New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-08-02

there are more sucn properties on every side,
though did not visit them. Coal said to be
abundant and excellent is also deyeloped on
this property and all around; but had NOT
time to examine it,
/ heard vaguely Of mines Of Copper, Lead,
Zinc, Plumbago. and even Silver. in this
western part of Virginia proper, but know
nothing of their value. was very glad to
find at Dublin depot a lot Of Charcoal Pig
Iron from a mine ten miles distant in the
opposite direction from Giles County, and to
learn that the company which made it ex-
pected soon to turn out 100 tuns per week.
trust that many such companies are or soon
will be opening Ore-beds and coal-depOsits
throughout this region.
Yet of even more immediate interest to the
agriculture of Virginia is deposit of Gypsum
in Smythe County, on the head waters of the
Tennessee, (HOlston FOrk,) some thirty miles
westward. This Gypsum is of unsurpassed e..
celence as a fertilizer, soft, and easily quarried;
is several hundred acres in area; while a shaft
sunk into it to depth of $50 feet has fouLd
no different stratum nor any depreciation ia
quality. Farmers who have used this Plaster
certify that each dollars worth added ten dol
lars to the value OF their first CROP and do mo-
deem this extraVagant.
| AS yet, this benefcent deposit is accessib
only by wagons, and its use is consequent
| limited; but branch Of the Tennessee Raj
road up the Hoston 10 miles, over grad'
never exceeding twenty feet to the mile,
projected, which, when capital can be found
build it, will diffuse this Plaster all over Yves
ern Virginia and East Tennessee, at cost
| So to SO per tun, and supply Central and Eas
ern Virginia at s. to s. per tun. And new
did a region hunger and thirst for fertiliz
as this does for Plaster, which is 80 cheap al
so sure to yield immediate returns that
farmer must be wretchedly poor who canno-
somehow contrive to give his grass and tillage
dressing of at least bushel per acre. And
one bushel per acre sowed over all the face OF
Virginia not covered by woods or buildings
would add many Millions to the value OF hN
ensuing harvest.
ATTRACTIONS FOR IMMIGRANTS.
That some soreness should still be felt b.
those who were badly astonished as well
discounted by the result of our late struggle,
is inevitable yet think there are few locali-
ties where an immigrant from the North,
unless he made himself conspicuously disa-
greeable, would be annoyed otherwise than by
being let alone. Even the natural distrust OF
and reserve toward strangers would soon give
way, if the settler obviously sought to make
himself agreeable and useful. Hence it is n
apprehension that any one need fear Ill usag
that leads me to reiterate my advice
that those who from the North would
make homes in the South should take
their future neighbors along with them;
for the ways of this people are so different
from ours-their ways of thinking as well as
acting-that we cannot at once become good
neighbors It were absurd to expect it. We
could not cObble harness, and work farm
with one poor worn-Out pillow, as they willj
we must have the blacksmith, the harness
maker, the wagon maker, at hand we want
more tools for fifty acres than suffice Yir-
| gnian with five hundred and We could not
live among unbridged mountain streams, which
| a days rain swells to raging torrents, impris-
oning each farmer on a narrow isthmus until
the floods see fit to subsde. Coming down
from the mountains to Wolf creek, our party
struck the clearing of pioneer who had prOba-
| bly, lived here fifteen to twenty years, had
cleared twenty TO thirty acres, and hadmOst Of it
| in grain yet who had no outlet but a bridle-
path-no sign of cart, sled or wagOn-track-to
I the road half a mile distant and perhaps three
|
superb Oak, where a good weeks work
would have made very passable cartway.
No Yankee could possibly live so and it were
idle to fancy that modes of life so contrasted
as ours and theirs will ever assimilate.
Northern enterprise and settlement in Vir-
| ginia will mainly concentrate around mines OK
Iron, Coal, Copper Lead, Gypsum, &c, &c;
and here alone can fortunes be rapidly accu-
INFLATED. / venture to say that there are
Mineral properties now to be bought in Yir-
ginia for prices which will be quadrupled in
ten years though nothing be meantime done to
develop them; while, if they be opened and
worked with the requisite knowledge and
! capital, the value of some will be increased q
hundred fold. If the Gypsum bed whereof
have spoken be such as it is represented, One
Million Dollars invested in buying, developing
and building a railroad to it, ought to yield
profit of at least Half Million per annum for
the next hundred years. An average of 81 per
tun for the Gypsum delivered at the intersec-
ton of the Tennessee Railroad would insure
this to a party who knew how to advertise
and sell. And this is but one instance out OF
many.
But, where nothing is to be done with
| Mining or Minerals, this is the only plan OF
emigration that could recommends
| Let company be formed of not less than
one hundred heads of families, of whom each
will contribute $500 or over to be invested in
lands. Collect the money, and send two or
deliberately, and purchase in a body for cash
Il Al. -