The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1872-03-08
from the N. Y. Tribune.l
MA Vtrutnia

lEIOHl WIS ~. L lAlpuit'l
Old Virginia.
The Greeley 1ribwse--a gazette with
which we like to be in accord when we
can-in its eagerness to commend Colorado
and the Great West to immigrants, does
injustice to the Old Dominion. It says:
Immigrants never will settle in Vir-
ginia, as they do in the West, and build up
the country for there is nothing to build.
With the exception of the Piedmont region
and the Valley the soil is wretchedly
poor. Two hundred years ago, they had a
thin virgin soil; but they exhausted it in less
than twenty years, growing tobacco.
Washington found this out fifteen years be-
fore he died, and Jefferson knew it. The
soil was naturally poor, because it was
formed from sandstone and flinty rocks !;
and no speeches, nor newspaper paragraphs,
nor immigration societies, can make it
otherwise. 1t is true that there is some
good land in old Virginia. in the river bot
toms and on the limestone and shale for
nations but immigrants will not get it,
unless they pay from $50 to 800 an acre.
We know what we are stating to be true,
for we have been there and studied the
country and we say, in conclusion, that
land can be had in Colorado, under ditch,
for $40 an acre, of which ten-acre field
will yield more profit than the largest PLAN
tation in the tide-water-region."
COMMENTS BY THIS TRIBUNE"
Our observations in Virginia may not
have been so extensive or so careful as MIR.
Meeker's, but part of them are more re-
cent !; and they have led us to different
conclusions from those quoted above. We
hold:
/. That, so far from the soil of Virginia
having been exhausted" by improvident
cultivation, two-thirds of it has never yet
been cultivated at all. Substract all you
can for mountain-sides too steep for culti-
walton, and there will remain several mil
lions Of arabic acres which have never yet
been cleared Of timber, and of course are
as fertile as they ever were.
III. The lands which seem to have been
exhausted, as Mr.. M. asserts, have never
yet been plowed to a greater depth than six
inches |; usually, but four to five inches.
Turn these up in the fall to a depth of
twelve inches, then sub-soil them six inches
deeper, and large portion Of them would
grow fair corn the next season, even without
manure. That they would do much bet
ter So,th fertilizers-lime, mari, bones, or
almost any other--we need not say.) In
short, SO far from having exhausted"
Virginia, her cultivators have hardly yet
dug down to her.
LII. With no other fertilizer than 81
worth of gypsum per acre, backing such
blowing as we have recommended, we are
confident that half the arabic acres of Vir-
ginia would produce good crop of small
grain followed by clover; these judiciously
fed out on the soil, with one or two more
applications of gypsum, would enable the
skillful farmer to raise fair and steadily in
creasing crops of wheat, corn, or almost
any other food-staple.
~. Sheep and cattle may be raised at
smaller cost in Colorado than in Virginia
but then their value, when ready to be
turned off the farm, will be far less. And
this difference is likely to increase. One
hundred thousand Virginia farms of 100 to
500 acres, judiciously devoted to growing
lambs for the Washington, Baltimore,
Philadelphia, and New York markets,
could be made more profitable than it
seems to us possible to render so many
acres in Colorado.
V. MIR. Meeler speaks of land 'sunder
ditch'' in Colorado at $40 per acre. Of
course, there is such land, or he would
not say it. But does he mean that the
surface of that land either naturally was,
or by labor has been made, SO gently and
regularly sloping away from said ditch"
that the owner has only to turn on the
water to insure its complete and perfect
irrigation? If he does mean that, then
that land is cheap indeed. Our impression
was that, after paying the $40 per acre for
land under ditch" you must pay at least
$40 more per acre to prepare its surface for
ready and perfect irrigation. That there
are patches which need no preparation, we
presume; but we had not supposed that
$40 per acre would buy them.
vi. Comparisons, we know, are un-
savory yet it is fair to consider that Vir-
ginia is full of excellent, thrifty timber, so
admirably disposed that few points are a
mile distant from noble forest; that
buildings, fences, &C., are here constructed
very cheaply; that several springs of pure
cold water are found on nearly every farm !;
that water-power is everywhere running to
waste; that railroads either already do or
soon will permeate every county; that iron
and coal underlie half the counties of the
Old Dominion that the peach, the grape,
the apple, &C., find her soil congenial that
SIG 10 puI tel VI tWelFc uayS ulSldnt lfoln
the great markets of Western Europe,
while the boundless capacities for consulnp-
ton of our own commercial and manulac-
turing states lie just at her doors, with
navigable water competing with railroads
for the profit of carrying her produce.
Without disparagement to Colorado, we
consider Virginia very attractive State for
immigrants, especially those from Europe.
~ b. HOwLE's DRUG STORE, Market