The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-01-01
DEPRECIATION OF LANDED PROPERTY IN
THE SOUTH.

Among the many facts surrounding the ad-
vent of the year just opening, which are on
their face unqualifedly unpropitious is the
universal and tremendous depreciation of real
estate in the agricultural districts of the South.
A melancholy example of the ruinous fall in
Southern lands and of the moneyless con-
dition of the Southern people, is thus related
in the Savannah News and Herald, Georgia..
HN-svILLE, LIBERTY County. GA, !
December 10, 1867.
A sale has taken place at this county seat that
so well marks the extreme depreciation in the
money market that send you the particulars.
Col. Qusrterman. of this county, deceased and his
executor, Judge Featter. was compelled to close
the estate. The property was advertised as was
require by law, and last court day il sold.
A handsome residence at Wathourve, with ten
acres attached, out-houses and all necessary ap-
pendages Of q frst-clsss planters residence, was
sold for sixty dollars. The purchaser was the
agent of the freedmans bureau.
+ is plantation. four hundred and fifty acres of
prime land, brought one hundred and hfty dol
lars sold to a Mr.. Frazer. Sixty-six acres Of
other land, near Wathourvie, brought three
dollars; purchaser, Mr.. W. d. Bacon. These
were all bona fide sales.
II was a court day, and q large concourse OF
people were present. The most of them were
large property owners, but really had not five
j
not bid, as the sales were for cash.
A SUBSCRIBER.
1t is hardly to be doubted that, were the
best landed estates in Louisiana put up at
auction without reserve tomorrow, their sale
would exhibit prices on a scale Of deprecia-
ton corresponding with the prices mentioned
in the above letter. If such would be the
results of forced sale of the most eligible
lands of the State, it is not difficult to form
an idea of the easy and advantageous terms
on which a large proportion of these lands
could be obtained by private negotiation with
the proprietors. This matter is eminently
worth looking into by men who have any
spare capital to be invested, whether North
erners or Southerners, Americans or Euro
peans. Land is at the basis of all wealth, and
there is nothing which, in the long run, will
afford so safe and so stable an investment.
And yet here in the South millions of acres of
it, highly improved, and productive beyond
example, are not only lying idle, but vainly
inviting purchasers at prices which, by a
strange concurrence Of circumstances, are so
low as to be utterly insignificant when COM
pared with their intrinsic and normal
value. 1t would almost seem as though
they were surrounded with the circle of some
sinister enchantment, paralyzing the timid
who approached it, and striking dead the
holder who attempted to cross it But the
spell must at last be broken. Capital, and
enterprise, and emigration will not always
continue to seek remote and comparatively
sterile regions, while in the South, easily and
quickly accessible from every quarter, the
princeliest and cheapest lands on the face of
the globe are spread, under genial cline,
awaiting and inviting their coming. The i'm
pediments which have heretofore barred the
way to these affluent resources, even suppos-
ing them to be insuperable, as they are not,
are in their nature temporary and exceptional.
There is superabundance of money among
European capitalists looking for investments
abroad. 1t would eagerly absorb all the
United States bonds within its reach but for
the specter of reputation which has been
conjured mp by political agitators. There is no
spectral contingency of this kind to frighten
it from the purchase of Southern lands,
the title in which is guaranteed by the Consti-
tuition even against forfeiture by confscation.
Northern cities begin to choke, and Southern
cities also in a scarcely less degree, with larger
populations than there are local resources of
business to sustain. While many must leave
the cities to obtain subsistence, others will do
so to find more advantageous opportunities
for using their money than city pursuits have
afforded them. If wise, both classes will see
that the South, at this moment, in her album
dance of cheap and productive lands, already
improved, offers with unexampled hberahty
all the conditions of which both are in quest