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 RIVES, WILLIAM CABELL 
 Address of Hon. \"Jm. C. Rives, 
 (resident of the Agricultural 
 iociety of Albemarle. 
 
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ADDRESS 
 
 OF HON. WM. C. RIVES, 
 
 PRESIDENT OF THE 
 
 AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF ALBEMARLE, 
 
 AT THEIR ANNUAL FAIR, 
 
 On the 29th. of October, 1842. 
 
 Printed by order of the Society. 
 
 CHARLOTTESVILLE: 
 JAMES ALEXANDER, Printer. 
 
 1842. 
 
Gentlemen of the Agricultural Societv of Albemarle. 
 This is the first occasion, since you did me the honor to 
 make me your President, that I have had an opportunity of 
 returning you my acknowledgments for so distinguished a proof 
 of your confidence and regard. I feel how little of ability I 
 have to advance, in an effective manner, the noble objects of 
 our association ; but whatever powers or faculties of good I pos- 
 sess shall be faithfully and zealously devoted to your service. 
 The sense of my incompetency to fill the measure of your expec- 
 tations is deeply enhanced, when I recolleet who they were that 
 have occupied this place before me — men, •' who have held the 
 scale of empire, ruled the storm of mighty war," and having 
 served their country in its highest and most difficult stations, 
 have given the serene evening of their days to the glorious task 
 of redeeming and elevating its agriculture.* Of these illustri- 
 ous citizens, my.immediate and honored predecessor has, since our 
 last annual meeting, closed his long and distinguished career of 
 public usefulness. While his State and the nation at large mourn 
 his loss, we cannot butleel it, in an especial mannei, on an oc- 
 casion like the present, when his imposing and animating figure 
 was wont to mingle among us, and to impart fresh zeal to our 
 common pursuits. 
 
 Every great undertaking of public utility seems destined to al- 
 ternate periods of depression and revival. Ours, I trust, after a 
 temporary relaxation of the interest felt in it, owing, probably, 
 to the occupation of the public mind with more exciting but cer- 
 tainly not more useful subjects, is now, it is to be hoped, on the 
 eve of a revival, which will endue it with new energies, and 
 carry it forward, with accelerated velocity, in the path of its use- 
 fulness. It seems impossible to question the high utility of such 
 associations, when conducted with a right spirit. They stimu- 
 late the progress of improvement by the potent influence of mu- 
 tual example, and the generous ardour of an awakened emula- 
 tion. The mind, as well as the heart of man, is sociable, 
 and seeks companionship and communion with other minds. We 
 are told in a book of revered authority that "iron sharpeneth iron 
 — so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend." This so- 
 cial principle is the modern lever of Archimedes in all enterpri- 
 ses of public good, from making a rail road or canal, to chris- 
 tianising a world. There is no country in which it has been so 
 extensively and efficiently employed, for general purposes, as in 
 our own. This characteristic feature of American society was 
 remarked upon, with his accustomed discrimination and judg- 
 
 * Mr. Madison and Gov. Barbour were successively Presidents 
 of the Agricultural Society of Albemarle. 
 
tJlflYETtsn Y OX < 
 
 ..VIA BAI 
 
 ■i 
 
 ment, by a learned and distinguished foreigner who visited us a 
 few years ago, and who, tracing its existence to the popular 
 character of our institutions, affirmed as a general philosophical 
 truth, "that in Democratic countries, the science of association is 
 the mother of science; the progress of all the rest depends on 
 the progress it has made."* 
 
 If this be true as to the general objects of human science and 
 improvement, how emphatically true is it in regard to that great 
 interest with which we are specially connected. As cultivators 
 of the soil, we live in a state of isolation and dispersion on our 
 respective farms. While the members of other professions and 
 callings are congregated in towns and cities, or are frequently 
 brought together in the exercise of their professional duties, the 
 farmer treads the daily paths of industry in the majestic solitude 
 of nature, relying,each one by himself, upon his own unaided judg- 
 ment in the conduct of his daily toil. By the happy expedient 
 of associations like the present, we are brought up periodically 
 from the solitude of our daily pursuits, each one bringing with 
 him as a contribution to the general fund of skill and knowledge, 
 the results of his own separate experience and observation to be 
 thrown into a common stock for the benefit of all; for in regard 
 to every species of useful knowledge, community of goods, is 
 now, thanks to the spirit of the age, the established law of the 
 social, and more especially of the agricultural world. The more 
 experienced and successful of our brethren, too, bring with them, 
 to the annual competitions of skill and improvement instituted 
 by these associations, specimens of the choicest productions of 
 their industry and care, animal, vegetable, and mechanical, 
 while the help-meets whom Heaven in its bounty has bestowed 
 upon us, ever ready to assist in every good and useful work, grace 
 the department of the exhibition which belongs to them, with the 
 finer, but not less essential fabrics of their cunning household 
 arts. Who can doubt the efficacy of institutions such as these 
 to incite, stimulate and aid us in running the noble race of indus- 
 try and improvement which Providence has set before us. 
 
