The Russellville Democrat., 1877-04-12
Cheap Lands.
The Arkansas River Valley.

From the St. Louis Trade Journal.l
 Events have transplreu within the past few years that are only lately be- ginning to exert their influence on the the direction which the great current
 of emigration has taken ill the past, and
 these influences are now gradually turning it in q new direction. The political differences that existed be-
 twixt the North and South during the
 existence of the old regime, shut out a
 large and sparsely settled territory
 west of the Mississippi and south of
 Mason and Dixon's line from the grand
 mass of immigrants, and gave tie first
 impulse to the development ol the great
 Northwest. The over-crowded popula-
 ton of the Old World and the restless
 energy of the New England and Middle
 States gradually spread over the North
 western States and Territories their Isupcrfiops population. Then the great
 lines of railroads, built to carry the
 agricultural products of the West to the
 seaboard, became powerful factors in
 fixing the destination of emigrants.
 Each railway became an active agent
 in populating the lands along aud be-
 yond their routes. In this manner
 whole States have been filled up and
 the population pushed far into the
 Great American Desert" where crops
 can only be raised by artificial irriga-
 tion, while richer soils, a more congen-
 ial climate, and greater variety of
 resources, have lain undeyeloped much
 more convenient to the great commer- cial centres, isolated, as it were, by
 both political and commercial influ- ences. The time has at length come
 when this genial and healthy climate and these fertile lands invite oceupa- tion, and hold out inducements to the immigrant that are giving them pref erence in the minds of all who once study their advantages.
 The great State of Arkansas, with l her numerous navigabe rivers, her immense forests of the finest and most valuable timber on the continent, l her broad valleys of the most produc- 1 tive soil in the world, her mountains, rich with coal, iron, lead, zine, and other minerals, has lain developed on l the very borders of States long since l settled, while territories much more remote from markets, with much less wealth of resources and very inferior natural advantages, have grown pros porous. This State has only lately been brought prominently into notice, because it is only lately that railroads, those great necessities of modern ciYili- zation and progress, have given quick access to her central and western ter ritory and made it easily reached from i the North. Yet, while railroads have been neglected in this State more than iil others, it must be remembered that they have been here less of q neces sity than elsewhere, where, in many in- stances, the lands were almost worth less without this means of cheapening transportation. The State is so well supplied with navigable rivers, that the want of railroads has not been felt. With the Mississippi River forming her eastern boundary, and the Arkansas, the Ouaclita, the [. Francis, the White, .he Black, the Red, the Saline, the Bayou Bartholomew, and others, none of which are ever obstructed by ice which traverse forty-three counties of the State and furnish transportion by which her big crops of cotton have heretofore been carried to markets, and give to the State more miles of navigable rive" than any other State in the Union can boast.
 By far the most important of these rivers, in point of size as we'll as value to the State, is the Arkansas. Run ming entirely across the State and di- viding it into two nearly equal parts, nearly equi-distant from the two ranges of mountains north and south of it, it traverses what may fairly be called the heart of the State.
 As our design is to give such infor- nation as will enable emigrants to choose home combining the greatest number of advantages, we shall coniine ourselves to speaking particularly of the western portion of this beautiful valley, because we do not believe there is locality in our great domain that can offer such inviting inducements to those who desire to locate where they can make their industry q source of wealth, and both themselves and fam lilies can enjoy the blessings of health and plenty.
 From Little Rock west, the valley has width of about seventy miles and {; length of about one hundred and fifty miles before reaching the Indian Terri tory. In this area of about II GOO square miles, or about one-fiith part of the whole State, every element that goes to make up a coun-ry able to pros per upon its own resources can be found. There is not an agricultural product of the whole United States, with the exception of sugar cane and tropical fruits that cannot be raised here in profusion. The hills bounding this valley are remarkable for their mineral wealth of which developments have been alrerdy made of iron, an tnracite and bltuminous coal, argentif- erous galena, calomine or sulphuret of zinc, noyaculite rock, (see an item elsewhere in our paper concerning this stone and it's uses), gypsum, marble, limestone, &c To quote from the Commissioner of the United States Land Office: 1.-The mineral wealth lies in vast quantities of anthracite, camel and bituminous coal, iron, lead, | manganese, gypsum, zinc, salt and building stoile; the lead ore containing silver in quantities sufficient to defray the expense of working, the zine prod- uct ranking next to that of New Jersey. and the gypsum greater in quantity than in all all the other States of the Union."
 Dr. Owen, in his Sociological Recon noisance" of Arkansas, says; "There are resources of the Sate in acres of zinc. maganese, iron, lead and copper whet and hone stones, rock erysialS paint and nitre earths, kaolln, granite, Ireestone, limestohc-inarls, grindstones