Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1895-08-15
Go to Virginia, Young Man.


tarv Morton Office. The talk turned
on farming and young men about TO
make an agricultural start in life.
Secretary Morton was clear, firm, and
explicit as he is on other matters. de
had reasons for the hopes within him.
too. This is what he said about young
men and the place for them TO look
for farms
Were young, remarked the Seere-
tary Of Agriculture, land about to
buy a farmland if were young buy
ing farm is exactly what I'd go first
about-Td get farm in Virginia. l
was ont through Fairfax and Loudoun
counties the other day. To say was
amazed would not any more than eX-
press it. was fairly astonished. |
never saw finer fields or better crops
anywhere. It's garden. One has,
as some fellow said about some other
locality, but to tickle the soil and 1t
laughs with harvest.
Corn I met face 10 face with as
vigorous and robust fields as ever
waved in Illinois. Other crops were
the same.
You know what the general notion
both North and VESTS; that Virginia
land is back-broken from an overpro-
duction Of tobacco in the years gone
by. That may be the truth Of a field,
or the fact around. as it Were, in spots,
but compared to the whole plow area
of Virginia it cannot and does not
amount to much. As | say, where !
iourneyed there was nothing TO show
any lack of stamina in the soil. lts
cornstalk offspring grew thick and tall
and held as healthy a hue, both of
body and leaf, as could be looked for.
The soil itself was as black as the pros
poets of the silver party
"No, sir; were l young, with no.
ton to farmland no better or broader
or more manly avenue ever opened to
human feet than the farm-Id go into
Virginia
IF the character Of the soil and the
rugged and abundant sort Of the crops
astonished me, was still more to open
my eyes at the price of land. You
know what land in Texas, IN Kansas,
in the West generally, goes for 1t
isn't uncommon to find certain bottom
farms in Kansas and other regions of
the West going as high as SLOGAN acre.
An average price for farms by the acre
in the West Is as good as $50. The
improvements won't be enough to serl-
ouslv discuss, either Fifty-hvo dol
lars an acre isa very common, usual
price for trans-Mississppi farms. 1t
doesn't scare anybody. Yet ! can
take YOU to Just as good land with
better improvements in the way OF
houses, barns, fences and water, within
thirty miles of Washington, which you
can buy for $l5 an acre. Forty dol
| lars an acre difference Is quite a gulf
in finance. Just think of it. Land
equally as good, too.
"As mere crop producer the Nir-
gina farm would stand shoulder to
shoulder with any in the West, and
vet while you buy a farm Of l6Oacres
in Texas, say, for $500, I'll take the
same $500 and buy and locate my
/ self in Virginia, within three hours
drive Of the Capital Of the country, on
a. fraction over $50 acres. Just as
good land, as told you before, only
instead Of lGO acres you get j8G acres
for $8, 500
"Thisisn't guess work. ! could cite
farms and figures. may not appre-
ciate scientists in my department, and
may prefer a goose-bone to a college
professor to forecast the weather and
tell when it's going to rain; but / know
all about a farm, what it costs all over
the country, and what can be done
with it. And at present figures, az
/ I've already said, a young man bound
TO own a iarm-or an old man similarly
bent for that would show
heap Of horse sense to head for Virgin
ia. I've no doubt the same advantages
Of soil, markets, and prices could be
found in Maryland and others Of the
seaboard States which have been de-
serted in their farm regions by the
crazy instinct Of men to get into the
cities, and which have not been filed
up again by newcomers. These latter,
looking for farms, seem always to fly
to the West and Southwest These
newcomers in their ignorance landing
at Baltimore, run over az good land
going West as any they'll find 1000
miles further on at three times the
Marylaud-Virginia figure.