 If any such there be, let him cast his recollection back to the 
 appearance and condition of our farms some twenty-five years 
 ago, when this society was established, and compare them as 
 they were then with what they are now. Though we all feel 
 there is abundant room still for improvement, yet so great is the 
 progress which has been already effected, that the identity of cer- 
 tain farms which I could name, has been almost literally lost in 
 the change. Take, for example, in this immediate vicinity, Pen- 
 park, the farm of our worthy brother Mr. Craven, one of the ear- 
 
 1 De Toequeville, 
 
liest, as well as most successful pioneers in this benificent march of 
 improvement, orjMoors-brook, the residence of another of our wor- 
 thy colleagues,, Mr. Charles Meriwether, a more youthful but not 
 less zealous votary of the cause of rural irnprovement,and who that 
 knew them as I recollect them, in their ruined, exhausted, and di- 
 lapidated condition, twenty-five years ago, would recognize them 
 as the same places now, except by their unchanged geographical 
 position ? The wand of the magician, set in motion by this so- 
 ciety, has passed over them, and in the place of the desolate na- 
 kedness of red galls and gullies, or that still more dreary type of 
 poverty and neglect, the broom-straw wilderness, have succeeded 
 the golden abundance of the rich and waving wheat -field, or the 
 bright verdure of hills clad in luxuriant clover and green-sward. 
 Similar and equal, if not greater, changes have taken place upon 
 many other farms within the sphere of this society, which could 
 be named ; and while iheir exterior aspect has been thus magi- 
 cally transformed, it would npt be risking too much to say that 
 within the same period, their actual marketable productions have 
 been, at least, tripled. If any should be inclined to set down 
 these results to the credit of the general spirit of improvement, 
 which has more or less pervaded the country at large, within 
 some years past, rather than to any influence exerted by this so- 
 ciety, I shall be pardoned for referring them, in no invidious 
 sense, to the marked and acknowledged difference in the progress 
 of agricultural improvement between this and adjoining coun- 
 ties, possessing similar natural advantages, but not hitherto pro- 
 fiting, in an equal degree, of the stimulants and aids derived from 
 associations like ours. 
 
 While the success of the past supplies us with abundant mo- 
 tives for perseverance, the prospects of the future afford a yet 
 stronger incentive to increased exertion and zeal. Agriculture, 
 as a science, may be said to be as yet in its infancy. The re- 
 searches of learned and inquisitive men, within the last ten : or 
 fifteen years, have thrown a new light upon some of the most 
 important processes of nature, concerned in the rearing and bring- 
 ing to maturity, the productions of the earth. Organic chem- 
 istry, which has done so much lately towards revealing and 
 explaining those processes, has almost wholly had its origin, as 
 a distinct branch of science, within that period. Every rational 
 system of agriculture must be bottomed on a knowledge and ap- 
 plication of these principles. In what manner plants carry on 
 their nutrition and growth— what substances contribute to their 
 nourishment and support, and in what form enter into their con- 
 stitution, — by what organization they appropriate aud assimilate 
 their food— the structure and functions of their different organs, 
 —the sources from which their supplies of food are mainly de- 
 
rived, whether from the earth or from the air, — the composition, 
 ingredients, and influence of the soils in which they grow, — the 
 chemical action of the various manures employed to promote 
 their growth — all these are matters of which the agriculturist 
 should possess a sound and correct knowledge, if he would prac- 
 tice his professioowith intelligence and success. The elementary 
 principles of these enquiries, he derives from 4he chemist, the 
 vegetable physiologist, the mineralogist, the geologist ; — but 
 much remains to be done by his own enlightened and discrimi- 
 nating observation. The farmer, indeed, is the fellow laborer of 
 the man of science in prosecuting his researches into all the arca- 
 na of the vegetable economy. His true character is that of an 
 experimental philosopher, whose operations in the vast labora- 
 tory of nature, are the indispensable complement of those per- 
 formed in the laboratory of the chemist. 
 
 Here, then, is a new and important field for the usefulness of 
 agricultural societies. It is under their encouragement and su- 
 pervision that a well-digested series of accurate and skilful expe- 
 riments can be most advantageously instituted and conducted, to 
 aid in the advancement of agricultural science, and to test the 
 theories on which some of the most essential problems of practi- 
 cal agriculture depend. The importance of this desideratum has 
 been long felt by men of science. Sir Humphrey Davy, in his 
 well known lectures on agricultural chemistry, remarks " that 
 nothing is more wanting in agriculture than experiments, in which 
 all the circumstances are minutely and scientifically detailed, and 
 that this art will advance, in proportion as it becomes exact in its 
 methods." In this most useful branch of human knowledge, we 
 may freely and without reproach indulge the passion of the day 
 for mesmerising We may commune with nature in her sleep, in- 
 terrogate her on her mysterious laws, elicit the secrets of her most 
 hidden processes, and turn the revelations thus obtained to the 
 highest practical benefit of our species. I will take the liberty, 
 on another occasion, of inviting the attention of the society to 
 some suggestions in detail for extending our usefulness, in this 
 respect. 
 
