“ A majority of the members in each house of the General Assembly may at any time propose a convention to revise the constitution and, if at the next succeeding election a majority of the people voting on the question approve, the General Assembly must provide for the election of delegates. To be entitled to vote one must be a male citizen of the United States and twenty-one years of age; have been a resident of the state for two years, of the county, city, or town for one year, and of the election precinct for thirty days next preceding the election ”

“ In 1716 an expedition of Governor Alexander Spotswood over the mountains advertised to the world the rich back-country, now known as the Valley of Virginia; a migration thither from Pennsylvania and from Europe followed which revolutionised the province. The majority of blacks over whites soon gave way before the influx of white immigrants, and in 1756 there was a population of 292,000, of whom only 120,000 were negroes, and the small farmer class had grown so rapidly that the old tide-water aristocracy was in danger of being overwhelmed. ”

“ The Virginia Normal and Industrial Institute, at Petersburg, is governed by a board of visitors consisting of the superintendent of public instruction and four other members appointed by the governor with the concurrence of the Senate for four years. In 1908 the General Assembly made an appropriation for establishing two state normal and industrial schools for women, one at Harrisonburg and the other at Fredericksburg, both under a board of trustees consisting of the superintendent of public instruction and ten other members appointed by the governor with the concurrence of the Senate. ”

“ By 1700 the population of Virginia had reached 70,000, of whom 20,000 were negro slaves. The great majority of whites were small farmers whose condition was anything but desirable and who constantly encroached upon the Indian lands in the Rappahannock region or penetrated the forests south of the James, several thousand having reached North Carolina. Between 1707 and 1740 many Scottish immigrants, traders, teachers and tobacco-growers settled along the upper Rappahannock, and, uniting with the borderers in general, they offered strong resistance to the older planters on the James and the York. ”

“ The only qualifications for senators and delegates are those required of an elector and residence in their districts; there are, however, a few disqualifications, such as holding certain offices in the state or a salaried Federal office. The General Assembly meets regularly at Richmond on the second Wednesday in January of each even-numbered year, and the governor must call an extra session on the application of two-thirds of the members of both houses, and may call one whenever he thinks the interests of the state require it. ”

“ Each district elects a supervisor for a term of four years, and the district supervisors constitute a county board of supervisors, which represents the county as a corporation, manages the county property and county business, levies the county taxes, audits the accounts of the county, and recommends for appointment by the circuit court a county surveyor and a county superintendent of the poor. ”

“ Other portions of the Coastal Plain afford more valuable soils, sandy loams overlying sandy clays. On the higher elevations the soil is light and sandy, and such areas remain relatively unproductive. The crystalline rocks of the Piedmont area are covered with residual soils of variable composition and moderate fertility. Passing the high and rugged Blue Ridge, which is infertile except in the intervening valleys of its S.W. expansion, we reach the Newer Appalachians, where fertile limestone soils cover the valley floors. The Valley of Virginia is the most productive part of the state. ”

“ A widower is entitled by courtesy to a life interest in all his wife’s real estate; if she dies intestate, he is entitled to all her personal estate; if she dies intestate, leaving no descendants and no paternal or maternal kindred, he is entitled to her whole estate absolutely. ”

“ In Tazewell county is the famous Pocahontas bed, which produces one of the most valuable grades of coking and steam coal to be found in the United States. There are remarkably rich deposits of iron ore in the Alleghanies, and the W. foothills of the Blue Ridge, from which most of the iron ore of the state is procured, are lined with brown hematite. Iron-mining—perhaps the first in the New World—was begun in Virginia in 1608, when the Virginia Company shipped a quantity of ore to England ”

“ In each county an electoral board, consisting of the attorney for the Commonwealth, the division superintendent and one member appointed by the judge of the circuit court, appoints a board of three school trustees for each district, one each year. ”

“ Tobacco-growing was the one vocation of Virginia, and many of the planters were able to spend their winters in London or Glasgow and to send their sons and daughters to the finishing schools of the mother country. Negro slavery grew so rapidly during the first half of the eighteenth century that the blacks outnumbered the whites in 1740. ”

“ Marriages between whites and negroes and bigamous marriages are void. The homestead of a householder or head of a family to the value of $2000 and properly recorded is exempt from levy, seizure, garnishment or forced sale, except for purchase money, for services of a labouring person or mechanic, for liabilities incurred by a public officer, fiduciary or attorney for money collected, for taxes, for rent or for legal fees of a public officer. If the owner is a married man his homestead cannot be sold except by the joint deed of himself and his wife ”

