The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1872-03-06
Virginia LRntss---,Ehoir Advantages.

In reply to one who had SAID that Colorado
land was cheaper and better than Virginia
land, the New York Tribune says:
Our observations in Virginia may not have
been SO extensive or so careful as MIR.
Meekers. but part OF them are more recent.
and they have led us to different conclusions
from those quoted above. We hold:
!. That, so far from the soil of Virginia
having been "cxhausted" by improrident
cultivation, two-thirds Of it has never yet
been cultivated at ell. Subtract all you can
for monntain-sides too steep for cultivation,
and there will remain several millions of ara
bic acres which have never yet been cleared
of timber, and Of course are as fertile as they
ever were.
2. The lands which seem to have been ex-
hausted, rs MIR. Meeker asserts, have never
yet been ploughed to "a greater depth than
six inches; usually but four to five inches.
Turn these up in the fall to depth of twelve
inches, then subsoil them six inches deeper,
and large portion of them would grow fair
corn the next season, even without manure.
THAT they would do much better ,c,h fer.
tilizers-lime, mari, bones, or almost any
other-we need not say.) In short, SO far
from having exhausted Virginia, her cul-
tivators have hardly yet dug down to her.
5. With no other fertilizer than one
dollars worth of gypsum per acre back
ing such ploughing rs we have recon-
mended, we are confident that half the
arabic acres Of Virginia would produce a
good crop of small grain followed by clio.
yer. These judiciously fed out on the
soil, with one or two more applications OF
gypsum, would enable the skilful farmer to
raise fair and steadily-increasipg crops OF
wheat, corn, or almost any other food staple.
4. 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 Washing
ton, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York
markets, could be made more profitable than
it seems to us possible to render so many
acres in Colorado.
5. Mr.. Meeker speaks of land "under
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 in
sure its complete and perfect irrigation? If
he does mean that, then that land is cheap
indeed. Our impression was, that after pay
ing the $40 per acre for land "under ditch !"
you must pay ut least SO more per acre to
prepare its surface for ready and perfect irri-
CATION. That there are patches which need
no preparation, we presume; but we had not
supposed that so per acre would buy them.
&. Comparisons, we know, are unsavory !:
yet it is fair to consider that Virginia is full
of excellent, thrifty timber, so admirably dis.
posed that few points are mile distant from
u noble forest; that buildings, fences, &C.,
are here constructed very eheaply; that seve-
raj springs Of pure cold water are found on
nearly every farm; that water-power is every
where running to waste; that railroads either
already do, or soon viii, permeate every
county; that iron and coal underle half the
counties of the Old Dominion; that the peach,
the grape, the apple, etc, find her soil con-
genial; that she is but ten or twelve days dis
tant from the great markets Of Western Eg-
rope, while the boundless capacities for con-
Of our own commercial and manu.
featuring Suites lie just at her doors, with
nayisab!s water competing with railroads