 May we not hope that the Professors of Science, in return for 
 such services as we may be enabled to render to the cause of li- 
 beral knowledge by our experimental operations in testing and 
 illustrating its principles, will cheerfully come forward, from 
 time to time to aid and enlighten us by their theoretical and phi- 
 losophical views of the phenomena of nature, and of the true me- 
 thods of investigation and improvement. It is, I am sure, only 
 necessary to make the appeal, to have it promptly and zealously 
 responded to. Nothing has more strikingly distinguished the 
 utilitarian age in which we live than the honorable anxiety of 
 
6 
 
 men of science to apply the results of iheir researches acd disco- 
 veries to the practical purposes of life, and thus, in their day and 
 generation, lo add to the amount of actual, positive good in the 
 world. To all, who are animated with this noble spirit, there 
 can be no higher encouragement and reward, than to find the ac- 
 tive classes of society appreciating, at their just value, the' aids 
 which science is capable of affording to their industrious pursuits, 
 The late accounts from England bring us inlormation of Liebig. 
 the great German Chemist, whose recent work on organic Chem- 
 istry marks a new and prominent sera in the history of Science, 
 mingling with the farmers of Yorkshire at their Cattle Shows and 
 Agricultural meetings, and expounding his theories in familiar 
 popular addresses. The distinguished geologists of that country, 
 Buckland, Murchison, De la Beche, it is well known, have zeal- 
 ously complied with the calls made upon them, by undertaking 
 gratuitously, geological surveys of the soils and sub-soils of ex- 
 tensive agricultural districts. ]n our owu country, the labours 
 of Professor Hitchcock, Dana, Jackson and others, attest the same 
 sedulous and faithful attention, on the part of men of science in 
 Republican America, to the interests of practical agriculture; 
 and I need not, I am sure, go beyond the limits of our own soci- 
 ety for a distinguished example of a like public spirit in a learned 
 Professor, whose labours are so well known to us.* 
 
 It is the province of Associations like ours, gentlemen, to in- 
 vite and bring forth the contributions of men of science to the 
 cause of practical improvement. The great work of Liebig, to 
 which I have just referred, was prepared at the special instance 
 of the British Association for the advancement of science. The 
 lectures ot Sir Humphrey Davy on agricultural chemistry, which 
 gave the first marked impetus to the applications of science to 
 agriculture, were delivered at the request, and in the presence, of 
 the Board of Agriculture of England. A mere County Agricul- 
 tural Association in England, resembling in every respect our 
 own, has recently had the good fortune of bringing forth by its 
 encouragement and intervention, a work of extraordinary merit, 
 which, for the popular and intelligible form in which its instruc- 
 tions are conveyed, as well as for the body of sound science it 
 contains, is probably destined to replace all its predecessors. I 
 refer to the lectures of Professor Johnston " on Agricultural 
 Chemistry and Geology," the first part of which only has yet ap- 
 peared, but which affords the promise of a code of instruction, 
 when completed, of the highest value to the practical agricultur- 
 ist. These admirable Lectures were delivered before the Durham 
 County Agricultural Society, and the members of the Durham 
 
 * Professor Rogers. 
 
Farmer's Club, in a style of explanation so lucid and comprehen- 
 sible, as to call for no previous technical knowledge of the sub- 
 jects of which they treat. Here is an example worthy of imita- 
 tion. We have already shewn our sense of the intimate and 
 important connection between the objects of our society and the 
 investigations of science, by making the learned Professors of 
 our University, ex officio, honorary members of this Association. 
 Shall we not invite them, from time to time, to bring the lights 
 of their several departments of science, through the medium of 
 popular lectures, to direct and illuminate the paths of our agri- 
 cultural labours, and to sustain and embellish, by the efforts of 
 their genius, the chief pillar in the edifice of our national pros- 
 perity and grandeur ? Shall we not lay public-spirited men of 
 science every wh^re under contribution in the same holy cause? 
 I shall venture to propose this to you, gentlemen, in the firm 
 confidence that an appeal to the patriotism of American science 
 can never be made in vain. 
 
