Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1908-10-07

them with trees again to give them
shade and rest and slowly restore
fertility to the soil. This is more ii
evidence in the first settled parts OF
Virginia perhaps than anywhere else
the country, for the reasontt that i
longer time has passed since the orig
iIal forests were cleared away and
the second growth has had Eetter op
portunity to take the land in James
City county, Virginia, the first per
manent English colony in the United
States was established 800 years ago,
and in that old country theswhole cy
Gle of deforestation and rsforesta
ton may be studied. The thfeads es
American history lead back to the be
ginning at Jammestown in 1907, whe..
not forest tree had falleffs beneath
the white mans AK
Agriculture for along period push
ed the forests back and plantations
covered the country; then the for
ests came again and crowded asricul-
ture out. A hundred years before the
revolution tobacco plantations occu-
pied the best parts OF tidewaters tiiyi
ginia and had pushed up the rivers
into the Piedmont region, Continue
GUS bodies of cleared land en- braced
thousands of acres. Nearly evevry
large plantation had a rivef'frontage
and wharf, and ships cafried tbs
tobacco directly to Europe and
brought merchandise back. I 1T would
be difficult, perhaps impossible. to de-
the proportion of clear land to the
forests in tidewater Virginia fifty
years before the revolution, but there
can be no doubt that there was more
cleared land then than now. Writ.
ten and printed records relating to
the early history of that region are
fragmentary and hard to find, but
the encrouching forests of Second
growth furnish record. the truth
of which none can dispute.
The census record of the Old Do.
rinion is unique. Virginia had eIev-
en- counties whose population was
smaller in 1890 than when the first
federal census was taken d century
before, in 1890. No other state ap-
proaches this record. In the whole
United States outside of Virginia on
ly six counties had lager popula-
tion in 1890 than in 1890. This ap-
plies to counties only whose popula-
tion was not diminished by cutting
off territory to form new tcounties
Each Of the following states has one
such county: Maine, Massachusetts,
Maryland, North Carolina, South Car
olina and West Virginia.
| Many great Virginia plantations of
colonial times have contracted under
the pressure of surrounding forests
giving up field after field to the pine
seedlings, until small openings now
mark the. sites of former estates and
all else is woods-second growth or
third growth. The early settlers found
a soil of great fertility. They drew
upon it as though it would last forey-
er. 1t yielded tobacco and corn for
generations and made fortunes for tn
planters. But the result was inev-
liable. The soil wore out A few
patches Of land are pointed ont in
James City county and alsoSin near
by districts which, have been under
continuous cultivation for hearty or
quite three hundred years James
town Island, the site of the very earl
lest settlement, still produces corn,
hay and peanuts. But such places are
few. The majority of the Oldest plan
tations have partly or wholly gone
back to the forest.
With the certain dreadful condi
tion due to the efforts of the soil rob.
ber a matter of general knowledge
it would seem that every farmer OF
cf all known methods of preserving
!. the fertility of his farm to tbs .iitmost
extent. The gain of such a course
will accrue him during his, own lifs
time, as well as to these to come
Iowa State Register and Farmer.
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