The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1867-09-26

we may suppose thst II will convey 10
Covington an amount of freight 10 coal
that what is now called the Central rail-
road will find il difficult to take away
But here the James River canal comes
10 its relief and can easily transport
everything that the Central road cannot
or prefers not to remove. This coal
must come 10 Richmond, aud here will
be established a vast coal depot, whose
annual receipt will soon reach million
Of tons. The camel coal has been SELF
ing in New York ats2O to S25 per ton.
1t can BE- delivered here at 81 TO 80. A
steam vessel may carry its fuel at sea
10 camel coal for twice the distance that
it can in any other.
With such an amount Of fuel, and
with the immense supply Of iron ore
that will be afforded by The mines along
the canal and road from the LsnaWha
to this city, we can see that with the aid
OF ordinary enterprise Richmond must
become one Of the largest iron manu-
featuring towns in the United States.
Immediately below the coal measures
lies the salt, and biologists say under
salt is the petroleum. OF the lasI.na-
med the extent is not known. The pc
trOleum operations in many parts Of
northern West Virginia Ond Penusyl.
vania have come to on end with sad los
SEES; but in Kannwhn there are other 10
terests so much superior 10 it that no
great consideration has been given to
il.
OF the soil of this wonderful valley
the statistics Of the Censns Bureau fur
nish the poorest idea, The want Of
market has greatly restrained the opera.
tons Of farming, and enterprise has been
chiefly directed 10 salt and coal. The
fores- still covers a great bulk Of the
land. Even 10 the most billy and bro
ken part. the moment the forest is NOV
ed the blue grass appears. and discloSes
tho finest grazing lands. The crops
produced in some fields would astonish
our people. A friend Of ours has this
year bsbeld the crop Of corn in field
from which Charles Lewis's men pluck
ed roasting ears on their way to the bat
tie with the Indians at Point Pleasant
in l774-ninely one years ogo-und
although, from reliable tradition, it has
been in corn every year since then, it will
now average from sirty 10 seventy bush
els per acre. and it is not good year in
that locality! There was other fields in
the same region that had been culhVa-
ted in corn for sixty and seventy years
suc,essiVely, and in some of them 100
bushels 10 the acre is not on uncommon
yield.
This is the picture Of the lower Ka
bawha. Higher up-Fayetto county,
for instance. which is called poor-there
are fields of tobacco the present year
that can be surpassed by none 10 East
ern Virginia, and the corn crops, wheth-
er in valley OF on bill, are worthy Of the
richest lands in old Virginia. Grass
grows everywhere. furnishing excellent
grazing. One of the most obsersanti
men we know says that this poor coun.
ty of the Kanawha valley is better than
three out offom of Eastern Virginir for
all the purposes of production of the
necessaries of life.
The development of such country,
must create an immense amount Of
wealth; and in establishing a line of
improvement connecting this city with
it, if we get nothing beyond it, there is
enough in this great valley to reward US
a thousand times, and to build up here
a city Of immense magnitude,