 By the means here suggested the usefulness of our society may 
 be greatly enlarged, and much may be done, by its instrumenta- 
 lity, for the interests of agriculture. But yet other measures, of 
 a wider scope, are demanded by those interests. A public en- 
 dowment, under the patronage of the State, for instruction in the 
 principles and practice of agriculture, is imperatively due to that 
 great class of the community, which is immediately connected 
 with the cultivation of the earth. We have, in great number, 
 schoolsof Law, schools of Medicine, schools of general Literature, 
 but none of Agriculture. Why is this so? The recent census shews 
 that the number of persons engaged in agriculture is four times 
 greater than the whole number of persons employed in Commerce, 
 Manufactures, the Learned Professions, and Trades of every de- 
 scription, all put together. Does not every consideration of poli- 
 cy and justice, then, require the provision of some means of pro- 
 fessional education, in an art, to which so predominant and vital 
 a portion of the industry and worth of the country is devoted. Is 
 agriculture alone to be degraded into a vulgar and empirical pur- 
 suit, which requires no liberal instruction? On the contrary, 
 there is no other profession, I will venture to affirm, which de- 
 mands, for its intelligent exercise, so wide a range of scientific 
 knowledge. It embraces within its scope, by a direct and neces- 
 sary dependence, the domain of Chemistry, Botany, vegetable 
 Physiology, Geology, Mineralogy, Meteorology, Zoology, Me- 
 chanical Philosophy, not to speak of the moral and political sci- 
 ences which have so important a bearing, in many respects, upon 
 some of its highest interests. To which of the learned profes- 
 sions, so called, I would ask, is so large a groupe of kindred 
 •ciences associated in such close and intimate relationship ? 
 
8 
 
 These considerations are making themselves daily more and' 
 more felt, and are arousing public attention, in every enlightened 
 community, to the just claim s-of agricultural education. A pro- 
 fessorship of agriculture has been long since established in the 
 universities of Edinburg and Dublin ; and from the former has 
 recently proceeded one of the most valuable works on the " ele- 
 ments of practical agriculture," ever published. If distinct pro- 
 fessorships of agriculture have not yet been founded in the English 
 universities, arrangements are in progress for establishing them ; 
 and in the mean time lectures of distinguished ability have been 
 delivered on the subject by some of their learned professors, — a- 
 mong which it would be inexcusable not to mention particularly 
 the lectures of Professor Daubeny of the University of Oxford. It 
 is time that Virginia should acquit herself of the debt which every 
 enlightened and especially every Republican commonwealth owes 
 to this great primordial interest of society. We must have a pro- 
 fessorship of agriculture in our University as a part of the gen- 
 eral course of liberal studies, to furnish our young men, when 
 they quit its walls, with a competent knowledge of the principles- 
 of a profession which so many of them embrace in after life. In 
 addition to this, there should be established in connection with 
 the University, a special agricultural Institute, designed for those 
 who might not wish or find it convenient to follow the general 
 course of University studies, but whose object would be to acquire 
 in shorter time or at less expense, the professional education of 
 an instructed agriculturist, as well as the general accomplish- 
 ments of an intelligent and useful citizen. In this department, 
 theory and practice should go hand in hand ; and for that purpose, 
 a model and experimental farm should be attached to the Insti- 
 tute to be conducted under the most skilful supervision and ma- 
 nagement, and to afford examples of the most improved methods- 
 of culture and fertilization. 
 
 Of such an Institution, a perfect exemplar, tested by forty years 
 of successful experience, is presented to us in the admirable and 
 celebrated establishment of Von Fellenberg at Hofwyl in Switz- 
 erland. I am spared the necessity of details in the development 
 of this suggestion, by simply referring to that well known estab- 
 lishment as a general model, admitting readily of modifications 
 where a difference of circumstances may be supposed to require 
 them. It was my good fortune during my residence in Europe, 
 to visit this classic spot ; and I can safely say, thai I saw nothing 
 in the palaces of Kings, in the museums of the fine arts, in the 
 gorgeous displays of wealth and power on every hand, which im- 
 pressed me with half the admiration I felt in contemplating the 
 modest but noble establishment of the Swiss Republican patriot 
 andsage. Agriculture he chose as the basis of his enterprise. 
 
and by the happy combination, in the training of his pupils, of 
 intellectual and bodily labor, mutually relieving and giving zest 
 to each other, he has achieved those prodigies of moral and phy- 
 sical improvement, which have drawn upon his institution the ear- 
 nest attention and applause of the civilized world. It has fur- 
 nished to Continental Europe the best models of its agriculture, 
 while it has sent forth into its various States and Kingdoms some 
 of their most useful, virtuous and enlightened citizens. At the 
 same time, the model farm of Hofwyl stands a proud refutation 
 of all the stereotypftdsalires, so frequently indulged, on scientific 
 farming, as the accounts of the establishment, kept with minute 
 mercantile exactness, disclose through a series of years, a nett 
 profit of S£ percent upon the whole capital employed— a rate of 
 profit with which, I venture to say, any of us practical farmers 
 would be more than content. 
 
