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property for a trifling consideration. In a portion of Loudon, especially the 
Potomac and Loudon valley, and Clarke county, adjoining, prices are already 
higher, in consequence of northern immigration, than in 1860; and such will be 
the result throughout the State when farms are subdivided and occupied by an 
enterprising people. 
The causes of depreciation assigned are numerous: first of all is the want of 
labor which is universally noticed ; the lack of capital; the large amount of land 
offered for sale to reduce the size of farms ; State enactments forbidding a higher 
rate of interest than six per cent., tending to drive capital 4o cities and out of 
the State; the stay law; neglect of agriculture ; and, finally, reconstruction not 
in accordance with the judgment or prejudices of reporters. In many sections 
there is a prevalent disposition to sell all surplus area of farms above 100 to 200 
acres. 
Advance in price is noticed in many counties. In Middlesex, on the Rappa- 
hannock, land that could have been purchased two years ago for $10 will now 
command $30. In Pulaski, in the southwest part of the State, while the decline, 
as shown by the few sales made, is sixty per cent., holders generally are not 
disposed to sell at less than former rates. This is the fact to a great extent 
throughout the State, and it gives a wide range to prices, and makes an estimate 
of an average a very difficult undertaking. ‘The prices are made by the neces- 
sities of the sellers. 
In 1860 a portion of the Shenandoah valley, a part of the eastern slope of 
the Blue Ridge, the James river region, and some other sections, were cultiva- 
ted, improved, highly valued and prosperous. Jefferson county averaged $52 
per acre, by the official assessment, and probably $80 by real valuation, while 
the average assesed value of Ohio farms was but $26. Loudon, with 220,266 
acres improved and 75,876 unimproved, was valued at $10,508,211. Moun- 
tainous sections, the upper portion of the valley of Virginia, the tide-water 
region, and the western slopes of the Alleghanies, were less valuable, ranging 
from $5 to $30, and much higher with valuable improvements, according 
to location and all-the various circumstances which usually affect prices. Farms 
at $100 per acre, and even $150, were often purchased, and the same prices will 
soon be reached when losses of population and property have been repaired. 
2. Such has been the waste of war that “ unimproved” lands have encroached 
upon cultivated areas until nearly all the State is “ wild” land. The tracts in 
original forest, or thrown out of cultivation and covered with new forest growths, 
will be included in this branch of the subject. In Patrick and other southwest- 
ern counties the price is quoted at $1; in Carroll, fifty cents; in Nelson, twenty- 
five cents; in Botetourt, $1 to $3; in Tazewell, $2 50; in Highland, $2 75; 
in Clarke, $3 to $6; in Washington, $2 to$3; in Buckingham, $2 to $5 ; in King 
George, $4 to $10; in Stafford, King William, Norfolk and Craig, $5; in York 
and Middlesex, $6; in Lancaster, $5 to $25; in Smyth, $10 to $25. This 
shows the range of reports. . In the tidewater counties prices range from $5 to 
$15 for wild lands, except on navigable water, where the value depends on the 
amount of wood and timber, sometimes reaching $50. 
Lands at $1 peracrein Patrick are reported “ mountainous, heavily timbered, 
and highly productive.” Coal lands, four miles from the railroad, in Mont- 
gomery, can be bought for $3 to $5 per acre, and for $1 to $2 ten miles from the 
railroad. Mines of great intrinsic value in several counties in this part of the 
State, are unworked and unopened for want of capital, enterprise and knowledge 
of the business of mining. In Wythe wild lands are “almost valueless except 
in the neighborhood of iron works,” one of a class of facts everywhere appear- 
ing in Virginia, which illustrate the creation of values in all of a group of 
products by utilizing one of them. In Tazewell are tracts of thousands of 
acres, some of them at lower prices than government lands. On these mountain 
slopes and in valleys the pasturage is unsurpassed in the country, and much 
