The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1879-05-20
WEST VIRGINIA.
Notes Upon Farming and Lum.
bering.
What Nay Be Done on a West Virginia
Farm.

In q recent prolonged visit to West Wiz
gtnia, Mr.. Edmund Rirke, Of Chicago
made a careful study Of It's timber and
farming resources. Some Of his obserya
ttonS he has set down in the following ar
ticle to the Chicago Tsbuae;
elm a previous paper we said something
about the climate, soil and general pro.
auctions Of West Virginia. Limited
space forced US to speak only in a general
way, and we may not have covered all the
points that naturally suggest themselves
to persons proposing to begin life in a new
section. We believe fully in the many
advantages this State offers to the North.
ern emigrant; but, as alltruth is best test.
ed by experiment, the 'tground Of our
faith" maymore fully appear, and we may,
at the same time, the better answer the
questions the intending settler NAV natu.
rally ask il We give the actual experience
Of q Northern man who recently went
there and engaged in farming operations.
He was a machinist, who went from this
city about two years ago and settledin the
kanawha Valley. He was thirty.fye, in
ordinary health, and had wife and three
children. He probably knew less about
farming than Horace Greeley, for he had
only q dim recollection Of driving the COWS
TO pasture on his fathers little Ipatch" in
New Hampshire; but the careful savings
Of fifteen years had yielded him onlyabout
500, and he though he could do no worse
If he narrowed the bosom Of his mother
earth in some new region. But he deter.
mined TO tlook before he leaped;p so, be.
ing furnished with an emigrant half.rate
ticket, he set out with 500 of his hard.
earned greenbacks sewed tightly to his
cuticle, for an exploring expedition into
West Virginia. He looked leisu.elya about
him; but within a fortnight had bought
a farm Of one hundred aCres-a square
corner cut out from q larger tract be-
longing to q man who had more land
than he could pro6tably cultivate. Sew.
enty acres of 1t wer6 cleared, the rest
in the original foresb-magnifcent oaks,
ash, wildwood and black-walnut,-
which, cut and .haulel to the nearest rail.
way station, would bring, in cash, several
times the cost Of the original purchase,
He was to pay for his farm S700,-perhaps
about o%ne.eighth of what a similar tract
would cost almost anywhere in the State
OF New York. He paid 500 down, and
agreed to pay the remainder in six equal
annual installments. There was no house
on his premises, but his new neighhors
got up a ''raising-bee," and in q very few
days he had a comfortable dwelling, not
quite 80 fine as Aspinwalls magnificent
mansion on the Hudson, and yet much
more of a domioiie thal those in which
Jackson, Harrison and Lincoln we're born,
or the one in which our worthy President,
Mr.. Hayes, and his wife passed an entire
winter during the campaign in West Vir'
ginia. The total cash outlay on this man.
sion-"double,ba rrelled ca6ins' they are
called down South-was $40.
He now returned home for his family ex.
hibiting his deed to the railway company,
he was again furnished with fares at hal
rates, and also presented with a ticket fol
a thousand miles OF travel good for any
member Of his family. Well, the ohildTsh
were sent to school, while the housewife
did her own work; and our farmer, with
the aid Of . "ppllnd gemman,' somewha'
given to camp meetings and poor whisky,
but honest and willing to work, set about
the cultivation OF ILLS newly-acQuireC
homestead. Hedeoided to lay doYnaboII
fifty acres, and let the restremaln, In forest
or lie fallow until a more convenient sea
son. During the first year he had lSt
working days from frost to frost, and a
Eha cloSe NJ saVan months his last huSheI
OF grain was harvested. He kept an &C
curate account Of every dime that wen
out and came In, and the following, ex
pressed in our own fashion, was tho resVl
Of his first years operation.