 I have thought it not unsuitable to the present occasion, gen- 
 tlemen, to present to you these observations on the means of ex- 
 tending the usefulness of our society, of elevating the standard 
 of our profession, and of promoting the progress of agricultural 
 science, in which the highest prosperity of the State, as well as 
 our own personal interests and feelings, is so deeply concerned. 
 If I shall have thrown out any thing which shall appear to you 
 worthy of being further pursued, I shall esteem myself happy in 
 awakening the interest of those, whose intelligent exertions, con- 
 curring with those of our agricultural brethren elsewhere must 
 ensure by their united moral influence, success to whatever ob- 
 ject of public good they may espouse. 
 
 Pass we now from these topics to those of a more familiar cha- 
 racter connected with operative agriculture. The bountiful au- 
 thor of our being, gentlemen, has given to man dominion over 
 the earth, and over all its productions, but coupled with the grant 
 the express condition and injunction that he should subdue it by 
 his industry and toil. It is no part of the scheme of divine Pro- 
 vidence that spontaneous nature should supply the wants of man. 
 On the contrary, there is hardly any thing which nature presents 
 to us in a state which supersedes the necessity of human labour 
 to make some change in it, to prepare it for the use of man. Po- 
 litical economists, indeed, tell us that labor is the only source of 
 the necessaries and conveniences of life, or what they call 
 wealth. Whatever exception may be taken to this proposition, 
 in its unqualified strictness, it is, nevertheless, undeniable that 
 human labor is, by far, the most important constituent in almost 
 all anicles consumed by man — even the ordinary products of 
 the earth. The great philosopher, Locke, remarks that " if we 
 will rightly consider things as they come to our use, and cast up 
 the several expenses about them, what is purely owing tonature, 
 2 
 
10 
 
 and what to labour, we shall find that, in most of them, ninety- 
 nine hundredths are wholly to be put to the account of labour." 
 And he adds, that " it would be a strange catalogue of things 
 that the industry of man provided and made use of, about every 
 loaf of bread, before it came to our use, if we could trace them."* 
 Let us not repine at this law of our being, but recognise in it a 
 new proof of the goodness and wisdom of Divine Providence, 
 which thus supplies us with constant motives to that active exer- 
 tion of our faculties, mental and bodily, in which only the true 
 dignity and happiness of man are to be found. 
 
 The earth, then, is given to us in a state unfit and incompetent 
 for the support of civilized man, but with varied and indefinite 
 capacities of production, to be drawn forth by human industry 
 and art. There is no part of its primitive surface which does not 
 stand in need of improvement, in some form or other, by artifi- 
 cial means. This is the fundamental principle of agriculture as 
 an art, and points to a constantly progressive improvement as 
 the end of every generous system of farming. No man should 
 be content simply to preserve his lands in the condition in which 
 they are. The poor should be made rich, and the rich richer ; 
 and such is the efficacy of artificial means of improvement that 
 what was originally the poorest land in Europe, (I refer to the 
 light sandy soils of Flanders,) is now probably the richest— so that 
 Flemish Husbandry has become synonymous with the perfection 
 of fertility and productiveness. In effecting this extraordinary 
 triumph over the disadvantages of nature, much doubtless, has 
 been done by good tillage, deep ploughing, thorough draining, 
 and a judicious rotation of crops ; but the most efficient agent has 
 been the minute care in collecting and preserving, and unwea- 
 ried diligence in the application, of manures. These, indeed, in 
 connection with proper culture, are the " charms and mighty 
 magic" by which the wonder working power of agricultural im- 
 provement has every where wrought its miracles. It is alike 
 curious and encouraging to observe how the catalogue of these 
 precious resources is daily extending by the discoveries of mo- 
 dern science, and the inquisitive spirit of the human mind. In 
 addition to the numerous class of vegetable and animal manures, 
 so long known, and whose virtues have been tested by centuries 
 of (experience, it is now discovered that the respective com- 
 pounds of lime and magnesia in bones, and the peculiar chemical 
 affinities of charcoal poivder and soot have placed them high on 
 the list of valuable fertilizers. 
 
 But it is chiefly in the wide field of mineral manures, and in 
 
 * See Treatise of Civil Government, B. II, chap. V. s. 40, 
 and 43. 
 
