Inventory of Negroes" in Philip St. George Cocke's Farm Book"""Cocke inherited and acquired great wealth, including extensive agricultural holdings in Virginia and Mississippi. He bought several properties in Powhatan County, including Belmead, where he built a mansion overlooking the James River to serve as his family home. By 1860 Cocke owned more than 27,000 acres of land and more than 610 slaves in the two states and reckoned his net worth at more than $1,000,000. His widely scattered plantations required management through overseers, and he compiled detailed manuals for directing the work. Cocke gained renown as a leading advocate of agricultural interests. He built an extensive library of more than 600 titles, including a wide array of volumes on agriculture and plantation management. As president of the Virginia State Agricultural Society from 1853 to 1856, he promoted the cause of agricultural education. Attempting to establish a program of agricultural studies at the University of Virginia, Cocke pledged $20,000 in bonds to help endow a professorship. After that plan failed, he proposed developing a school of agriculture at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington. Cocke served on VMI’s board from 1846 to 1852 (from June 1851 through June 1852 as president) and from 1858 until his death, again as board president. His second plan for agricultural education died during the Civil War.