1835.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



60S 



An estate of one thousand acres, two hundred 

 and filly of which are best, river side land, the rest 

 pine land, but level and capable ot cultivation, 

 and some already cultivated on the Mohawk, op- 

 posite Schenectady, beautifully situated, with an 

 house upon it, estimated in the purchase at £562 

 10s. is to be sold for £5625; or per acre about £5. 

 An extensive patent of excellent land, on the 

 Mohawk, belonging to an .English nobleman, 

 was lately sold tor less than 4s. 6d. per acre; 

 while ten thousand acres very near it, through 

 which the river ran, and which was sold four years 

 since for 7s. lOJ-d. per acre, was at the same time 

 again upon sale, and the price asked for it. £ 1 2s. 

 6d. Many men of family and fortune in England 

 possess large tracts in this state, and the land 

 speculators of the country are particularly eager 

 of dealing with them. 



A gentleman gave, in 1791, £22 10s. for six- 

 hundred acres of soldiers' grants, and sold them, 

 in 1794, for £331 10s. or lis. per acre. A few 

 years ailer the peace, he ffave £ 16 17s. 6d. for 

 one thousand acres in Jellisfonda, which he sold 

 in November 1794, for £393 15s. or per acre 7s. 

 lOd. 



Land at Konondaigua, on Seneka lake, which 

 in 17S9 would scarcely sell for 5d. per acre, two 

 years afterwards sold "for 2s. 9d.; four years after 

 for 6s. 2d.; and I saw some of it sold in 1794, by 

 public auction, in tracts of three hundred acres 

 and upwards, for 8s. 



A gentleman bought a tract of land in 1792, at 

 Konondaigua for 2s. 3d. per acre, which in No- 

 vember, 1794, he sold for 9s. to one who pur- 

 chased it to sell again. 



A gentleman of rank in England, about the 

 year 1790, purchased one million of acres on lake 

 Ontario, in what is called the Chenesse country, 

 for about lf=. lOd. per acre, which would in No- 

 vember, 1794, fetch from 4s. 6d. to 5s. 6d. when 

 eold in large tracts of one thousand acres or up- 

 wards, and about 13s. 6d. when sold to settlers in 

 smaller parcels, who have ten years credit; pay- 

 ing interest at the rate of seven per cent, during 

 part of the time, or who purchase on some such 

 terms, according to agreement. 



A person of Hudson, had a large tract on the 

 west of Lake Seneka, which he bought of the 

 state in 1787, at 7^d. per acre, and which, De- 

 cember, 1794, sold for 6s. 9d. to a speculator to sell 

 again. This land lies the farthest west of any I 

 have yet heard of, being sold in this state; be- 

 yond it, the country is scarce known. 



A person residing in Upper Canada, has atoion- 

 ship of land consisting of one hundred and thirty 

 thousand acres, at the junction of the Oswegatchi 

 and the St. Lawrence, for which he was offered in 

 January, 1794, 7id. per acre, having put it up to 

 sale at New York, to see whether it was at that 

 time of any value; but many people having re- 

 moved into that country, in the course of the sum- 

 mer, he was offered, in December, 1794, 4s. 6d. 

 per acre for it. 



Hence the average price of land, in the old set- 

 tled country below Schenectady, (rejecting such 

 as being mountainous is little capable of cultiva- 

 tion, and such as for mercantile purposes, or 

 from being in the vicinity of large towns, is of in- 

 creased value) appears to be £3 7s. lOd. per acre, 

 and of the new settled country to the west of it, 

 9a. 3£d. 



So little land is rented in this state, except in 

 the vicinity of towns, that there are no grounda 

 on which to state the interest paid by purchases; 

 I suspect, however, that it no where exceeda 

 three ami a half per cent.; but considerable tracts 

 of land in the old Dutch patents, are what is here 

 called, but improperly, rented; being granted out 

 on leases for three lives, renewable on certain im- 

 mutable terms, or on very long leases, or leases 

 forever, with a certain reserved rent usually in 

 wheat, as from fifteen to twenty bushels per hun- 

 dred acres, with various feudal services and pay- 

 ments annexed, of varying and uncertain value; 

 but these do not afford sufficient data, on which to 

 calculate the rent or interest. Proprietora of 

 lands in this state are still in the habits of grant- 

 ing them out on similar terms. 



NEW JERSEY AND PENNSYLVANIA 



May very properly be taken together, the for- 

 mer appearing, as it were, part, of the latter, ex- 

 tending eastward towards the sea; great part of it 

 is a low, flat, sandy, wet unhealthy country, little 

 frequented, and less cultivated. Inland of this tract 

 in Jersey and Pennsylvania, is a dry, rising, irreg- 

 ular country consisting chiefly of what is here 

 called isinglass land, a sandy soil full of micaceous 

 particles, glimmer, and talc; from which the sur- 

 face of the country, while the sun is shining, ac- 

 quires a singular appearance; most of the remain- 

 der is a deep red loam approaching to clay, and 

 which probably would have most of the properties 

 of it, in a climate where there was more wet and 

 less sun, is ot' great fertility, and capable, by pro- 

 per cultivation, of producing everything of which 

 the climate will admit. 



This country continues, with considerable vari- 

 ations in parts, to the chain of mountains which 

 traverse the two states. These mountains are 

 chiefly composed of micaceous granite, in some 

 places on a limestone or marble base; they run in 

 parallel ribs of great height,* and are in general 

 very barren, and covered in many parts with 

 shrubs and trees of humble growth, but divided 

 by extensive and fruitful vallies, and may extend 

 in breadth about sixty or eighty miles. Beyond 

 them to the west is a vast tract of country, said 

 to be fertile and fine, but not much known; and 

 though the whole of it may perhaps be held un- 

 der patents from the state, it is hitherto very thin- 

 ly inhabited, and the greatest part of it not at all. 

 Lots in the town of Paterston in Jersey, of one- 

 fourth of an acre, sell for £ 15. 



Near Brunswick, an English gentleman gave, 

 in the summer of 1795, £2100 lor three hundred 

 and thirty-four acres of excellent land, fit for every 

 purpose of cultivation, or per acre £6 5s. Thii 

 being also in an eligible situation in every respect, 

 was thought a reasonable purchase. A gentle- 

 man has two thousand five hundred acres in Jer- 

 sey, which he lets, though with some difficulty, 

 since so few choose to rent land, in seven farms, 

 at a rent which he thinks pays better than at £4 



* The highest ridge of these mountains in New Jer- 

 sey, near the banks of the river Hudson, has lately 

 been ascertained to be about 3,500 feet in height, abov« 

 the level of the tide in the river at their foot. ( Trans- 

 actions of the Society of Agriculture of New York, Vol. 

 I. Pari, II. p. 139.) 