11 
 
 the bowels of the earth, that the researches of the chemist and the 
 geologist are from time to time unfolding new resources for stim- 
 ulating and increasing the productiveness of its surface. I need 
 not bring to your view any of these modern discoveries, of which 
 you will obtain a far more satisfactory knowledge from the pub- 
 lications which treat of them. But I cannot pass without notice 
 the extraordinary and cheering results, which have already fol- 
 lowed, and are likely to be still farther produced, in a portion of 
 our own state, by the use, as a manure, of those beds of fossil 
 shells, which are found deposited, in such large abundance, 
 throughout the tide-water region, and to which the denomina- 
 tion of marl is now generally applied. And here we have occa- 
 sion to remark a striking example of that wise economy of Pro- 
 vidence to which I have already referred. The region in which 
 these large deposits of marl are found is distinguished, for the 
 most part, by natural soils ot an inferior fertility ; but beneath 
 their surface nature has placed, in liberal measure, the means of 
 enriching them to any extent, thus inviting the enterprise and in- 
 dustry of man to their improvement. It was the fortune of a 
 public spirited and intelligent Virginian, at a critical moment for 
 his country, to perceive the inestimable value of this hidden tal- 
 ent; and, under the awakening influence of his able writings and 
 experimental demonstrations, lower Virginia is now undergoing 
 one of the most remarkable transformations of this age of im- 
 provement. I need not say that I speak of the able author of 
 the " Essay on Calcareous Manures" — a work that has already 
 taken a distinguished place among the agricultural Classics of 
 the English language, and which will transmit the name of its 
 author, to future times as a public benefactor. 
 
 You are not, unmindful, gentlemen, that nature has placed on 
 either side of us, in the region we occupy, one of the most effi- 
 cient of this family of calcareous manures. I refer to the vein of 
 limestone which borders us on the east, running parallel with, and 
 at about a mile's distance from the base of the southwest moun- 
 tains, and the broader field of it which skirts us on the west, run- 
 ning along the western base of the Blue Ridge mountains. — 
 These bodies of limestone run in parallel directions through the 
 entire width of the state, and at about an average distance of 
 twenty-five miles from each other. It becomes, therefore, a matter 
 of interest to the whole range of counties lying in this situation, 
 and not inappropriately called the Piedmont counties of Virginia, 
 to enquire how far we may profitably avail ourselves of this ma- 
 terial, which nature has placed on either hand of us, for the im- 
 provement of our lands. It strikes one at first with some sur- 
 prise that lime having been advantageously employed, from the 
 earliest times as a manure, doubts should still exist, in various 
 
12 
 
 localities, as to the benefits of its application. But when it is 
 recollected that it belongs to the class of what are called special 
 manures, adapted to particular soils, and even on the soils to 
 which it is adapted, requiring to be used in different quantities, 
 according to the condition of the land to which it is applied, this 
 spirit of caution is not an unreasonable one. 
 
 Being somewhat of a pioneer in the lime husbandry in this 
 portion of the state, I feel myself called on, gentlemen, to give 
 you the results of my experience. I have used about 12,000 bu- 
 shels of it, (slaked measure,) from a quarry opened for the pur- 
 pose on my own land, which has been spread over about 150 
 acres, at an average, therefore, of 80 bushels to the acre. Some 
 accounts which I had read of its eflecis elsewhere, not express- 
 ed with the accuracy and discrimination so much to be desired 
 in such communications, had led me to expect a decided effect 
 from it upon the growing crop — by which I mean the crop, of 
 either corn or wheat, immediately succeeding the application of 
 the lime. In this, T was disappointed ; but the discrepancy is 
 probably accounted for by the fact that I have not hitherto used 
 lime in combination with putrescent manures from the farm 
 yard or the stable, while others have most probably done so, 
 though that circumstance was not noted in the communications 
 to which I refer. My first disappointment, however, in regard 
 to the effects on the growing crop, was more than compensated 
 by the marked, unequivocal, and decided effect I have never fail- 
 ed to perceive from the lime alone in the clover succeeding the 
 wheat crop— with which it has been my general practice to apply 
 the lime at the time of seeding, harrowing in the lime and wkeat 
 at one and the same operation. The increased luxuriance of 
 the clover has furnished, of course, conclusive evidence of the im- 
 provement of the land from the application of the lime, and has 
 in its turn, enured to the still further amelioration of the soil. — 
 All my observations in regard to lime would lead me to the opin- 
 ion that it is the most permanent of all manures, and to concur 
 in the conclusion so forcibly stated by Dr. James Anderson, one 
 of the most copious and able of all the British writers on agri- 
 culture, who in his most valuable " Essay on Lime" says, " that 
 its effects on the soil will be felt, perhaps as long as the soil exists ;" 
 and this conclusion he justifies by the mode of its action altering 
 the nature and constitution of the soil itself, and enduing it with 
 capacities and affinities which it never before possessed. My ap- 
 plications of lime have been almost entirely on a close gravelly 
 loam, of a brownish or gray color; and the result of a single ex- 
 periment on land of a different description would lead me to be- 
 lieve that it is not adapted to the red ferruginous clay soils of 
 th« sides and base of our south west mountains. It is a proverb 
 
13 
 
 in England and Scotland that 
 
 " He that marls sand 
 Will soon buy land ; 
 But he that marls clay 
 Throws all away." 
 The reason that Dr. Anderson suggests for the comparative in- 
 efficiency of marl on clay soils is, that clay forms a large propor- 
 tion of marl, and the addition of clay to clay, therefore, cannot be 
 expected to produce so good an effect. The same reasoning would 
 furnish a solution of the supposed want of adaptation of lime to 
 the red clay soils of the south west mountains proper, and of its 
 unquestionable efficacy on the adjacent gray loams, as a chemi- 
 cal analysis of the two soils has, I understand, disclosed the ex- 
 istence already of two per cent, of lime in the former, and of 
 hardly any sensible quantity whatever in the latter. 
 
