VIRGINIA FOLK-LORE SOCIETY
The Virginia Folk-Lore Society was organized in Richmond, April 17, 1913. Its main purpose, for the present at least, will be to collect and thus to save to the State and Nation the English and Scottish ballads, surviving in Virginia. Thirty of the original 305 ballads have, in whole or in part, already been found in Virginia. No other single State has reported so large a number. Five of those reported from Virginia have been found nowhere else in the United States. This is an excellent beginning and fully justifies the statement made in our first bulletin: “No State in the Union offers so rich a field for the student of folk-lore as Virginia.” But only seventeen counties have been heard from, and one of these, Rockingham, has furnished exactly half of the ballad thus far found. There is no reason to think that Rockingham has more ballads than any other county, but it has been more intelligently and systematically worked. There is also no reason to think that Tidewater Virginia has fewer ballads than the portions of the State lying farther west, but the Tidewater counties are almost unrepresented in our list of finds. Enough ballads have been collected, however, from the different sections of the State to convince the members of the Virginia Folk-Lore Society that no county need go unrepresented. The great need is for intelligent cooperation. This is an educational work in which all can help who will. The teachers of the State, however, especially those in the common schools, can help most effectively by reading carefully the subjoined list of the 305 English and Scottish ballads and by sending to the President of the Virginia Folk-Lore Society, at the University of Virginia, any version or versions of these ballads that you may know. If they are all unfamiliar to you, perhaps there is a pupil in your school, or a parent, or a patron, or a friend not connected with the school, who knows or is likely to know several of them. The report even of a fragment will be welcome. You will be surprised to find that many versions of these old ballads are at your very door or may be obtained by a little effort and tact. Write the ballad down just as it is sung, mistakes and all, and tell when, where, and from whom it was learned. Send the music, too, if you can. Remember that two versions of the same ballad are almost as valuable as two different ballads. Nothing learned from books is wanted.
