is only one vineyard (at Front Royal of
any Importance in this whole Blue Ridge
reoion. PRINCE GEORGE.