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ALBEMARLE COUNTY.
by this system, with the common native cattle. When the present owner moved on, about seven years ago, it was so run down and unproductive that only by close economy and the help of some bought forage, were five horses, two cows, ten young cattle and a few sheep, kept the first year.
The owner went into dairying and beef feeding, only buy- ing a few tons of bran, and feeding everything made on the farm except wheat, carefully saving and applying all the re- sulting manure. He has, from this farm, comfortably main- tained his family of six, educated four children, paid a debt incurred for stock and implements, and run the farm up so that he keeps twenty cows, forty head of young cattle, sixteen or eighteen horses and colts, a few sheep, feeds fifteen or twenty beeves every winter, and still has often a surplus of grain and hay for market, because the crops of these outrun the increase of the stock and the feeding capacity of his often enlarged stables. And yet this branch of profitable farming is comparatively ignored. Except on the farms that furnish milk to Charlottesville and the University, winter dairying, as a systematic business, hardly exists ; and, except in a casual way, no butter is shipped from the county where the markets are best, and a large part of the county supply is even brought from abroad.
The prevalence of onion or garlic in our lands is alleged by many as the reason why they do not go into dairying. While this is a serious disadvantage, it is not in reality as great a one as it would seem.
The garlic makes an early and rapid growth, which ceases about the last of May, when the button appears and the stalk becomes tough and woody, so that well-fed cows reject it. If, then, the cows are kept in a lot and fed green rye, clover, &c., until June Ist, they will do nearly as well as if on pas- ture; while the grass will make such vigorous growth as to afford plenteous pasturage during any dry June weather, and by having its roots well covered will not be apt to receive injury from the hot suns of July and August, as is often the case when the pasture is grazed too baie and close. An ample
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supply of clover and rye can be secured by keeping a small lot, near the cow-lot, well manured and sowing it in alternate sections with rye ; followed with clover, an acre of good rye, cutting to begin when the heads appear, should give twenty cows one good feed a day for a week or more.
More skilled dairymen, more cows, and more care to secure the best butter breeds and strains, would prove a great advan- tage to the dairying interest of the county, as it would make cooperative butter and cheese establishments feasible, and thus by a division of labor increase productions and profits.
Milk sold in 1880 to Butter and Cheese Factories, 24,305 gallons ; Butter made in 1880, 222,186 pounds.
H. M. Magruder.
Sheep-Raising.
LBEMARLE county is finely adapted to sheep-raising. The large long-wooled breeds-Cotswolds, Leicesters and Lincolnshires-attain to fine sizes, and produce heavy fleeces upon the rich and luxuriant grasses of the Piedmont portions of the county; while the finer and medium wool breeds-Merino, Southdowns and Shropshiredowns-thrive well in those portions of the county where the grasses are less luxuriant, and crosses between the long and short-wool breeds thrive and do well in all portions of it.
With proper attention, the improved breeds of sheep may be made to weigh from two hundred to two hundred and fifty pounds gross, and to yield fleeces weighing from twelve to sixteen pounds. The writer has verified the correctness of these statements, and in a few instances exceeded the above weights both in mutton and wool.
The medium temperature of the climate enables the breeder to have his lambs come early in the season, and, with proper care, to save them; thus securing the advantages of early market, and, consequently, of good prices.
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While the medium temperature of the climate is no incon- siderable advantage, there are others that will appear to the intending settler as very important-such as pure water, fine soil, and a cultured, moral and religious citizenship.
But few industries make better returns or insure larger profits, in proportion to their cost or outlay, than sheep hus- bandry ; and one notable advantage which it possesses is, that it can be engaged in by men of limited means and small farmers, as well as by capitalists and large farmers, and pre- sents an inviting field to both the utilitarian and the amateur.
Number of sheep in the county in the year 1880, 10,832 ; spring clip of 1880, 42,789 pounds. John E. Massey.
A Fruit-Growing County.
YING on the sunny-side of the Blue Ridge, which shel- ters it from the cold northwesters, and gives it a winter several degrees warmer than that of the great valley beyond the mountains, Albemarle, with, its diversified surface of hill and dale, presents every possible variety of soil and situation for fruit-growing. The foothills are the natural home of the apple, and the culture of this fruit has long been a lead- ing feature. The apple, which is acknowledged, on both sides of the Atlantic, to be the best in the world, the Albemarle Pippin, has its special home here, and will not thrive elsewhere. And even here it only reaches its highest excellence on the mountain side. Taken from the mountain side into the red lands of the valley and it becomes an inferior fruit. Not only the Pippin, but most other varieties of apples, are vastly im- proved by growing them on the mountain sides. The pecu- liar light soil on the Blue Ridge and its outlying foothills, kept constantly fertile by the decomposition of rocks furnish- ing potash, which is so necessary to all fruit trees, and perenni- ally moist by numerous springs, yet thoroughly drained of stagnant moisture by the rock débris, furnishing a soil un- equalled for the successful culture of the apple. These moun-
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ALBEMARLE COUNTY.
