By Table 36, page 196, of the Census of 1860, the _cash_ value of the
farms of Virginia was $371,096,211, being $11.91 per acre, and of New
York $803,343,593, being $38.26 per acre. Now, by the Table, the number
of acres embraced in these farms of New York was 20,992,950, and in
Virginia 31,014,950, the difference of value per acre being $25.36, or
much more than 3 to 1 in favor of New York. Now, if we multiply this
number of acres of farm lands of Virginia by the New York value, it
would make the total value of the farm lands of Virginia,
$1,186,942,136, and the _additional_ value caused by emancipation
$815,845,925. But, stupendous as is this result in regard to lands, it
is far below the reality. We have seen that the farm lands of Virginia,
improved and unimproved, constituted 31,014,950 acres. By the Census and
the Land Office Tables, the area of Virginia is 39,265,280 acres. Deduct
the farm lands, and there remain unoccupied 8,250,330 acres. Now,
Virginia's population to the square mile being 26.02, and that of New
York 84.36, with an equal density in Virginia, more than two thirds of
these Virginia lands, as in New York, must have been occupied as farms.
This would have been equivalent, at two thirds, to 5,500,000 acres,
which, at their present average value of $2 per acre, would be worth
$11,000,000; but, at the value per acre of the New York lands, these
5,500,000 acres would be worth $206,430,000.
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