The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1875-01-15
Jhs sl|arletta Sanraal,
Marietta, Ga, Friday, January Is, is75.
lFoR THE MARIETTA JOURNAL,
COBB COUNTY, GEORGIA. -
A well.written and Interesting Letter

tiscd so we'll that emigrants arr
leaving, not only Europe and tL'
northern portions. of the Uuito'
States to sock homes aud fortunes
but even the people of this favored
land snd latitude, are, many o
them, turning their faces from The
land of their birth, the fact yet re
mains that the chances Of snccesl
are against this latter class, aud
desire in this brief article to, show
,chy this is SO. In the first place
there is a strange deIusion in this
minds of many that they can better
their condition because "in the
West" they can buy land much
cheaper.
Now this is a very grave mistake
which | will readily and satisfactory
ly prove. Land at one dollar and
twenty-five Giants per acre, unirn-
proved, is NOT as cheap as are our
Cobb County lands at five, ten and
fifteen dollars per acre. Into this
calculation we must allow the cost of
improvements, (humbIe though they
BEL to enter | have been looking
into this matter, and fOd that in a
great many instances, the purchaser
actually gets his land for nothing,
and sometimes, for less than nothing,
not paying reasonable Prics for the
improvements upon the home he
buys. The saying has passed into
a provsrb that "a man never gets
paid for building" But does be get
paid for clearing up the land, cut.
ting, splitting, hauling the rails and
putting up the fencing /; planting out
an orchard /; paling in and snriehing
a garden, and the many other minor
matters that he spends time, toll and
money upon7 Let one man buy one
hundred acres of land at ten dollars
per acre, having some such humble
improvements upon It, and another
buy an equal quantity adjoining ''in
the wood.," and let each one be
equally energetic, then go to see
these two men five years after they
have each made those purchases, and
if all my observation and the experi-
encc of a great many do not 60 to
prove that he who bought his land
at ten dollars acre, has made the bot,
ter progress Of the two, then | will
stand aside and let stern facts con-
tradict the assertion that it is safer,
wiser aud Ssttcr to begin life on a
homo partially improved at ten dol
lars per acre than on one in the
woods Tor in the prairie at one dol
lar and quarter an acre. Now the
reason ! head my article Cobb Coun-
tn, is not because these facts hold
any better in, or for Cobb than any
of the rest Of our Cherokee Geor>
gia counties, but because it is O"'
county-the county in which we live
and about which we know most, and
in which we are naturally interested,
and therefore, wo feel it a right as
we'll as a duty, to bring it before the
minds of its own citizens, many OF
whom are, like the people of all sec
tons of our noble aud promising
State, meditating about those won
derfully fertile lands in the West and
South, west, which are So yell adver-
tised, that the people imagine 8
"move" is all that is needed to give
them life long competence with
less than half the toll and care they
will have 70 undergo if they remain
in Georgia! Never was there q
more delusive phantom called up be.
fore the eager eyes Of fond hops
than this. True, some edo we'll" by
going west, but some do we'll who re.
| main at home, but who has not seer
the sad remnant Of once healthy
and happy family returning, sfte'
q soiourn Of from one to five year
| in Arkansas or some other Stat
where they "got land cheapf No
friends, we have here q noble heri
tage, and ne have not one-fourtl
| hands enough to Develop the vas
agricultural, mineral, manufacturing
and stock-raising resources will
which we are blessed, to say nothing
of our magnificent forests out o
which millions of feet of the bes
lumber may be culled and hardly
missed. Our county may be termed
the Scotland of Georgia. / refer Il
Scotland because it is not one of thu
countries where nGtaTe gave a ricl
soil, but one where 0ike thiS) th'
airs of heaven are pure and invigor
ating, and wherC the cunning ant
industrious hand of man aided D,
his brain-power) was left to build a
a great and prosperous community
Our lands are plenty rich enough
We have a stiff clay SnJSOit and thi
is all wise system Of farming ask
to insure fertile and abundant field
of waving grain. grass, corn or cot
ton. We have numerous creeks 9
clear water upon which are shoal
waiting to be utilized for the runniu
of machinery. We have, besides
one noble Fiver-the swiflly-runnin