denced by this large estate, with its many barns, but no dwelling-houses. This is the mistaken economical system of the South, and particularly of Virginia. The war has not destroyed the plantation system. The great southern farmers of today stand in about the same relation to their workmen and tenants as the owners formerly did to their slaves, but with less responsibility. The homes of the tenant farmers of Virginia and North Carolina, as we saw them, are a discredit to America. Sooner or later Virginia will have to face the necessity of establishing real and permanent small farm proprietorship.
It is hardly fair to criticise the land ownership of such a farm as this, saved from the Dismal Swamp by the energy and intelligence of its proprietor. If any ownership be absolutely righteous it must surely be that of the farmer who not only cultivates, but has reclaimed his farm from the wilderness.
Nothing could so convincingly demonstrate the inestimable advantage of reclaiming the Dismal Swamp as this and other wonderful farms along the canal, that a few years ago were wilderness, infested with reptiles and wild beasts.
Before the light had quite gone from the towpath, a rabbit, and then another and another, came
