The New era. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1865-1871, 1865-10-19

hills, an orchard in bearing, and COM
Portable farm buildings, command from
fifty to one hundred dollars per acre.
Inc upland, nearly all susceptible of cul-
tlNatlon, With surface undulating, roll
ing, or billy, in some places with ridges
hlarkihga Very sharp outline, If brought
unacr good cultivation, in favorable To-
calltles, bring twenty-five or thirty dol
lars per acre. Less improved, further
from railroad or river, or rousher or
poorer, can be bought for ten and fifteen,
and some even for five dollars.
The Ohio bottom lands produce corn,
as do the best prairie and bottom lands
in the country, more according to culture
than to difference in quality, at the rate
of fifty to one hundred bushels per acre.
The average of wheat, which is grown
on the hills, more generally in loan than
upon aluminOus soils, among stumps and
roots, and sometimes rocks, and greatly
exposed to the raids of innumerable in
habitants ofadjacent forests, is about the
same as in Ohio, perhaps fourteen BUSH
els per acre, while occasional fields pro-
duce two or three times that amount.
Wood county has u great variety of
soils. The northern portion is a sandy
loan, productive, excellent for fruit and
vegetables, easily kept in condition with
light dressings OF manure and judicious
culture. On the Little Kanawha the soil
is pretty stiff with clay, and in the south
ern portion of the county limestone
soil is found. A fair crop of corn here is
about fifty bushels per acre.
The surface Of jackson county is roll
ing. Many of the hills have a limestone
soil; some localities are characterized by
heavy clay. Some of the bottom lands
are clay, and others alluvial based on
sand or gravel.
A considerable trade in grain has been
carried on with New Orleans; and apples
have been Il source of revenue in the
same trade, the RoXbury, Golden Rus
set, and Yellow BellfoWer being favor
ties, and producing abundantly. Tobac-
co is Il lucrative crop here. The soil is
well adapted to the growth of a superior
quality. Corn and grass arc the principal
crops. There is tendency to greater
prominence in sheep husbandry. Five
hundred sheep have recently been intro
duced from Brooke county, notwith-
standing the unsettled state of the coun-
try, and the exposure to loss from que
rillas. A beginning has been made in
grape-growing, which promises to be
successful.
THE KANAWHA VALLEY.
There are few localities promising
more attractions to industrial enterprise,
or higher rewards to free labor, than the
kanawha Valley of West Virginia.
Climate, soil, timber, fuel, wood above
and coal below,l minerals in variety,
water power, navigation two thousand
miles to the Gulf of Mexico, and to all
the tributaries fthe Mississippi, conspirc
to render this valley, even now animated
with the earlier sights and sounds of de-
veloping industries, the future home of
mechanic skill and intelligent labor, and
consequent refinement, wealth, content
ment, virtue, and happiness.
Its climate is mild and agreeable, with
heat less intense in summer than at
Washington or Baltimore, and winter
temperature comparing f;lvOrably in
mildness with that of Louisville and st.
Louis.
The distribution Of rain through the
different seasons is remarkably uniform,
being not far from eight inches rainfall
in each Of the seasOns-spring, summer,
and autumn-ands scarcely more than ten
during the winter, or about thirty-six
inches for the year.
The centre Of the lower valley, or ba-
Sill oI uHc UTedl hdIlaWHd, Is Ill EttlIuuc
1872. The extreme length Of the river is
about four hundred miles. 1t rises in
Ashe county, in North Carolina, and
traverses or forms the boundary of six
counties in Virginia and eight counties
in West Virginia, viz: Mercer, Monroe,
Greenbrier, Raleigh, Fayette, Kanawha,
Putnam, and Mason. It first flows be-
tween the Blue Ridge and Iron Noun
tain, and in the northern parts Of Gray
son county, Virginia, it bursts the barri
ers of the Iron Mountain and continues
in northeastern direction through Car
roll, Wythe, and Pulaski counties, where
it turns abruptly to the northwest, wind
ing through several ridges of the Allie
ghanies, as it instinctively seeking ASSOC
citation with the future of la bel2esxricrc,"
Ohio, and the great "Fatherof Waters"
After crossing the Greenbrier range, and
passing through Fayette county, West
Virginia, it receives the Gauley river
from the right, spreads into a broad ex-
panse of five hundred yards, and assumes
the dignity of the Great Kanawha.-
Right here, two miles below this juno
ton, and more than Il hundred miles
from the Ohio, the stream is precipitated
twenty-five feet over a ledge of rocks,
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