James Smith
VIRGINIA NOTES, 1859
The counties of Fairfax and Loudoun have a very wavy, uneven surface, consisting of ridges and hollows, --but no elevation of sufficient height to deserve the name of mountain, except a short chain of hills, called the Bull Run Mountains, situated partly in Loudoun. These ridges run in every direction, and are of every variety of height, from 6 or 8 feet, to 100 or 150. Their sides are sometimes steep, but generally gradual in ascent, ---some of them are well studded with chunk shaped stones, and rounded boulders, but generally free from stones, and capable of tillage over their whole extent. There are very few swamps in the hollows between the ridges, they generally have a channel for a little stream, that, in many cases, dries up in summer; but often, especially among the higher ridges, is fed by living springs, which keep it running all the year. The inhabitants call these little streams, "Branches"; their waters form streams of a larger size, which they call, "Runs", the runs fall into streams of a still larger size, which the call "Creeks," and they all finally empty into the Potomac River.
On some of these upland ridges the soil is composed partly of loam and clay, with a large proportion of sand and gravel. This forms a light soil, on which the original growth of forrest timber is Chesnut, Chesnut Oak, Hickory, and Yellow Pine. On other ridges, those generally of the lowest, and flattest form, loam and clay predominate in the soil, and the original forrests consist of White, Black, Red and Box Oak, and Hickory. The channel of a small Run, is often the dividing line, between two different kinds of soil. A strip of land of very variable width, streaches along the course of every stream, covered with an alluvial soil, composed of the lighter and richer particles of the soil on the nearest ridges, from which it has been evidently washed be the rains of past ages. This is called Bottom Land and these bottoms streach out, occasionally on the larger streams, so as to include a large extent of very fertile soil, but subject to overflow sometimes, in a 'big rain', ---as a long N. E. rain storm is called.
With respect to Climate, Virginia has been called, perhaps justly, "the Italy of America." Situated about the medium, between Arctic cold and Torrid heat, it realy enjoys a pleasant temperature. A Virginia neighbor of mine, formerly from Bovina, kept a diary of the temperature of Loudoun, for a year, as measured by the Thermometer; and his friend in B. kept a like diary, for the same year, of the temperature in Delaware Co. In comparing them, it was found; that the average temperature of Delaware was ten degrees lower, or cooler, than the average of Loudoun, through the winter season; while the differences in Summer was not so great, for though the degree of heat was frequently a few degrees higher in Loudoun, yet the difference chiefly consisted in the more steady continuance in a high degree of temperature in Loudoun than Delaware; while on some days in winter; Delaware would be twenty degrees below Loudoun, -----The mid-winter weather of Loudoun, is much like the common April weather of Delaware; the ground very seldom freezes so as to stop the plough, but I have seen one or two winters there, in which the snow fell a foot deep, and lay on the ground three weeks, and on one occasion snow fell in the first days of April to the depth of two feet, and lasted a week before it all melted.
The foddering season, is I think, two months shorter there than in Delaware. This genial mildness of temperature produces one effect that is truly tantalizing and often occasions damage to the farmer. It is so favorable to animal life, that it fosters a great many tribes of insects; and brings to perfection many kinds with (which) the North is not molested. The mild winters are not sufficiently severe, to destroy their eggs and larvae, and so they swarm in every department of Nature. Not only the Housekeepers Cupboards, Beds, and Wardrobes, but there are tribes, whose natures are suited to luxuriate on all the different animal and vegetable productions of the Farmer. Even the excremental droppings of his domestic animals are secured by a stout race of Bugs, and rolled away, to feed themselves and their progeny.
But the mildness is not unhealthy, but rather tends to make the air more salubrious. Almost the entire surface of the Country being rolling, the extra water has no chance to become stagnant, and produce un-wholesome gasses, but is carried briskly into the streams that drain the country. Swamps are very few and small. Some localities near the course of the larger streams, form the only exception to the general health of the country. The channels of these streams are often quite level, and in the long summer drouths, which sometimes occur; the current in them becomes very low and weak, so that it scarcely agitates the long, deep pools along their channels. The water in these pools stagnate, at such times sufficiently to form a scum on their surface; and no doubt infect the adjacent air with miasma, for it is found that those who live close to such streams are affected more or less, in such seasons, with Chills and slight fever, which is the mildest type of Fever and Ague.
In other respects, it is as healthy there, as in any part of our Country. Indeed, the mild temperature of the air is more favorable to delicate Lungs, than the intensely cold air of Northern winters, a fact which the writer has proved by his own experience.
The agricultural system of the country, differs, in some respects, from that adopted in the Eastern and western States. The land was at first, taken up in large tracts, by individuals, and many farms still continue quite large, and are either cultivated be a number of tenants, or lie waste, in Old fields. These farms, when first improved, were generally cultivated in Tobacco, but a series of consecutive years, in this exhausting crop, eventually reduced the fertility of the soil, so that it would not pay for cultivation. Then many of the cultivators abandoned it, and, with the proceeds of their past labours, removed to the new lands of the West. In this way most of the Old fields had their origin, which lie, unfenced, and uncultivated, in many parts of Eastern Va. Cultivators of the soil have since turned their attention almost entirely to the raising of Corn, Wheat, oats, Buckwheat, Clover, timothy, etc. as these crops are more useful as articles of food, and by giving a return of manure to the soil that produced them. But the extent of surface to be cultivated, and the ease with which the operation can be performed, generally tempts these cultivators into the error of going over too large a surface, and neglecting the important particular of keeping up the fertility of the soil cultivated by a judicious system of cropping and manuring. It it true that many farmers do manure their broad, extensive fields, with Guano, and other stimulating manures of commerce, but far too little attention is paid to feeding the soil with its natural, and more nourishing food, -----the ploughing in of grass crops and mixing it with compost, and stable manure. The numerous Emigrants from the N. that have settled in Fairfax, practice the latest improvements in tilling the soil, and in raising stock, and, in many instances, their Virginian neighbours, excited by a feeling of emulation, and often blest with a more abundant supply of needful capital, sometimes exceed them in carrying out agricultural improvements. Thus the Farmer's Art is going on toward perfection there, yet is still many degrees from it; ----but the soil and the climate both unite in inviting and encouraging the Farmer onward, to higher degrees of perfection in this all important Art. The composition of the soil renders it congenial to the wheat crop, so that, if its fertility can be kept up by manuring, it will produce good crops year after year, in uninterrupted succession; which is not the case with some soils. The climate is so mild, that crops are not apt to winter kill, and as the ground does not usually freeze up in the winter; farmers have a long season for tilling their land. Rust, and insects sometimes injure the wheat crop, but this is the case almost universally, even where the soil is not so congenial, for wheat. Taking an impartial view of the subject, for the purpose of deciding the question, whether the South, or the West is the best location for industrious emigrants from the North to settle? The new, and rich soil of the West, will, doubtly produce heavier crops than the old field of fields of the South, yet crops at the South, when raised, command a higher price than at the West, and are generally nearer market, so that the difference in the value of crops, will more than make up the difference in quantity, and so, while land at the South can be purchased at it present price, it is reasonable to say, that it holds out as great inducements encouragement to emigrants, as it respects pecuniary profits, that northern emigrants wish to secure in their new home.
