The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1879-10-09
NO. 26.

M. D6.
making were Yankee notions that savored
4 OF the heresy of ''book farming and took no
hold on the Virginia planter. Forty odd
years ago, Edmund Rafi1n wrote valuable
work on Calc0reous Manurea, advocated the
use OF mari with. which Tidewatcr Virginia
! is abundantly underlaid. land proved its value
by bis experiments on his own plantation.
| The conta2ion spread through the lower
country but did not affect the agriculture of
the State at large. Later, guano and other
commercial fertilizers were introduced with
considerable excitement, and planters aud
farmers stimulated their lands with them at
Il great expense, wasting and loosing mean
while the manure from their farm stock and
fighting grass as their bitterest enemy.
| The Improvement in Virginia agriculture
since the war, though much slower than re.
formers like to see, has, on the whole, been
reasonably rapid, and though tentative has
beer sure. Political journals like the South
ern Planter and Farmer, have devoted much
space to the discussion OF improved methods
i Of aGFic9ltnre, and the questfoas OF manIres
and1heir home manufacture, green ferrii-
zers, clover and the grasses, fruit, rotation
OF crops, stock raising, sheep. husbandry,
farm machinery and the thousand and one
kindred topics OF farm economy. have been
ably treated by the most intelligent farm
ers OF the State. The effect upon agri-
culture generally has been very great and
| in the right direction, and it is certainly
very perceptible through the long extent Of
country traversed by the Virginia Midland
Rail Road from Alexandria to Danville.
Large plantations are every where giving place
ough cultivation, more stock and Of higher
grade is now seen and green pastures are
more numerous than in the olden time.
Along with these improvements are found
better buildings, barns and stabling, an in-
crease in agricultural machinery, and more
signs Of activity and prosperity than we
were wont to see. Not but what there Is
ample room for Improvement and progress
yet, plenty Of that inertia which dubs itself
conservatism" and instinctively hates any
thing new or different from the old traditions.
YetsO great is the change and so marked
the improvement that fam would insist
somewhat upon it, particularly when so
many of our own people are taking melan-
choly view OF the situation and predicting a
hopeless future for the Old Dominion.
Tn, tbs =,
einIa agriculture it would be unjust not to
refer to the important influence exerted by the
Northern settlers, both by precept and ex.
ample. OF these carpet-baggers, as they are
called by certain class, Virginia contained
in 1870 over two thousand from New Eng
laud, twelve hundred from the Northwest,
and nearly twenty thousand from the Middle
States. A large proportion OF these were and
still are engaged in farming and they are scat
tered throughout the Commonwealth from
the Potomac to Cumberland Gap. Every
where they have made THEFT influence felt.
Comparatively few of them have made much
money, but think they have done quite as
we'll as their brethren in the North where
farming has not brought over great profits
| these last ten years. Many too have not
been wise 10 selecting their locations, for
their knowledge Of soils at home profted
them little in judging Of the unknown soils
of Virginia, and better sites might have been
advantageously purchased. But, while some
have won fortunes, the rest have vastly i'm
proved the appearance and productiveness
OF their lands and made gardens of the des-
ert and the wilderness. Experience has
proved OF great value to them and time has
greatly increased the respect Of the Yankee
and native farmer for each other and each
was apt to deem the native processes as
altogether wrong i to look with contempt
upon what he considered the others laziness,
shiftlessness and ignorance. The native
looked with equal contempt upon the new
comer's curious notions and lavish expendi-
lures in buildings, tools, machinery, draining
etc. But the Yankee has learned to adapt
his principles of improved agriculture to his
changed circumstances and not to differ too
boldly at first from his neighbor whom he
| uiluo W pOSSCSo al cAuouiV VA iAuuStIy dAu
local knowledge hitherto unsupported.
The fact is the average Virginia farmer is
about as hardworking and teilsome as his
New England brother, and understands
about as well how to get crops out OF the
ground. On the virgin soils of Texas you
will almost always find the Virginian more
successful than the Yankee, and for that
reason. But of retaining or increasing the
fertility OF hts lands he knows little. OF the
principles governing the rotation of crops, of
the manufacture and application of manures,
of sub soiling, draining, green crops as fer
liners, root crops, soiling, the manufacture
OF marketable butter and cheese, and the
diversifcation Of farm industry that obtains
so largely in the North, he has learned moth
ing. And these pay, and pay we'll in Vir-
ginia-nowhere better. Under the old sys-
tenn new land and good, strong land was
constant necessity; and fortunately there
/ was always plenty OF it. To the Yankee it
is Of less Importance for he has learned to
make OF his land a chemical or agricultural
labratory, gauging the constituent elements
OF plant food he removes from it and taking
| care 10 Keep COISIauC UT 10 lUCTcAs T. Lis SUP
4 Div, and to improve all the conditions of
production. In this and the ability to util-
ize products to the best advantage, making
often of the farm factory, lies the great
difference-lies in fact the difference be-
tween good farming and prosperity on the
one hand and bad farming, exhaustion and
improvishment on the other.
No better field, in my opinion, than the
section Of Virginia l have described, exists
for intelligent agriculture, orpresents bet
ter conditions for prosperity in that industry
combined with happy and healthful life.
OF this. abundant proof and illustrations are
at hand, besides the facts already cited, but
they must await further opportunity for
press ntment. f.. J. B.
!, Itching Piles.
The symptoms are moisture, like perspira-
ttion, intense itching, increased by scratching,
cry distressing, par ticnlarly at night, as If
pin worms were crawling in and about the
4 -.