tain sides, worthless otherwise, except for sheep pastures, are, therefore, as valuable as any lands in the county. The favor- ite market apple of Albemarle, except the Pippin, is the Wine- sap, though it never brings the price which the Pippin does, yet the almost unanimous opinion of growers is that it is the most profitable apple grown here. Flourishing in great per- fection along with the pippin on the mountain side, it is not so fastidious as to its location, but will grow and bear well in all situations. Some of the finest Winesaps I have ever seen were grown on red land which had been so reduced in its sur- face fertility that hardly a weed or spear of grass grew in the orchard. The tree roots evidently penetrated into the virgin subsoil, which the skim plowing of a century had not touched. The possibilities of the apple culture in this Piedmont region are immense, and the profits greater for intelligent culture than in most other localities. The Albemarle Pippin commands in the orchard from $2 to $4.50 per barrel. The parties who buy these apples for export to England scour the hills of Albe- marle every autumn, so that it is usually easier to buy these apples in.Liverpool than in any American city.
Last fall (1887) Pippins sold on the trees at $4.50 per bar- rel, the buyers furnishing barrels, gathering and packing them. I doubt if the orange groves of Florida present an equal source of revenue. And yet the lands on which these apples alone will grow can be had for a mere trifle of $5 to $10 per acre. A barrel of apples can be shipped from Charlottesville to Liverpool for $1.17. To the fruit-grower who does not choose to give the profit to the shipper, who buys up the ap- ples, can ship his own fruit, usually at a large profit over the price generally paid in the orchard. Apple culture in Albe- marle must prove a great source of wealth to those who pur- sue it in an intelligent manner.
Along the base of the Blue Ridge and immediately adjoin- ing the slopes where the Pippin thrives, there is a narrow belt of quite level land, on which the culture of the peach could be made very profitable. Nowhere, even in the famous orch- ards of Eastern Maryland and Delaware, have I seen finer
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peaches than grow in this part of the county. The level char- acter of the land immediately at the mountain foot, and its fertile character, render it peculiarly adapted to the peach and pear. Further from the mountains, the streams flowing from this elevated plateau have cut deep, warm valleys, and the sur-
ture, since the constant cultivation essential to the success of face of the land becomes too broken for extensive peach cul-
the peach tree must result in such washing of the steep sur- face as would permanently injure the land. On the level pla- teau at the base of the mountain this is not the case. This
fruit to be injured by premature blooming, and being in the land, though sheltered by the mountains, is too elevated for
midland belt of the mountains is exempt from the late spring frosts, which sometimes injure fruit in the lower valleys. An intimate acquintance with and practical experience in peach
culture in the peach-growing section of Maryland leads me to say that in my opinion the plateau at the foot of the Blue Ridge in Albemarle ought to be the site of the most profitable peach this section are doing well. Albemarle peaches go into mar- orchards in the State. Those who are growing peaches in ket two to four weeks ahead of the great Maryland and Dela- ware orchards, and our early fruit reaches the northern cities at a time when there is little competition. The present season (1888), with the prospect of an enormous crop in Maryland and
Delaware, our Albemarle peaches up to the last of July brought an average of $6 per bushel. Later than this the large canning peaches come in, and if the price of fruit at the north falls too low for shipment, they can be canned here just as profitably as in Maryland ; and evaporating houses can be built and run just as cheaply here as there. With an experi- ence of thirty years in peach culture, I had rather take my chances for profitable culture of this fruit in the locality named than in any other location with which I ain acquainted. And yet these lands can be bought for less than one-fourth of the price of the peach lands of Maryland and Delaware.
The cherry thrives everywhere in Albemarle and the culti- vation of improved varieties is profitable. Most of those who
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ALBEMARLE COUNTY.
have paid any attention to the cultivation of improved cherries have made the mistake of cultivating the light-colored varie- ties of Biggareau cherries, like the Elton, &c., here called wax cherries. These are very fine and usually bring a high price, but are only adapted to a near-by market, since they get bruised and spotted in a few hours transit. If the dark-red and black sorts of fine size were grown the returns would be much greater. No fruit is more easily grown than the cherry. Some cherries, like the Early Richmond, can be profitably planted along fence-rows, and thus occupy land not cropped, while their roots would have the benefit of the cultivation of the adjoining lands.
The bottom lands along the mountain streams are in my opinion the finest strawberry lands in America. These bot- toms have a very deep soil, the deposit of many years of freshets, until now many of them are so elevated as to be sel- dom in danger of overflow. On these moist and fertile soils the strawberry thrives with the greatest luxuriance and beds retain their productiveness long after they would be exhausted in other soils. We have at the Miller School a bed which has yielded, the fourth year from planting, 5,000 quarts per acre, and does not seem to be run out yet. Strawberries from Albemarle would go into the Northern markets just when the Norfolk crop is getting worthless and before the Maryland and Delaware berries are ripe, and with the enormous produc- tiveness of these bottom lands, the crop, with intelligent man- agement, cannot fail to be profitable. The possibilities of the blackberry crop in Albemarle have hardly been dreamed of. In every mountain hollow wild blackberries of great size are very abundant, and with proper enterprise the wild crop could be made a source of considerable revenue to hundreds of poor people in gathering them. These things are better understood North of us, and in Delaware there are buyers of the wild fruit at every railroad station ready to take all that come. The cultivation of improved sorts of blackberries ought to be very profitable, since they can be grown on steep hill-sides facing the north where few other things will thrive. These
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ALBEMARLE COUNTY.
large cultivated blackberries, such as Wilson's Early and Kit- tatinny, if nicely handled and shipped, in neat packages, will usually bring larger prices than strawberries-and the market is never glutted with them. Doubtless there are many sorts of the wild blackberries now growing among our mountains that would equal if not excel any of the sorts now cultivated if given the same attention.
