Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1866-01-24
Total cultivated acres............2, O39, Is

Total cultivated acres. ,039, l5O
There are rising of four million acres of
public lands remaining unsold in this
State. These lands are now owned by
the State, under grants made by Congress
for sundry purposes. The United States
own some land, but the data, to give the
quantity, is not at my command. The
public lands sold since of 1860, were sold
at rates from $3.50 to l24 cents an acre.
1t is estimated that only one sixth of the
land in the State, susceptible of cultiva-
ton, has been improved; the balance re-
mains in the wildness of nature, awaiting
the inspiration of free labor, under just
protection to the laborer, to make it TEEN
with that feecy staple, which if not king
in the sense claimed for it, performs a
kingly office in the agency of finance and
commerce, and contributes to the wealth
of individuals, States and Kingdoms.
Cotton can be raised as easily as corn,
and requires no great outlay of capital.
In soil and climate adapted to its cul-
ture, it is as certain crop as corn, oats,
wheat or potatoes are in a soil and climate
suitable to their cultivation. 1t can be
cultivated upon a small, as well as a
large scale one man can as successfully
cultivate ten acres as ten men can one
hundred acres, and the chances are that
one man with his ten acres will relatively
make a greater profit than ten men cul-
tivating in common one hundred acres
Good improved cotton lands, eligibly sit
uated, were worth before the war from
$50 to 800 per acre. There is no reason why
in few years, they should not be worth
more than the sums named, unless it be
in the stupidity and wickedness of legis-
tors. Improved cotton lands cannot gen
orally be purchased as cheaply as they
could Immediately after the surrender of
the rebel armies, owing in part to the
fact that the people begin to be more rec
onciled to the abolition of slavery, not
regarding its destruction to be so great a
calamity as they at first supposed, and in
part to the movements in the North look
ing to investments in cotton lands, with
a view to cultivation. There is no uni
formity in prices, and to purchase to ad-
vantage requires time and opportunity to
become acquainted with the condition of
the title, and the disposition of the own
er to sell. Improved lands are being
rented at figures from three to fifteen
dollars per acre.
In the Parish of St. Landre, improved
plantations with good buildings and four
or five hundred acres, cleared and fenced
and plenty of wood land, can be pur-
chased at prices from ten to thirty dol
lars per acre, and wild lands, well timber
ed with ash, oak and cypress, are worth
from $3.50 to $500 per acre. At tbs
present price of labor and provisions, it
is estimated that it will cost $50 per acre
to thoroughly clear and fence these
lands, but can be cleared much more
cheaply by girdling the heavy timber, and
cutting and burning the underbrush, and
in this way good crop can be raised the
first year after the deadening. A planter
in 1858, purchased a tract of wild land in
the Parish of st. Landre, commenced
deadening the timber, and, without
ploughing, he raised on the place that
season ninety bales of cotton. The cir.
died timber is now standing or lying on
the fields he cultivated, and the planter
is now in Texas, where he fed on the ap-
proach of the Federal army. 1t is said
that he is quite anxious to sell his plan
tation.
Thousands of enterprising men in the
North, now that slavery is abolished, are
inquiring into the probable profit of cot
ton lands and cotton cultivation. This
can only be demonstrated by experience.
If cotton could be proftably raised by
slave labor, at prices which it then bro't,
about ten cents per pound, surely it can
be more gainfully cultivated by free la
Dor, which will prove to be much cheap