The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1871-12-19
TUESDAY EVENING, DEC. 10, 1871.

he suggests two prominent causes for the
for.
The first cause is, that Virginia farms are
too large for moderate purchasers; that
sale of portions of large farms cannot be
made without interfering with sale of the
remainder, and that capitalists hesitate to
lend upon real estate security on account of
delay in realizing the amount of their loans.
The second cause is, that laborers are ST.
perabundant, so that working farmers of
small means have no field for remunera-
tive labor on adjacent farms, and are there
fore compelled to look for the means of
eking out their household expenses entirely
from their own holding. of'
The conditions above recited, our cor
respondent thinks, may be modified or re-
versed by the establishment Of a State land
bureau which, as the agent of the State,
should purchase such cheap outlying lands,
as are unstable in the hands of their
present owners, and have them laid off in
homesteads, of say sixty acres, these to be
sold on a credit of five to ten years.
The Legislature has already done all, in
this direction, which is possible under our
present financial circumstances and even
if this were otherwise, constitutional objec-
tons would interpose /; but did no difficult
ty of this nature exist, we have insur-
mountable objections to the State becom-
ing land Spectator, in large or small pro-
portions.
That there is really no substantial bene-
fit to be derived from the operations of such
bureau, has been made clearly apparent
by the failure of incorporated companies,
chartered in the names of gentlemen who
WELD enormous capital and enjoy unlimited
credit to acquire lands, suitable for immi.
grant farmers, to any such extent as to
make their operations noticeable, much
less of public benefit.
If intelligent private enterprise has SO
signally failed in the attempt to purchase
large bodies of land for resale to actual set
tiers, there is no ground for reasonable ex-
pectation that board of basement officials
would do any better.
To go to the root of the matter; the rea-
son why immigration to Virginia is less &C.
tive, is because farming in Virginia, on the
average lands Of the State, does not pay.
There has been thorough canvass of
the State by land prospectors, and the ag-
gregate number of purchasers, and amount
of their investments, would surprise those
who have not given close attention to the
matter.
Many of these purchasers have sold out
and left the State, and many others will in
oil probability be sold out, unless they
have surplus means to use in bringing up
their lands to paying fertility.
Unlike the virgin soils of the West,
which will bring fine crop Of corn on the
prairie sod, with no fertilizer for years, and
scarce any labor, Virginia soils require
fertilizers and continuous labor. The
small farmer GmmigranD cannot bear this
outlay, and wait for returns because his
means are too limited, his daily needs too
pressing.
Ifhe purchases a portion Of large farm,
he finds his neighbor, who sold it, in but
little better condition to extend to him
neighborly help, than he is to help himself /;
and further, in too many instances he can
not depend upon finding neighborhood GUS
toners for the odds and ends which q
thrifty farmers wife makes available to
procure groceries, without that dangerous
eoncomitant--the grocer's bill.
There is, it appears to us, plainly but
one phase to this question of immigration.
Virginia needs capital, ,cih immigration;
and immigrants, with the necessary capital.
have not received such reception as they
had right to expect.
Will any State bureau remedy this ?
We think not it must be the work of the
people and they will not much longer be
hindered in this making the oft-boasted Vir-
ginia hospitality, a matter Of current, not
merely traditional graduation.
Capital is sensitive; and its owners
shrink from entrusting it in land opera
tons, when the tax penalty is indefinite in
all, save that it is severein the present, and
threatens to become still more oppressive
under the unwise legislation Of last sesr
sion.
Above all, we need to deyelope our min
ing and manufacturing interests. Let cap
tal be successfully invested in such under
takings, and home market will at once be
created, which will make small farming
profitable, by enabling the Industrious
wife and her family to make available for
cash income the small products of the dali
ry and the garden.
Truck crops are dead stock OH the hands
of the farmer near Norfolk, from the mo-
ment he meets New Jersey and Long Island
competition. If he loses his distant mar
ket, where he can realize prices which al