 Nothing can be more certain than the highly beneficial effects 
 of lime as a manure, on a large majority of our soils, in which, ac- 
 cording to an analysis, by Mr. Ruffin, of as many as sixteen diffe- 
 rent specimens taken from various and distant parts of the State, 
 lime is very rarely ever found as an original and natural ingredi- 
 ent. The important practical question, then, is, whether the ex- 
 pense of the application is justified by the benefits of the manure. 
 This is a question which every person must determine for himself 
 according to his particular position, and his own views of profit 
 and loss. For myself, I will only say that I have always found the 
 best application I could make of money derived from the land, 
 was to return it back to the land in the shape of improvement. 
 There is no investment of capital which can be more safe, and 
 in ninety-nine out of a hundred cases, none half so profitable. 
 If by laying out five dollars in manure on an acre of land you 
 make it produce you 20 bushels of wheat worth a dollar a bushel, 
 when it.produced but five bushels before, and this product is re- 
 newed to you every four years in an ordinary rotation of crops, 
 have you not secured an interest of one hundred per cent, on the 
 outlay you have made.and at thesame time,increased the value of 
 your land four hundred per cent ! And yet results such as these, 
 extravagant as they may seem.and though we may be unconscious 
 of them ourselves, are often achieved by a liberal and spirited 
 system of improvement. The passion of us Virginia farmers is 
 to acquire more land— not to make the land we already possess 
 more productive. If a farmer should add yearly to his possessions 
 a hundred acres of land, he would doubtless consider himself 
 getting along very prosperously in the world. But if at no greater 
 expense he can make a hundred acres of land twice or thrice as 
 productive as ihey were before, is he not doing much better, with 
 the great advantage of having a more compact surface on which 
 ♦o concentrate his labor and care. 
 
14 
 
 The misfortune of our Virginia agriculture is that we have al- 
 ready too much land for the labor we can bring to cultivate it. As 
 we are not likely to make a voluntary curtailment of the extent of 
 our farms, the greatest practical reform that can be introduced into 
 their management is to curtail the arable surface on each, and 
 to lay down a larger portion of our lands to grass. Instead of 
 wasting the energies of our soil by annually spreading over a 
 wide surface a superficial, negligent, and teazing cultivation, 
 yielding comparatively nothing, how much better would it be to 
 cultivate one half or one third of the space we now do, to con- 
 centrate upon that all our resources of labour and improvement, 
 and to leave the rest to recruit itself by the healing processes of 
 nature. Liebig has explained in a very ingenious and philoso- 
 phical manner the process by which lands laid down to grass are 
 constantly renewing and improving themselves, and has thus 
 confirmed ihe deductions of our own observation by the demon- 
 strations of science. Should any one doubt whether we should 
 derive from the reduced surface, better cultivated, a product equal 
 to that of the whole under inadequate culture, let him recollect 
 the instructive story told by old Golumelia, in his De re rustica, 
 of a Roman vine-dresser, who had a vine-yard and two daughters ; 
 when his eldest daughter was married, he gave her a third of the 
 vine-yard for a portion, and yet he had the same quantity of fruit 
 as before ; when his second daughter was married, he gave her 
 the half of what remained, and still the produce of his vine-yard 
 was undiminished. 
 
 This anecdote of the Roman agriculturist, gentlemen, points 
 the full force of its moral against that fatal mania for emigration 
 which has hitherto carried ofl so large and valuable a portion of 
 our population to seek wider domains for themselves and their fa- 
 milies in the prairies of the west. It is not more land that we 
 need. We have enough and more than enough already, if prop- 
 erly cultivated and improved, for ourselves and our children after 
 us. It is industry, improvement, good husbandry we want, to 
 develope the natural capabilities of our soil, and to make it ad- 
 equate to every reasonable wish, and even to the fondest dreams 
 of prosperity and wealth. With these, seconding the gifts of 
 providence by which we are surrounded, we shall have nothing 
 to envy to the untamed abundance of the west, tempting us from 
 the cherished scenes of our childhood and the hallowed tombs of 
 our ancestors. I am happy to believe, gentlemen, that a brighter 
 day is now dawning upon us, and that the eminentnatural advan- 
 tages and superior capabilities of Virginia are beginning to be ap- 
 preciated, at their true worth, by the citizens of our sister States ) 
 as well as to he more and more felt by her own children. While 
 emigration from our borders has, in a great measure, ceased, oth- 
 
15 
 
 er States are beginning, in their turn, to send to us tributes of 
 their moral, industrious, and enterprising population, attracted 
 hither by the advantages of our climate, our numerous navigable 
 rivers, our water power, our mineral resources, our favorable ge- 
 ographical position, our kind and improvable soils. Of these 
 welcome swarms from kindred hives, I have recently become 
 acquainted with one of so interesting a character, embracing per- 
 sons of great respectability, from one of the oldest and most highly 
 improved counties in the State of New York, (the County of 
 Dutchess) that I cannot deny myself the gratification of reading 
 to you a letter I have recently received from an intelligent citi- 
 zen of the county of Fairfax, in answer to some enquiries I ad- 
 dressed to him, giving me the particulars of their settlement and 
 establishment in that county. 
 
