Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1879-08-27
Correspondence of The Star.l

FACTS ABOUT TIMBER CULTURE IN THE TIDE
WATER REGION-THE PROFITS GO NORTa-IM-
PORTAET HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS.
Correspondence of The Starl
KING GEORGE COUNTY, VIRGINIA.
1t makes the merchants OF this lower
country feel like emigrating to read OF In
creasfng prosperity all through the north and
west, and still to have the consciousness that
hardly single drop from the golden shower
will fall on their vicinity. Whether 1T Is true
or not, as "Dalton" aff1rms in the Brooklyn
Argus of the entire south, that cit is growing
steadily poorer it is certain that In Virginia
the annual returns OF taxable property show a
constant falling OF In amount; AMI In this tide
water region there is an increased inability on
diminished expenditure generally owing to dl-
minished production. This decreasing ahil-
1ty" Is the staple argument OF the agitatOrS for
another reimbursement" which, as they affirm,
Is entirely due to the incompetence OF the
sHDS'' and would be remedied by a substitution
of the "outs." Now every one cOnversant with
matters here knows that the reason of there be-
Ing so little accumulated capital here and so
much real thorough poverty Is not to be found
In the government, nor climate, nor location,
but In the habits and pursuits of the people.
fed" at the Court House on July court day, and
study Of those present would have satisfied
an honest inquirer as to
THE REASON OF THE LACK OF PROSPERITY
hCiC was q SC duuICuCc OI
Or rather containing dozen farmers and
crowd OF cultivatorS or corn cultivatiug by the
methods OF their grandfatherS and with vastly
diminished results. About one in six was an
owner OF land, the rest were "tenants"-whJes
and blacks In about equal numbers-"craping'
the land on shares, finding team and seed and
probable that any one Of the "tenants" has ever
drawn cart load of manure In his life and it is
certain that this land, which has been in very
general cultivation since 1850, has never re-
nh fYHrrf Go f1Ho
plow1ng, and when nature refuses to respond to
this the 'Od field" is turned out' to sassafras
and pine to rest few years and renew Its
powers to endure another assault. There are
many farmers around Washington who draw
more manure on to their hundred acre farms
ard cut more hay on them every year than
county north of the James in the same time
Competent Judges, who know whereof they
affirm, do affirm that the average tenant crop
has become less than fifty barrels Of corn for
the years labor Of man and horse, which, at
two dollars barrel, gives one hundred dollars
Tor years work. Ana this 1nfnitessimal re-
the enlightened farmer, using modern methods
to raise six times that amount, because the soil
Immediately under the two or three inches he
disturbs, has become filled with ''trash," roots
OF sassafras, gum and locust, the sprouts OF
which 1t takes long time to "grub" out in
the spring, and require constant cutting all
through the season. or they would overtop the
corn. In "laying by" so much land that has
been rendered completely barren to grow up
and it does grow up quickly, and shows how
near beneath the surface Is good soil, q consid-
valuable woods, and hence the forests that for
half century have drawn the pilgrim ship
carpenter and lumbeTman from the north to
Virginia, and whose visits are still nearly as
frequent as ever.
TIMBER PRODUCTS
During this month there have loaded on
these shores one vessel for Manayunk with
poplar wood for paper; one to New York with
DlDe trees for niles. Ralftm0ro with
choice butt logs OF oak, ash, hickory and wal
nut, to be sawed there for furniture and car
rage purposes, and one for Bath, Maine,
with the frame OF large ship. How profitable
1t is to grow timber as crop to sell ''on the
stump" Is best shown by an actual case. The
ship solitaire !" which recently loaded at Balti-
more with coal for San Francisco, where she
Will take on wheat for Europe, was just finished
at Bath, Me-, at cost OF 100000. Two years
ago her frame and another one still larger con-
stdtuted forest near here, and we're sold to
contractor for four hundred dollars. From the
time the Land on which this timber grew was
laid . Dy, from exhaustion till the crop Of ship
timber was gathered, was nearly a hundred
years, and the money received
DID NOT EQUAL THE AMOUNT PAID OUT FOR
TAXES
on the land during the period OF its growth
since her frame went aboard I'LL now, including
one On ths shore, seven large frames have been
sent from these forests, aJ cost of less than
q 600 standing, and nearly as much more has
and locust stanch1ons, &C., every cent of which
whether the amount equals that paid out for
taxes or not, has gone out In current expenses,
and there Is nothing left but the stumps to show
that these forests had ever existed While the
people OF Maine will have in these seven ships
at least 100000 Of taxable and productive
values, we shall have our " consideration" con-
around to "revtse his lists," he Will "mark
on" at least thousand dollars for the dlmin-
ished Il, led. value Of the plantations by the removal
OF the timber. Nor has there been any COM
peDsating incidental advantage, such as furn-
ishing market for our labor or products, while
the timber was being hewn: The contractor
teamsters and teams, provisions and provender,
"tackle" and trucks, and the "camp" was q
little Maine In the forest, perfectly secluded,
and its doings as little known as ii It had been
On the banks OF the Penobscot or St. Johns To
secure so much suitable timber they have gone
over about AKA square miles-10,O00 acres, on
which reside fourteen white and four colored
owners, and thirteen white and seventeen COL
ored tenants-forty.e .eight families in all, and
the entire amount OF money received by owner
and tenant for timber sold and for crops raised
IN the last year did not equal the amount paid
for heW1ng and moving the frames to the Store
al paid to twenty-six men for about 1ao days
LIFE IN THE TIDE WATER REGION
Now, Mr.. Editor, If might interject a state
ment here not exactly relevant, 1t would be
that these thirty tenant families all live In log
caDlnS, the largest not over eighteen feet
square with a little space overhead called q
chamber, window without q sign of glass:
tudC Iucy Ill nave Ian1lleS, one seven, and most
OF them over three children, and one having mis-
married son and wife and babe under his roof
with son Of his own, and the discOuragtng con.
s1derattOn Is that they consider themselves
rather " comfortably fixed" and this same style
OF domestic architecture ana the same ideas of
domestic comfort and propr1ety prevail among
that class through ali the lower part OF the
state, and long as the newspaper mail to a half
dozen counties can be carried on very small
horse, it viii not soon be different.
II Won s,Drosa that thto % a oor,e,. -. ,.
thin land, TO which poor people gravltate, YOU
are In an error, as you win readily see when
you call to mind the rapid growth which tim
Der makes on the most exhausted land 1t is
not difficult to find oak piles sixteen to eighteen
inches at the butt and six to eight inches over
at flfty feet that have made all that growth In
slde OF twenty-five years. Oak, ash aud hickory
logs Tor carriage work are frequently cut where
the Old corn rows are not obliterated The sick
Less OF coil Is mere cut1cular disease which
little manure soon remedies. 81 have never
seen manure produce such results in west arm
New York, said a farmer from that region a
rev Gays since, and he makes farming pay'
rlght here and now. But not to use the columns
OF TIE STAR to advertise tide-water land our
!eannesS comes from pervers1On OF the inten-
ton OF the Creator. writer says ga sea.9Irt
population is always nautical population
Here Is country as large as Massachusetts,
having coast line as extensive as any whole
state. so cut up with deep water rivers and.bays
that Tor ordinary lOcOmOtiOn "dug out" ia "a