46 



AGRICULTURAL REPORT, 



STATE OF IMPROVEMENT. 



The farm lands embrace at least four-fifths of the area, amounting to 

 10,890,394 acres, or 17,02/3 square miles, and thej'' average a value of $8 03 

 per acre. The State of Virginia, before division, comprised 31,014,950 acres 

 in farm lands, worth $11 91 per acre. In view of their central location, ac- 

 cess to eastern markets, and connexion with all parts of the Mississippi valley 

 by river navigation, munificence of forest and field, and greater wealth of 

 minerals beneath, this is cheaper than any lands of similar position and value 

 in the country. With a little improvement in each county, of a character that 

 shall be an earnest and guarantee of progressive and steady advancement in ma- 

 terial development, eight dollars per acre will become twenty, and eighty-seven 

 millions in the aggregate will become more than two hundred millions. And 

 Buch improvements will nearly pay for themselves as they are made, leaving 

 fully one hundred millions of dollars, in a very few years, to burden the pockets 

 of the people who have the industry and patience to make them. 



The population of West Virginia is, by the last census, 376,688. It thus 

 Btands the twenty-seventh State in the order of its population, with eight below 

 it, namely : New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, Minnesota, Florida, Dela- 

 ware, Kansas, and Oregon. 



_ New Hampshire, the next below in point of numbers of its inhabitants, con- 

 tains 35 to each square mile. West Virginia has 16, as nearly as can be cal- 

 culated in the imperfect condition of her surveys. To risalize more fully the 

 present material status of this new member of the family of States, let a com- 

 parison be instituted with this older member of the family. It will be found 

 useful, in the future, in illustration of the growth of a region blessed with mar- 

 vellous resources, when relieved of the incubus of dwarfing and degrading caste, 

 and fairly started in the race of improvement. 



West Virginia. 



Population 



Acres of improved land 



Acres of unimproved land 



Cash value of farms 



Average value of lands per acre 



Value of farming implements and machinery 



Horses and mules 



Cattle 



Sheep 



Swine 



Value of live stock 



Wool, pounds of 



Potatoes, bushels of 



Barley, bushels of 



Buckwheat, bushels of 



Wheat, bushels of 



Rye, bushels of 



Indian corn, bushels of 



Oats, bushels of 



Orchard products, value of 



Mai ket-garden products, value of 



Butter, pounds of 



Cheese, pounds of 



Hay, tons of 



Home manufactures, value of 



Animals slaughtered, value of 



326, 073 



2, 367, 039 



1,377,591 



$69, 689, 761 



$18 58 



$2,682,412 



41, 111 



264, 067 



310, 534 



51,935 



$10, 924, 627 



1,160,212 



4,137,543 



121,103 



89, 996 



238, 966 



128,248 



1,414,628 



1,329,213 



$557, 934 



$76, 256 



6,956,764 



2,232,092 



642,741 



$251,013 



$3,787,500 



373, 321 



2,346,137 



8, 550, 257 



$67,525,087 



$8 03 



$1,973, 158 



87,536 



310, 089 



453, 334 



327, 214 



$12, 382, 680 



1,073,163 



746, 606 



60, 368 



342,518 



2, 302, .567 



71,263 



7, 858, 647 



1,649,090 



$234, 273 



$44, 299 



4, 760, 779 



131,585 



154, 136 



$502, 671 



$2,124,869 



