WEST VIRGINIA. 69 



weather comes, aud the proper shearing time is neglected or delayed. It is 

 acknowledged by all acquainted with this section that the cost of keeping sheep 

 here is merely nommal, and then- growth and condition as favorable to profit as 

 could be desh-ed. 



THE CENTRAL COUNTIES. 



Having traversed the borders of the State, let the reader glance at the broad 

 area embraced in the interior counties, which are drained by the Monongahela 

 and its branches, the Little Kanawha, the Elk, aud the Gauley, with numerous 

 smaller streams, which mingle Avith the waters of the Ohio or the Kanawha. 

 Tt is here that the prices of lands are yet reasonable ; that general agriculture 

 promises to be most remunerative; that improvement is rife; and here, too, 

 abundance of coal and iron and coal oil is found in addition to the wealth of 

 the surface. The capital of the State must be located here ; the Baltimore 

 and Ohio railroad cuts this section in two directions, and a road cutting the 

 State longitudinally is already contemplated, and its commencement and com- 

 pletion cannot be far in the future. 



The surface of this section is varied. Like most of the State it is uneven, 

 hilly, broken, and declivitous, in different localities, with a small per-centage 

 of level bottom lands and smaller still of level uplands. The soil is good, 

 coming naturally into grass, and yielding all farm products well. The northern 

 slopes of the hills contain more of humus than the southern, and produce most 

 of the corn, while the southern slopes are stiffer and more tenacious, as though 

 partially denuded of vegetable mould by washing, by some old-time abrasion, 

 or other cause, and therefore suited best to wheat culture. 



Some items relative to this section have been kindly furnished by J. H. Diss 

 Debar, of St. Clara Colony, Doddridge county, commissioner of emigra- 

 tion for West Virginia, who has enjoyed the advantages of years of close and 

 intelligent observation aud experience. This colony is itself an illustration of 

 the remunerative character of agricultural effort and industry expended upon 

 these lands. In a few years a few straggling pioneers have given place to fifty 

 thriving families ; and Irish and German immigrants, with means enough to 

 procure a plough and a single cow, have been able to stock and pay for their 

 farms, aud live in peace and plenty. The following extracts show the price and 

 character of farm lands in this district : 



" The main valleys of the west fork of Tjgart's Valley river, both being branches of tho 

 Monongahela, and to some extent the valleys of both Kanawhas, contain bottom lands equal 

 in quality, though not in breadth, to those of the Ohio, and on the former stream, in tho 

 counties of Lewis, Barbour, Upshur, Harrison, Taylor, Marion, and Monongalia, the hills 

 in many instances rise from the valleys in more gentle slopes, and present a greater and supe- 

 rior arable surface than those along the Ohio river. Farms in those counties, with about 

 one-third timbered land, range from $25 to §50 per acre, and are amply worth it. 



" On the smaller valleys of tributary streams the price of farms in the above named conn 

 ties, similarly proportioned as to cleared and unimproved land, vary from $15 to §25 per 

 acre ; and further towards the heads of streams, and more remote from thoroughfares, from 

 $10 to ^15 per acre. 



" Many farms, chiefly hill land, but all fit for grazing and sufficiently watered, with prim- 

 itive home improvements, can yet be had at from $o to §10 per acre, with twenty to twenty- 

 five acre*! in a hundred, more or less, prepared for cultivation. ' 



"Large tracts of wild laud are not found in any of the above named counties, except in 

 Upshur and Lewis, where timbered mouutams, containing some table land fit for small grains 

 and grass, can be bought at from $2 to §4 per acre. In the other counties very little tim 

 bered land, fit in part for the plough, can be bought for less that $5 or $G per acre, and some of 

 it not under §10 to §12. 



"The counties of Wirt, Kitchie, Doddridge, Roane, Calhoun, Gilmer, and Braxton, are 

 not watered by streams presenting extensive bottoms, but contain very little land absolutely 

 worthless. The smfaco of these counties varies from undulating or rolling to hilly, and the 

 proportion of bottom to hill may be safely set down as from five to fifteen per cent. As a 

 general rule, lands of the same quality are rated lower iu the latter than in the first named 

 counties, on account of their inferior state of improvement. 



