Year: 1866

Mr.. EDITOR Whilst seated under big
oak tree, hard by the village of Amherst G. II.
resting self and horse, and with saddle-bags a.
cross the lap, we will indulge in some specula-
tons about the future of this picturesque sec
ton of the Piedmont region, and tell of the do
lngs OF the flood, comment on the prospect of
the crops and fill up a corner of the ''Specta-
tor. a


What is to be the future of this unusually In
teresting portion of Virginia whether in re-
gard to its capacity for agricultural develop
ment, the unbosoming and manufacture of its
untold, undreamed of, mineral wealth, the
change and subversion of its present homoge-
neous society by the influx of more population,
or the consideration of the many acts bearing
upon and blended with these several questions?
That it must have moro population no one will
doubt. Ought it to come from the North or
from Europe? Heaven forbid that it should be
from the North, with its vile mixture of all that
is detestable in society and bigoted, atheistic,
puritanical, fanatical, and infdel in religion
There was time, Mr. Editor when we of the
Valley particularly, believed that the great ele-
ment OF society constituting the Presbyterian
church, as it existed in the United States. ten
years ago, embracing within its ample folds as
much OF the pure conservatism of the nation in
its most extended sense, as could be found in
the bosom of any other church, possessing its
acknowledged refinement and high intelligence,
and so believing, regarded it as an immense
'breakwater," against whose firm walls, the
wild fanaticism of the North and West might
dash it's mad waves in vain; when, Irepeat, we
see 1t utterly submerged in the wild maelstrom,
mixed up, identified with, and as fully part and
parcel of the Stevens -Sumner7G Garrison Beech
er mania, may we not despair for our glorious
South, if her waste places are to be built up by
such a population? God forbid they ever shall
be. l can now throw the mantle of charity over
other minor denominations. whose want of in
telligence, as compared with this mighty de-
nomination, we hold as scarcely accountable at
people of the South could see the entire pro-
ceedings of the two General Assemblies of the
Presbyterian Church. old and new school, late
ly in session at St. Louis. No, no let us look
to Scotland, England, Sweden, Denmark, Hol-
land and Switzerland for the population to aid
us in building up the South Want of time
forbids dwelling longer ON this topic.


Touching what say in regard to the crops,
don't set me down as croaker. The newspa-
pers are supremely silly in their denunciations
of those who may give truthful though gloomy
contradiction that the country, from the town of
Alexandria to Lynchburg Piedmont coun-
try-aoM not reap the seed soe1n. [ conyersed
with an intelligent farmer, in the upper end
of Albemarle, director of the 0. & Alexan-
dria r. r. and made the remark quote above.
You are correct, sir, | will give any gentleman
all the grain sown on my farm, for half the seed
L sowed, and estimate the entire wheat crop
from Charlottesville to Iynchburg, on both
sides of the railroad and near it, at three thou
sand bushels. and many gentlemen of intelli-
gence say it is TOO HIGH an estimate, and this
Is distance of sixty miles" Why, sir, you
know the counties of Greenbrier, Monroe, Bath
and many others in that quarter look to our
Valley for the supply of seed and bread they
want this fall, and which they failed to make
last year and this year. IT'S this great want
which has caused flour to sell so high in Staun-
ton and through the county, and at DIR. Walk
er's sale, some days since, at a fraction above
SIS per barrel. don't croak when [ assert
that if Providence in His wisdom blasts the
growing corn and oats crop, we will know some
thing OF famine besides the sad experience OF
the past FIVE years. [ am glad to say the corn
and oats now promise well through all the re
glon have travelled over. 1t is true a small
white worm less than an inch in length, with
red or brown head, has been terribly destructive
through all this section; in localities, as in Au-
gusta, quite number of farmers have had to
plant, a second time, their entire crop. The
grey land has suffered most. 1t attacks the
heart of the stalk, and the corn at once begins
to sprout out and would as well be grubbed or
ploughed up, as it will do no good. Will some
OF our farmers preserve some of them in bottles,
with earth, before they disappear, with the
double object Of watching the mutations they