 (Here Mr. Rives read the letter referred to, as follows.) 
 
 " / proceed to make the following answers to your enquiries. 
 
 How many citizens of New York have purchased land in your 
 County ? 
 
 Answer. From the best information I can obtain there are about 
 fifty-six families that have purchased land, some of which have not 
 removed, but the greater part of them now reside in the County ; 
 these families average from three to five persons, making about 
 two hundred persons in all. 
 
 How much land in all have they purchased ? 
 
 Answer. Thirteen thousand five hundred and thirty two acres. 
 They have very generally preferred small sized farms, from one hun- 
 dred and fifty to two hundred acres, but they have been compelled 
 to purchase large farms, or rather large tracts of land, which they 
 are cutting up as fast as they can. 
 
 Have they been sufficiently long established to indicate what their 
 system of farming may be ? 
 
 Answer. / do not think they have. But their system so far as 
 I have observed it, is in favor of the cultivation of grass over that 
 of grain, and thus far they have made rapid improvements in the 
 appearance of their farms, if nothing else. They remark that if 
 clover will grow well, they are satisfied they can make the land rich. 
 
 Have they used lime and with what effect ? 
 
 Answer. / do not think they have used lime to any extent, so 
 as to know what its effects will be. 
 
 What appears to be the prospect of a farther accession of settlers 
 from that quarter ? 
 
 Answer. The prospect seems to be very good. I have no doubt 
 from the information I have obtained, that they will continue to 
 come amongst us. They seem to be delighted with the climate and 
 generally pleased with our people, and I know of no one ivho has 
 settled here who is desirous to return to the north. There is noiv a 
 
16 
 
 strong disposition amongst the wealthy farmers of Dutchess county 
 (the richest county in the State) to purchase lands and remove to 
 this county. Much might be done by our Legislators to promote 
 this emigration so important to our impoverished and wilderness 
 state, but I forbear to enter upon this topic at the present." 
 
 This agricultural immigration into our State from New York 
 marks a new and cheering era in the history and fortunes of Vir- 
 ginia. It has all taken place within two or three years past, and 
 consists of some of the most intelligent, worthy and substantial 
 farmers of one of the most improved and fertile Districts of the 
 north. It is impossible to prize too highly such an accession of 
 industry, capital and intelligence to our agricultural community, 
 or to estimate the full extent of the good effects, direct and con- 
 sequential, which it may bring in its train. What an emphatic 
 homage is it, gentlemen, to the superior natural advantages of 
 our State, which have hitherto been too much slighted and neg- 
 lected by ourselves. It is but the beginning of the influx of en- 
 terprise, skill and wealth which will flow in upon us from other 
 States, while we retain in contentment and happiness our own 
 native population, if by- improved systems of husbandry we do our 
 part in developing and demonstrating the capabilities and produc- 
 tive powers of our soil, under the hand of persevering and enlight- 
 ened culture. What a field of usefulness to our country is here 
 opened to us all ! It is a race of noble emulation in which we may 
 all contend for the prize of true patriotism. It is an oft quoted 
 saying of a celebrated writer, that whoever makes two ears of 
 corn, or two blades of grass, to grow where only one grew before, 
 deserves better of mankind, and performs more essential service 
 to his country than the whole race of politicians put together. 
 How much is the merit and the magnitude of this service increas- 
 ed, when at the same time by the example of his fruitful labours 
 he attaches, with new and indissoluble ties, his children and his 
 neighbors to the land of their birth, and brings a dozen useful ci- 
 tizens into the State, where aforetime a dozen useful citizens 
 were accustomed to leave it. Every man who performs his part 
 in such a work, however obscure his destiny in other respects, 
 or noiseless his path of life, is a public benefactor, and a patriot. 
 The humblest laborer in such a cause 
 
 " Serves his country, recompenses well 
 
 The state beneath the shadow of whose vine 
 
 He sits secure, and in the scale of life 
 
 Holds no ignoble, if a slighted, place. 
 
 The man whose virtues are more felt than seen, 
 
 Must drop indeed the hope of noisy praise; 
 
 But he may boast what few that win it can, 
 
 That if his country stand not by his skill, 
 
 At least his follies have not wrought her fall.''