The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1869-05-25
GheG14teuiqenter
West Virginia.

We publish the following extract
from a letter of General Imboden,
Agent of Immigration for the State OF
Virginia. His remarks apply equally
as we'll to our own State.
1t takes but little money to buy a
home In Virginia. Leaving out the
rich Shenandoah Valley and few
counties east OF the Blue Ridge, Vir-
ginia now offers probably the cheapest
lands in the world. Hundreds of thou
sands of acres of good land-farms
opened, fenced, built upon, improved,
with all the advantages of roads, mills,
| schools, civil and social order, mild,
genial and healthful climate, ample
railways. canals and river highways,
ports and market towns, surrounded
on every hand with unused water pow
er, In the midst of mineral wealth of
almost limitless extent, with perfect
social and civil order, and the stability
OF an old civiliz alton in every county
can be purchased at So, $40, $l5 and $50
per acre. None of the sellers intend to
leave the country, but they have too
much land and cannot manage 1t. They
are wise to sell the surplus beyond
their immediate wants.
Another immense advantage we offer
over the West, is the abundance of
cheap labor in our midst. The negroes
Will never 10 any dppIeCldOIc eAteuL
become land owners. They are as all
know very poor. They will generally
remain so from lack of that provident
forecast which the white man possesses.
They must therefore continue TO be
mere laborers for wages, and farm
labor is that best suited 10 their nature
and capacity. Tho best of them are ex-
cellent farm hands, and with careful
supervision and guidance, all may be
made useful. They are hired for about
500 to $l20 year for men and 500 to
$50 year for women, and their ratloEs
of peck and half OF meal and three
pounds of bacon per week. 1t Is With
in the reach then Of every small farmer
to command ample help in Virginia.
Can he do 30 in the West?
am convinced from my own obser-
Vation, confirmed by the knowledge OF
some of the best informed men in this
city, that there are today In New York
and its enVirons not less than 3O.UUO
people, in families, who find It difficult
on a small capital of from $500 to, say
s.. 900, to live here, with the most &C
tive and wearing industry. Although
wages seem high to me, find the cost
of living even in higher proportion than
with us. People of this class, If ar
tisans, lind it necessary, in protecting
themselves against actual want and
suffering, to unite and organiZe trade
unions" and societies for mutual
support in the contest between capt.
tai and labor that exists in all dense
populations. All these people,, 1t
seems to me, would greatly i'm
prove their condition by purchasing
lands where even their small capital
would secure enough to support their
families in comfort, and make them in
dependent of the vicissitudes of trade:
Virginia is so near to New York and
other great consuming centers that
even a few acres we'll titled will yield
in surplus products, after supplying
the family quite handsome income.
The sum paid in New York by many
hard working man as rent tor part of
crowded tenement house, would far
more than meet the einstallments ofpur-
chase money on 100 acres of Virginia
land, practically SO near New York,
that he could send here and exchange
his cabbages,. turnips, peas, tomatoes,
his family and all the essentials Of
household comforts.