The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1908-01-28

Old Virginia Plantation and Ancient
Landmarks Are Disappearing.

AuhN4hNAhc fAAN NASUHE<aAAAEs
Forests are creeping back over The
abandoned farms in many parts Of the
cast. When wornout fields can no long
or produce agricultural crops nature
takes them back and clothes them with
I trees again to give them shade and rest
and slowly restore fertility to the soil
This Is more in evidence in the first set.
tied parts Of Virginia perhaps than any
where else in the country, for the reason
that a longer time has passed since the
original forests were cleared away and
the second growth has had better OPP
Iportunity to take the land.
In James City county, Virginia, the
FIRST permanent English colony in the
| United States was established 800 years
ago. and in that old country the whole
cycle of deforestation and reforestation
may be studied. Agriculture for a long
period pushed the forests back and plan
tations covered the countryj then the
forests came again and crowded agIi-
culture out. A hundred years before
the Revolution tobacco plantations oc-
cupied the best parts of tidewater yir-
ginia and had pushed up the rivers into
the Piedmont region.
Continuous bodies Of cleared land
embraced thousands OF acres. Nearly
every large plantation had river front
age and wharf, and ships carried the
tobacco directly TO Europe and brought
merehandise back. It would be difficult
perhaps impossible to determine with
approximate accuracy the proportion Of
clear land to the forests in tidewater
Virginia fifty years before the Revolr-
ton, but there can be no doubt that
there was more cleared land than now.
Many great Virginia plantations of
Colonial times have contracted under
the pressure Of surrounding forests Civ
ing up field after field to the pine seed
lings 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
il would last forever. II yielded tobacco
and corn for generations and made for.
tunes for the planters. But the result
was inevitable. The soil wore out. Al
few patches Of land are pointed out in
James City county and also in nearby
districts which have been under continu-
Gus cultivation for nearly or quite 800
years. jamestown island still produces
corn, hay aud peanuts. But such places
are few The majority Of the Oldest
plantations nave partly or wholly gone
back TO forest.
In travelling through that region now
il Is frequently possible to note the sue
cessiye stages Of the forests advance
into the cleared land. In one place
body az timber consist Of trees foot in
diameter and probably seventy feet high
Their even tops and uniform size snow
that they occupy the site Of former
field where seedlings took possession af-
ter the plough left of its annual tillage.
Adjoining such q wood lot another many
csten be seen with smaller and Younger
trees, suggesting that they occupy tho
site Of a field abandoned at a later date
Near BY may be seen a still younger
stand. In some localities the even tops
Of ono wood lot are seen beyond another
descending like stair steps and marking
the sites of one abandoned field beyond
another, each succeeding one little
later and the trees little smaller. The
descending series frequently ends with
a field where young trees are Just start
ing from seeds blown from neighboring
woods 1t may mark the site Of the last
remnant of former plantation which
was allowed to relapse into woods be-
cause the soil WIS worn out.
Few if any Of tine prime1al forests re-
rain in tidewater Virginia, but large
trees Of second growth exist a syca-
more more than 200 years old. and
known to be Of second growth, was cut
this year on the site OF building burned
during Bacon's Rebellion, in 1916. and
many other trees as large are growing
where tobacco was cultivated two CEN
tnries ago. The forest in It's hunger to
occupy again Is no respector OF historical
places. II i slowly taking the intrench
nlents at Yorktown, where the British
made their last stand, and the tablet
the very spot where General
QHara surrendered the sword Of Corn
wallis then an open iield) would soon
be invisible If the axe were not fire.
auenfly called into use to clear away the
woods. Baltimore Sun.