Year: 1872

| In reply to many inquiries addressed
to the New York Farmers Club, asking
advice as to the best place for farmers
to locate, Prot. Heary +. Cotton has pre-
pared and published the following valu.
able information. Prof. Coltcn says:


1t is impossible to recommend any one
section Of country as the best for all
persons. Florida is liked by some, and
they 60 there and make money. Others
think it the most abominable country on
the face of the earth. In the first place,
have never yet seen that land where
any man could prosper without work,
yet l think lazy man can live with less
exertion in Flurila than any other part
of the United States; but it will be
mere living, and he will not be likely to
do himself or any one else any good. To
such persons as like warm climate the
whole year through, Southern Florida is
the place. Tie soil is generally mix
tu-e of shell-lime and sand, and needs
simply vegetable or heterogeneous matter
10 make it produce abuLdantly. To
those persons who desire to get the best
climate fr the prevention Of every
character of lung and bronchial diseases,
and to proong life after they are thus
attacked, | can recommend Western
North Carolina-the table land between
The Blue Ridge and the Smoky Noun
tains. The soil is very fertile, and as
the Pennsylvania Central has bought the
four railroads centering at Asheville, and
agreed To complete them, that section
will soon have ample railroad facilities.
Anything may be grown there which
grows in Central New York. The Cum
berland mountain table land has also a
dry atmosphere, hut the soil is not so
rich and is of different geological for
malidn from Western North Carolina.
For raising good stock, either for regular
or special markets, | would recommend
West Virginia, or the southwestern part
of Virginia the latter / think the best ;
nearly equal to these is East Tennessee.
Railroad transportation from all these
sections is rapid and cheap. The soil of
all of them is of the limestone character,
and in Southwestern Virginia as soon
as the tree growth is cut from the mouu-
tains, blue grass springs up Indigenous
ly. am informed by butchers in Balti-
more and Washington that the beef from


cattle raised there rank higher than any
other. Special attention is paid to the
transportation of stock 10y the Atlantic,
Mississippi and Ohio Railroad from Nor
folk to Bristol. The chesapeake and


Ohio will soon furnish an outlet from


West Virginia. For general farming


the lands east of the Blue Ridge, through


Virginia, n orth and South Carolina aud
Georgia are more to be recommended.
Quantities of these lands are tor sale at
low prices; manv acres are what is
termed worn ont, but as has been re-
peatedly proven Of late by Northern
farmers il is only little sick from bad
management, and needs doctoring to
make them as fertile as in their original
state. They all produce clover, aud may
be brought up by soiling with that crop
or with the common field pea. They
will in year or two produce from 20 to
25 bushels of wheat to the acre, which
from its superior character and nearness
to market is equivalent to near twice
that amount in Minnesota or Nebraska
Government lands which are thus sub
ject to entry. BY the law OF Congress
any man may enter 80 acres at cost OF
$l4, and after living on it five years can


get a clear title by paying 81 more.


Some of the finest timbered lands In Al
ALBANIA are thus subject to entry, and,
TOO, on or near the Alabama and Chatta-
nooga or North and South Railroads.
These lands, and those in Northern
Georgia, will produce all the grains and
grass; also cotton may be grown in
small quantities. l would never advise
any Northern man to try to grow cotton
on large scale. Not one ont of hun