“ The recruiting ground for the American army in Virginia was the up-country among the Scottish-Irish and the Germans who had long fought the older section of the colony. In 1779 Norfolk was again attacked, and great damage was also done to the neighbouring towns. In January 1781 Benedict Arnold captured Richmond and compelled governor and legislature to flee beyond the Blue Ridge mountains, where one session of the Assembly was held. ”

“ A law enacted in 1908 forbids the employment of children under fourteen years of age in any factory, workshop, mercantile establishment, or mine within the state, except that orphans or other children dependent upon their own labour for support or upon whom invalid parents are dependent may be so employed after they are twelve years of age, and that a parent may work his or her own children in his or her own factory, workshop, mercantile establishment or mine. ”

“ Finance.—Revenue for state, county and municipal purposes is derived principally from taxes on real estate, tangible personal property, incomes in excess of $1000, wills and administrations. deeds, seals, lawsuits, banks, trust and security companies, insurance companies, express companies, railway and canal corporations, sleeping-car, parlour-car and dining-car companies, telegraph and telephone companies, franchise taxes, poll taxes, an inheritance tax and taxes on various business and professional licences. ”

“ Miscellaneous Laws.—A married woman may manage her separate property as if she were single, except that she cannot by her sole act deprive her husband of his courtesy in her real estate. A widow is entitled to a dower in one-third of the real estate of which her husband was seized at any time during coverture. ”

“ Climate.—The climate of Virginia is generally free from extremes of heat and cold. In the Coastal Plain region the temperature is quite stable from day to day, as a result of the equalizing effect of the numerous bays which indent this province. The mean winter temperature is 39.8°, the mean summer temperature 77.2°, with a mean annual of 58.6°. Killing frosts do not occur before the middle of October, nor later than the last part of April. ”

“ The family library, family pictures, school books, a seat or pew in a house of worship, a lot in a burial ground, necessary wearing apparel, a limited amount of furniture and household utensils, some of a farmer’s domestic animals and agricultural implements, and the wages of a labouring man who is a householder are exempt from levy or distress. ”

“ Manganese ore-mining began in Virginia in 1857 in the Shenandoah Valley, and the product increased from about 100 tons in that year to about 5000 tons (mined near Warminster, Nelson county) in 1868 and 1869. Thereafter Virginia and Georgia supplied most of this mineral produced in the United States, and the greater part of it has been shipped to England. Between 1885 and 1891 the average annual production was about 15,000 tons, the greatest output—20,567 tons—being mined in 1886. After 1891 the product declined rapidly, amounting in 1907 to 800 tons valued at $4800. ”

“ Trout abound in the mountain streams, and black bass in the rivers of the interior. The cat-fish grows to a large size in the sluggish rivers. On the coast, the striped bass, sea-bass, drum, sheepshead, weakfish, bluefish and Spanish mackerel are important as food fishes. ”

“ It landed, at a place which was called Jamestown, on the 13th of May 1607, and resulted in the establishment of many plantations along the James river. The purpose of the company was to build up a profitable commercial and agricultural community; but the hostility of the natives, unfavourable climatic conditions and the character of the colonists delayed the growth of the new community. John Smith became the head of the government in September 1608, compelled the colonists to submit to law and order, built a church and prepared for more extensive agricultural and fishing operations. ”

“ The Indians had again attacked the border farmers, and the governor had refused assistance, being willing, it was generally believed, that the border population should suffer while he and his adherents enjoyed a lucrative fur trade with the Indians. ”

“ Fredericksburg at the head of navigation on the Rappahannock and West Point on the York have traffic of commercial importance in lumber and timber, oysters and farm produce, cotton and tobacco especially being shipped in coast wise vessels from West Point. Petersburg and Richmond on the James are connected with regular steamship lines with Norfolk, Richmond’s water trade being chiefly in coal, oil, logs and fertilizer. Steamboats plying on Chesapeake Bay connect Alexandria with Norfolk. ”

“ The number of factories [1] increased from 3186 in 1900 to 3187 in 1905, the capital invested from $92,299,589 to $147,989,182, the average number of wage-earners from 66,223 to 80,285, the total wages from $20,269,026 to $27,943,058, and the value of products from $108,644,150 to $148,856,525. The manufacture of all forms of tobacco is the most important industry ”