The Correspondence of Thomas Jefferson
LAND VALUES / AGRICULTURAL
I send you a small one in return, the work of a very unlettered
farmer, yet valuable, as it relates plain facts of importance to
farmers. You will discover that Mr. Binns is an enthusiast for the use
of gypsum. But there are two facts which prove he has a right to be
so: 1. He began poor, and has made himself tolerably rich by his
farming alone. 2. The county of Loudon, in which he lives, had been so
exhausted and wasted by bad husbandry, that it began to depopulate,
the inhabitants going southwardly in quest of better lands. Binns'
success has stopped that emigration. It is now becoming one of the
most productive counties of the State of Virginia, and the price given
for the lands is multiplied manifold.
to John Sinclair,30 June 1803