Quantity and Value of the Exports of the County of Accomac
To the Editor of the Farmers' Register.
I subjoin for publication, if you shall think it of sufficient interest to deserve it, a statement that has been prepared with great care, exhibiting the quantity and value of the produce exported from the county of Accomac, in this state, for the crop of the year 1838. The year 1838 was not selected as furnishing a larger amount of exports than ordinary years; but as the inquiries were commenced last year, it was more convenient and more favorable to accuracy in the results, that they should have reference particularly to the year immediately preceding. The crop of 1838 was about an average one as to quantity in Accomac, and the prices did not exceed the average of several previous years. The results exhibited in this statement were obtained by personal application to every exporter of grain in the county, who furnished to the gentleman who prepared it, minute and accurate accounts, taken from their books, of the kind and quantity of their exports for the year 1838. So that, although it cannot be pretended that the account is precisely accurate, it seems not to be going too far to say that it approximates much more nearly to the truth than statistical statements generally do. And I will add that the statement was prepared by a gentleman well known throughout the state for his diligence and accuracy in statistical inquiries.
The prices at which the value of the produce is estimated in the subjoined statement are not those for which the articles sold in the market, but the best prices received by the farmer; and it is believed they fall rather short of the average prices of that year.
| Statement. | |
| Oats, 350,000 bushels at 40 cents, | $140,000 |
| Indian corn, 250,000 bushels, at 85 | 212,500 |
| Sundries, viz.: wheat, sweet potatoes, peach brandy, dried peaches, flaxseed, peas, beans, steamboat wood, &c. at least, | 47,500 |
| Total, | 400,000 |
Your readers upon the other side of the water, who seem to regard our peninsula as little better than a "barren sand beach," will probably be astonished to see that the surplus crop of the county of Accomac alone, for one year, amounted to the handsome sum exhibited in the above statement.
And to this I will add, that the rate of rents on the Eastern Shore is perhaps higher than any where else in the state; a circumstance which indicates, of course, the great prosperity of the agricultural interest. One half of all the crops of every description is the usual proportion for land of good quality, and in several instance within the knowledge of the writer, the tenant gives one half, without a house of any sort, and without the privilege of fire-wood. For land below the average quality, two-fifths of all the crops, or two-fifths of the corn, and a half of the oats, and either two-fifths or a half of all the other crops is the usual proportion. The price of land is, of course, high in a corresponding degree.
An Eastern Shore Man.
Accomac C. H., April, 1840.