Duke University Libraries 
 
 (T)o the farmer 
 Conf Pam 12mo #419 
 
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r HE FARMERS RESIDING IN THE VICINITY OF THE 
 
 VIRGINIA CENTRAL RAILROAD. 
 The imperative necessities of the war have deprived the Company of the 
 usual supply of wood for the locomotives and cross-ties for repairing the 
 Road, which have heretofore have been furnished by contractors. Having 
 now, to a great extent, to do what formerly was done by contractors, there 
 is a demand for labor which the Company cannot supply without your 
 assistance. 
 
 Since the war commenced this Company has almost lost its character as 
 a private corporation, and may be regarded as an arm of public defence, 
 and the Directors have conducted its operations as informal agents of the 
 Government, receiving little or no aid, but having its resources crippled by 
 the Government itself. I do not censure the Government, but I wish you 
 to know the true state of facts. In the existing state of thiugs you alone 
 can furnish the aid required. The labor we need to put the Road in safe 
 working order cannot be obtained from any other resources than that which 
 I think it is your interest to spare from your farms. Of surplus labor, 
 seeking hire, there is none. 
 
 1 appeal to you not in behalf of the Company, but to your own interests 
 
 and that of the Southern Confederacy. 
 
 < Will yon stand aloof at this time and leave the Company to try to strug- 
 
 gleHhrpii^n difficulties it has no power to qxercome\ Will you incur the 
 
 danger \f this. Rp^d nob behu^able to do fte> ttafisr»ctati * . ;ry to 
 
 vL maintain the .' . te abandonment of the seel y ** mtr}' 
 
 £ in v/ja'ich •?' 1 aeedVrot undertake to eulighten you as* to your 
 
 ^ fate if our Army is compelled to fall back and the enemy t -sion. 
 
 S Will it then be any source of pleasure to think of the 5 employed 
 
 JJ in draining your lands, clearing off shrubbery, and dressing up waste places, 
 
 <*J as many do, in ordinary times, more for ornament than profit ? 
 
 fr v I submit, this ma tter \<> your good sense and judgment. I do not ask 
 
 i lyoiTto neglect the*Vio>liwy of any crops — all these are required to sustain 
 ,the Amiv ;. but, as.a practical farmer, [ know many things may be omitted 
 which mwally ur hands, aud enable you to spare some labor for 
 
 tfie"rema^ndef , <»T r this yvsar. v If you were to send us aid gratuitously you 
 would promote ydur interests; but I do not ask that — I will pay a high 
 price. I Willie FORTY DOLLARS per month for twenty-six working 
 days for good laborers and find provisio^'*'*' \* 
 
 1 commend this subject to your serious consideration. You may think 
 the proper officers might have hired more labor in the beginning of the 
 year, but it is vain to discuss that question no«y. There was great difficulty 
 then in obtaining hands, and those officers acted according to the 1> 
 their judgment. The fact stares you in the face that the Company needs 
 a large number of hands. You all ha^tbem, and they are to be emp 
 
 not for the benefit of the Stockholders as a corporation so much as for your 
 own interests, being citizens occupying a section of country which cannot 
 be defended unless the Road is-put in good order. . V 
 
 E. FONTAINE, President. 
 
 Office Va. Central Railroad, 
 September 2, 1863. 
 
 P. S. Persons sending hands will report to me at Beaverdam Depot, or 
 W. G. Richardson, Road Master, at Frederick's Hall ; and, in any case, we 
 would be glad that each hand should bring a good axe. I hops to get 
 prompt responses and at least one hundred hands. 
 
 MMMlMMi 
 

 
 
 
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