The Continental Monthly, Vol. 5, No. 3, March, 1864: Devoted to Literature and National PolicyVarious
History
The Continental Monthly, Vol. 5, No. 3, March, 1864: 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 1850, 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; while in New York these values were
respectively $379,633,560 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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