1835.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



205 



wiik mercantile views. A person lias two hun- 

 dred and fifty acres of excellent land near Middle- 

 town, tor which he has been offered £6 per acre; 

 he, lets them for £ 90 per annum, and binds the 

 tenant to cultivation, or per acre 7s. 2d.; they pay 

 an interest of £5 19s. 5d. per cent. On Wye ri- 

 ver" in Mary land, a gentleman has several thou- 

 sand acres, that produce him from £18 to £24 

 per hundred acres, chiefly paid in wheat, or per 

 acre 3s. 7d. to 4s. 9|d. As such land would sell 

 on an average of £6 12s. per acre, it pavs an in- 

 terest of from £2 14s. 3^1. to £3 12s. 7d. £7 

 14s. per acre was lately offered for half an island 

 in the Chesapeake, called Chew's Island, which 

 contains above two thousand acres, and refused. 

 On Bohemia river, average price of land is £4 

 16s. some as high as £7 10.; if good wood land, 

 which is much sought after, for at least £9. 

 About Perry Hall, the general average of the 

 country is £3 6s. Three or four miles from Bal- 

 timore, land will sell for, from £15 to £18 per 

 acre; and small lots, near the town, from £36 to 

 £42. 



Old worn out land, without timber, on the Pa- 

 tapsco, thirty miles from Baltimore, has lately 

 been sold at 9s. per acre. A gentleman has land 

 at the back of the new city of Washington, which 

 forty-five years since, cost £25 per hundred acres, 

 for which he has lately refused £30 per acre. 

 About the upper falls of the Potomac, land, enual 

 part of wood and clear, will sell for about £3 12s. 

 per acre. Land on each side of the Monocacy, 

 will fetch from £3 to £4 4s. per acre; a mile or 

 two from Frederick, ten guineas; close to the 

 town, £18. 



From the above, and many other notes taken 

 in the s.',ate, it appears, that land here, excluding 

 as I have before done, whatever is of increased 

 value from mercantile situations, or the vicinity of 

 large towns, sells at £4 17s. per acre; a price 

 considerably higher than is to be met with in any 

 other state in the union; more land also is let, and 

 the interest paid by it, is higher; the causes of 

 which I shall hereafter assign, when the prices 

 are recapitulated and collected. The result of 

 various notes, proves the rent to be about 5s. per 

 acre, and the interest paid by land, about four per 

 cent 



VIRGINIA. 



This immense country possesses every variety 

 of soil and surface; below the falls of the rivers, 

 that is, for the space of the tide-waters, which 

 may extend from the coast about one hundred and 

 twenty miles, the country is very flat, apparently 

 of late ages risen out of the sea, in many parts 

 abounding with extensive swamps. The soil is 

 in general a fine white sand, except on the banks 

 of the rivers, not fertile, and much of the natural 

 produce is cedars and pines, always indications of 

 a poor soil. The country in general is very un- 

 healthy, infested with fever and ague, and bilious 

 complaints, as may be expected from such a sur- 

 face, in such a climate; and is much worn out, 

 having been long settled, and the chief produce 

 tobacco. Above this, is an irregular waving 

 country, lying for the most part in ridges, gradu^ 

 ally falling down to the nearest rivers on each 

 side, and high in proportion to their distance: this 

 Jract, which may extend about eighty miles inland 



from the head of the tide, in its original state, has 

 not been fertile except on the banks of the wa- 

 ter?. 



Beyond this to the foot of the Blue Ridge, 

 across, and comprehending what are called the 

 South-West Mountains, but which are only a 

 range of hills, a step to the Blue Ridge, capable 

 of cultivation in almost every part, is a tract of 

 the same red land before noticed, as lying to the 

 east of the mountains: it is here of its deepest red; 

 deep as red ochre or chalk, and with its intensity 

 of color, has acquired its utmost fertility. A rich- 

 er district by nature there cannot he, than all those 

 counties which lie at the eastern foot of the Blue 

 Rid<re; but, like whatever on this continent has 

 been long cultivated, they are nearly exhausted. 

 Beyond the Blue Ridge, and various other ridges 

 lying west of it, and parallel to it, are extensive 

 vallies, from five miles to thirty in width, the 

 plains of which are highly elevated above the sea, 

 but lying between mountains lar more elevated. 

 The soil of these vallies is calcareous, lying every" 

 where upon a limestone, or marble, the same as 

 constitutes the basis of the mountains, which are 

 themselves chiefly granite, quartz, and steatite. 

 These vallies I traversed from Carolina to Penn- 

 sylvania, in June, 1795, with infinite pleasure: 

 it is a delightful region, refreshed with frequent 

 showers collected on the mountains, enjoying the 

 ventilation and cool breezes of a northern climate, 

 with the perpetual sunshine of a southern lati- 

 tude. 



In a state, the soil of which varies so greatly, 

 in climates the most desirable, as well as the most 

 noxious to the human frame, the value of proper- 

 ty must differ in proportion; and that it does so, 

 will appear in stating a few instances on each side 

 of the mountains, and then the average of each. 



On the lower part of the Rappahannock, on 

 each side of it, land, on the banks, will sell for 

 £1 lis. 6d.; at some distance from the river, 

 from 18s. to £1 2s. 6d. On James River, below 

 Richmond, £ 1 10s.; in a few very favorable situ- 

 ations as hiffh as £4 10s.; upon James River, 

 above the falls, at £4 10s. A lew miles from the 

 river £ 1 10s. and £2 5s. Upon the South- West 

 Mountains, for no where more than £2 5s. The 

 best red land in the counties of Orange, Albe- 

 marle, and Amherst, than which, none in nature 

 is more fertile, or better adapted to clover and 

 wheat, may be bought for 18s. per acre; I saw a 

 considerable tract that had lately been purchased 

 for 16s. 



To the west of the Blue Ridge. Good land in 

 Rockbridge county, sells for £4 10s. Land in 

 general, including rocks and woods £1 10s. 

 About Patten's ordinary,* for about £3 7s. 6d. A 

 farm, at this place, was shown me by the proprie- 

 tor, containing eleven hundred acres, one-third of 

 it cleared, and somewhat cultivated, which he had 

 lately purchased at £2 5s. per acre, which was 

 thought very reasonable. (Immense tracts of all 

 these mountains, of which one thousand acres 

 would not be worth a shilling, and which have 

 been neglected till within these two or three years, 

 have been taken up by the land jobbers to sell, 

 and are now sold, or selling in Europe.) About 

 Newtown, most excellent land for pasturage will 



* Inns or taverns in the country parts of Virginia, 

 are called ordinariei. 



