206 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 4. 



eell for from £6 15s. to £7 10s. per acre. The 

 average rate of land in the couniry about Win- 

 chester, from £2 5b. to £4 10s. in some instances, 

 near the town, £7 10s. Upon the Shenandoah, 

 the usual price is £l lis. 6d. 



To the west of the Allegany ridge, is a vast 

 tract of back country in Virginia, lying upon the 

 great Kanawha river, one of the branches of the 

 Ohio, but little known, inhabited, or cultivated, 

 and in which the lands sell at very low prices: 

 forty thousand acres were, in the spring of 1795, 

 advertised in a Philadelphia paper to be sold; the 

 terms proposed, were 7d. per acre, one quarter to 

 be paid in hand, and the rest in two equal annua! 

 payments; other vast tracts in Virginia and Ken- 

 tucky were then also upon sale, the usual price 

 asked for which was Is. l£d. per acre, with con- 

 siderable time allowed for making the payments. 



Average to the east of the Blue Ridge, £ 1 

 19s. 8d.; to the west of it £4 3s. lOd. As far aa 

 ! know, no lands are let in Virginia; therefore, 

 there are no means by which, with tolerable ac- 

 curacy, to ascertain the rate of interest for money 

 employed in the purchase of lands. 



OF THE SOUTHERN STATES 



I can give little account; in all of them the land 

 sells at a very low rate, and lower as it lies far- 

 ther south. 



A merchant in Philadelphia, in the summer of 

 1795, purchased one hundred thousand acres of 

 land in Georgia, beginning about lour miles from 

 Augusta, the capital of the state, and lying on 

 the road to Savannah, at4|d. per acre. 



RECAPITULATION. 



New England 



New York (old settled country) - 



Ditto (new country) - 



Jersey and Pennsylvania (old country) 



Ditto (new country) - - - - 



Delaware and Maryland 



Virginia (east of the Blue Ridge) 



Ditto (west of ditto) - 



Ditto west of the Alleganv ridge, about 



Int. paid by land. 



3.J per cent. 

 3i ditto. 



4 per cent. 



Average of the old settled countries, £3 14s. 

 9d. 



Could the interest be stated with equal accura- 

 cy, I should apprehend it would not produce much 

 more than three per cent, when in the bands of 

 the tenant, though the occupier and owner are 

 equally exempt from the payment of almost any 

 manner of tax; but very few will rent land, and 

 none know how to cultivate it, as will be seen, 

 when the rotation and produce of crops are no- 

 ticed. 



Before the Revolution, the laws established a 

 legal interest; in some of the states, seven per 

 cent, in others, eight per cent, and in the southern 

 states, I believe, more. Since the Revolution, 

 congress has never touched the subject ol interest; 

 and if the laws in the different states still remain 

 in force, they are become obsolete; certainly no 

 attention is paid to them, but every one makes the 

 most advantage that he is able, of his money, as 

 of any other commodity; and there are sufficient 

 opportunities of making more than what was 

 heretofore legal: this shows that land is little 

 worthy of attention here, and accounts for emi- 

 grants from Europe, who, at first with European 

 ideas, turn their attention to land, and wish to be- 

 come proprietors of extensive estates, soon getting 

 rid of their land, and employing their money on 

 more productive speculations. Land in America 

 affords little pleasure or profit, and appears in a 

 progress of continually affording less; but it would 

 take up too much room here, to state the founda- 

 tions of these opinions. 



Before I had collected, in one view, the partic- 

 ulars of every state, I should not have apprehend- 



ed that Maryland, notwithstanding the favorable 

 opinion I formed of it when there, in price, rent, 

 and interest, would have stood first in the union. 

 This state, in climate and produce, is more nearly 

 allied to those on the south, than on the north of 

 it; the climate is somewhat productive of those 

 bilious habits and complaints, so dreadfully fre- 

 quent immediately to the south of it; and, as in 

 the south, the produce has hitherto been chiefly 

 tobacco, which never was cultivated to the north; 

 it. has also ever abounded greatly in slaves; but it 

 is more nearly allied to the northern states in its 

 principles, and the liberality of its government; 

 and to these and their coiTsequences, this superior- 

 ity must be ascribed. The body of the people 

 may not be as well educated as those of New 

 England, but they are fortunately uninfluenced by 

 the wild theories of their southern neighbors: 

 from hence it arises, that as men of property and 

 education have the conduct of the government, 

 it is carried on with the liberality that may be ex- 

 pected in such characters, and the best people of 

 the country feel interested in the prosperity of it. 

 xMany persons of considerable opulence and exten- 

 sive property reside on their estates, see to the 

 cultivation of them, and diffuse knowledge, as far 

 as they are informed themselves: more instances 

 of this kind are to be met with in Maryland, than, 

 perhaps, in any of the other states, and they have 

 an influence of most beneficial tendency. To 

 these causes I must attribute the superior value of 

 property. 



"What is the price of labor?" 



September 1794. In the city of New York, 

 seamen's wages were from £4 14s. to £4 19s. 



