The Continental Monthly, Vol. 3, No. 1 January 1863: Devoted To Literature And National PolicyVarious
History
The Continental Monthly, Vol. 3, No. 1 January 1863: Devoted To Literature And National Policy
Various
Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; United States -- Politics and government -- 19th century -- Periodicals
AGRICULTURE AND MANUFACTURES.--The natural fertility of the soil of
Virginia far exceeded that of New York, with a more genial sun, and much
more favorable seasons for agricultural products, as well as for stock.
The number of acres of land in Virginia susceptible of profitable
culture, is nearly double that of New York, but much of it has been
impoverished by slave labor, scratching and exhausting the soil, without
manure or rotation of crops. The census shows that Virginia has all the
products of New York, and cotton in addition. Virginia produced, in
1860, 12,727 bales of cotton (table 36), worth, at present prices,
nearly $3,000,000. She also adjoins the States of North Carolina and
Tennessee, producing, in 1860, 372,964 bales, worth, at present prices,
nearly $90,000,000. Virginia is also much nearer than New York to all
the other cotton States. With these vast advantages, with her larger
area, more fertile soil, cheaper subsistence, her coal and iron and
great hydraulic power, with so much cotton raised by herself and in
adjacent States, Virginia should have manufactured much more cotton than
New York. But, by the census (table 22), the value of the cotton
manufacture of Virginia in 1850 was $1,446,109, and in 1860,
$1,063,611--a decrease of one third. In New York, the value of the
cotton manufacture in 1850 was $5,019,323, and in 1860, $7,471,961, an
increase of over 48 per cent. So, if we look at the tables of mines,
manufactures, and the fisheries, with the vastly superior advantages of
Virginia, the whole product in 1860 was of the value of $51,300,000, and
of agriculture $68,700,000; whilst in New York these values were
respectively $379,623,560 and $226,376,440. (Tables of Census, 33 and
36.)
CLIMATE AND MORTALITY.--By table 6, page 22, of the Census, there were
for the year ending June 1st, 1860, 46,881 deaths in New York, being 1
in every 82 of the population, and 1.22 per cent. The number of deaths
in Virginia, in the same year, was 22,472, being 1 in every 70 of the
population, or 1.43 per cent. There was, then, a slight difference in
favor of New York. But Virginia is divided into four geographical
sections: the tide-water, the Piedmont (running from the tide-water
region to the Blue Mountains), the valley between these mountains and
the Alleghanies, and the trans-Alleghany to the Ohio. These three last
sections, containing three fourths of the area and white population of
the State, surpass New York in salubrity, with the most bracing and
delightful climate. The climate of Virginia is far more favorable for
stock and agricultural products than New York, with longer and better
seasons, and is more salubrious than the climate of Europe. (Comp.
1850.)
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