The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1878-03-23

Its Agricultural and Mineral Re-
sources-C mate-PriceS- Easily
Reached.
From the New York Tribune.
To q poor man at the North who Of ne.
ceasity must begin farming at the begin
nipg-by clearing oiftimber lands-West
Virginia officers certain advantages over
the West and South.
Fri-lti Is near and easy Of access. The
cost Of transportation for q family aud
their goods from New.York to Wheeling,
would be about one-iourth that 10 Chicago.
Time required via the Pennsylvania or
Baltimore and Ohio Railroads, from six
teen to eighteen hours.
Seeond-The timber land lies unusually
hiph, above the reach OF malaria. 1t be.
gins 10 pay soon, being either ~pasturage
or upland alluyium. This latter soil,
which ia the accumulation for ages in the
valleys Of washings from b eslopea, covers
thirty per cent Of the whole area.
TRitd.-Although West Virginia was
part OF a Southern State until the war,
The Northern settler will lind there no
hostile social prejudices to oyercome-a
matter OF first importance in choosing a
home. The majority OF the inhabitants
were loyal; being. by descent, habits and
temperament, much more nearly allied
to the farming population Of pennsyl-
yania than to The people oil East Virginia.
Euth-The State offers the peculiar
advantage OF an immense capital Of vir-
gin soil and undeveloped resources, close
" surrounded by the established mar:
kets Of the old States, West, EAT and
South.
On the other hand, the settler in the re.
mote districts will probably have TO con-
tend with a sluggishness in his neighbors
which he would not find in the driving
Western settlements. While the towns
have filled up with energetic men, the
solitary mountain counties were settled
long ago by poor farmers who, generation
after generation, titled their few acres
and raised what cattle they ate, without
caring to look outside Of their own fences.
A few colonies OF industrious, practical
men would, however, soon leayen these
sodden communities.
The State forms u slope from the ale
gheny Mountains 10 the Ohio River. vary.
ing 10 height from 500 TO 1900 ieet
above sea level. The mountains forming
a barrier against east winds, the average
temperature is reduced 10 52o. The mean
temperature for twenty-three years, at a
point on the Ohio River, was 7l.54 in
Summer and 320S in Winter. The de.
feet in the climate Ia the exceptionally
high rainfall, which annually averages,
along the Ohio, 3 $50 inches, and Is still
higher in the uplands. For this reason,
wheat cannot be grown us successfully as
corn. o.,
Loans are the characteristics soil ofthe
State; calcareons soil is found in Green
brier. Mercer and Monroe counties; the
bottoms Of the Ohio and It's aiinents are
rich alluyial deposits from one 10 ten feet
In depth, on which corn lie grown with re-
markable success; the Kanawha bottom
and Blennerhasse,t's Island have yielded
an average Of eighty bushels to the acre
from fity TO a hundred years, unaided BY
fertilizers. Wheat will yield, with care,
thirty bushels to the acre. Oats rank
third in the cereal crops1 Buck wheat
and rye grow easily. Cropa which re-
quire a sandy soil do not succeed, such ~
barley, sweet potatoes. etc. The lrish
potato Ia grown OF unusnal size and meal.
iness. The crop Of maple sugar Ia large
and pays we'll. Tobacco Ia grown In the
Kanawha region. OF fruits, apples and
ounces are the surest and largest crops;
peaches are uncertain, owing 10 the early
iros,: the cultivated small fruits grow
readily, but only find q market In the
large towns. There are several large
vineyards in the Ohio bottoms, the wine
from which commando 8 high price In the
Eastern market. Dis Debar alleges that
"there Ia hardly q l00.acre lot IN West
Virginia which does not furnish a suita-
BILE exposure for a%yineyard.
West Virginia Is the richest In her
minerals. She has ar area In coal over
5000 square miles larger than that oil
Pennsylvania, and her iron ores are more
abundant and bring q higher price in
the market than those Of the latter State.
These ores are Classified by Marry as
"brown oxides, carbonates and black
bands. found In the coal measures, and
tie brown and red hematiles, forming q
part OF the great iron belt OF the United
States.n Salt IL found by boring In the
coal districts; the indians worked the
wells in the hrst part OF the last century.
Petroleum Ia found In the Kanawha Val
ley. There are 292 wells, each yielding
aboutthree barrels per day.
The workman, however, who proposes
10 20 10 farming IN this State, iS not like
" 10 strike oil or iron or any swift path
10 fortune. He wants timber land At low
prices, There Ia no scarcity OF u. OF
The 100000 acres 10 the State. $780,
900 are In the primeval forest. lta price
IN Hampshire, Mineral, Randolph, Green.
brier, Jackson, Clay and Cabell counties
ranges IRON so cents 10 50 per acre. In
the cultivated counties, In close contigu'
ity, Il runs up 10 $40, mineral lands SELL
ing for $1,000, while Ia those which are
almost wholly In forest, such "a Lincoln,
Mcdowell and Logan, land 10 large tracts,
embracing mineral and gladee, may be
bought for 81. Diss Debar states that the
cost OF enclosing thess farms with q
wooden fence Ia 50 per sore or less. The
largest timber Ia then girdled. It dies
in the first year, The fret thing which
comes IL q thick growth Of blackberry
bushes, which will disappear in two
YEAR,, or sooner II cattle are turned in.
The native blue grass then takes posses,
sion spontaneously, and the farm is ready
10 Yield q perennial pasture. In this
rough way the largest grazing farms have
been cleared, and have enriched their
owners. Fortunes Of from $4,000 TO
$4,000 have been accumulated In the
live stock business by men who began as
farm hands, and started business with a
brace Of calves. The timber brings from
so cents to 81 90 stumpage, and at the
mill from $40 to So 80 per 1000 leet.
Beel finds amarketin Maryland, Penn
~sylyania and New York, via the Balti.
more 4 Ohio Railroad. Cattle are RraEed
eighlaor-nioe months inthe year, requir:.
ipg food only three months. The demand
for. stock sheep Ia from the South and
West; for mutton sheep, from the sea
board cities. Transportation to markets
IA afforded. by the streams which feed the