The stranger approaching Charlottesville by rail, will per- ceive that he is getting into the land of the vine. Hill-side after hill-side covered with grape vines attest the extent the culture has attained here. The great wine cellars at Char- lottesville are a revelation to many strangers, who have not dreamed of the extent to which this culture has been carried here. Virginia Claret has attained a reputation, with· compe- tent judges, which places it ahead of the adulterated imported article, and the demand for it is constantly increasing. The Albemarle grapes are among the first to reach the Northern markets, and the early table grapes are sure to command re- munerative prices. The prevalence of the rot, of late years, gave a temporary check to this industry, but the prospect now is that improved methods of training and the timely use of preventive applications will soon remove this trouble, and the hills of Albemarle will become more and more vineclad, and be a source of renewed profits to our people. An experience of many years in the best fruit-growing section of Maryland enables me to fairly compare the prospects of profitable fruit growing in Albemarle with that magnificent fruit garden, the Chesapeake and Delaware peninsula, and I am satisfied that for profitable market culture, Albemarle county can compete to her great advantage in growing all the fruit of the climate, with the possible exception of the pear, with any part of the peninsula. Our early peaches have the market almost to themselves, while the first of the good peaches, such as Early York, Mary's Choice and Crawford's Early will be placed in market while the Eastern Shore of Maryland peach-growers have nothing to offer but the miserable little Arnsden, Alex- der's, &c. The present season the Arnsden, from Albemarle,
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averaged $5 per bushel, while the first Arnsdens from the great Maryland orchards started the last of July at 40 cents per half bushel basket, while at the same date Crawford's Early, from Albemarle, was in shipping condition, and brought . fancy prices. The opportunities for profitable peach culture here are very great, and there are many grand locations on the breezy foot-hills where the crop would be always exempt from danger from late frosts, when the crop in tidewater is wholly cut off. With the peach on the hill-tops and high table lands, the apple on the mountain sides, with grapes and raspberries and blackberries on favorable hill-sides, and strawberries on the rich bottom lands, the county of Albe- marle ought to become the fruit paradise of Virginia. Her lands are good and suited to the purpose; they are now cheap, and only await the hand of enterprise to make them blossom for a rich and profitable harvest. F. W. Massey.
Bees and Honey.
HAT blind Huber found out about bees, by years of patient and laborious observations and study, and much more than that, any intelligent person can now verify for himself in the course of a few weeks. In a word, every fact of importance, concerning the natural history of the bee, can be verified and studied in that short time by the aid of the invention of movable combs.
By the use of honey-extractors the production of honey can be largely increased; by the use of Improved Smokers perfect control can be had of the fiercest bees, and comb foundation puts it into the bee-keeper's power to keep the combs straight and beautiful, to control the multiplication of drones, and to stimulate greatly the production of comb-honey.
In short, bee-keeping is now so much a science and a cer- tainty that it seems strange that everyone who has a home, in a region productive of honey, should not engage in its pro-
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duction ; at least so far as to secure for his own table an abun- dance of this-nature's own most delicious sweet.
The introduction of Italian bees has also added greatly to the interest, the pleasure and the profits of bee-keeping. The writer believes he was the first person to introduce the Italian bee into Virginia. He remembers vividly the interest with which the express package containing his pure, tested twenty dollars Italian queen was received; the anxiety with which she was introduced to a black hive; whose queen had been removed; and the joy with which he looked on her first hatched golden-banded workers and beautiful drones ; the in- terest with which, in his walks in the surrounding country, he would discover his Italian beauties around on the flowers for a distance of two or more miles from his apiary. It was amusing, too, to see the estimation held of himself by some of his neighbors, as a lunatic destined for the asylum at Staun- ton, because he had paid twenty dollars for a bee. And it was very satisfactory after five years to receive twenty dollars for one of his own queens from a neighbor who had made himself most conspicuous in ridiculing such folly. Then the pleasure there was in raising these golden queens, in mating them successfully with Italian drones, and in seeing their beau- tiful golden-banded workers, so gentle and yet so brave to defend their stores from robbers, and so much more industri- ous than the common bees. I never had a more fascinating recreation than bee-culture in all its details, and it is still a joy to me to take hurried snatches at it in the intervals allowed in a busy life.
Other foreign varieties of bees have been introduced into this country, the Cyprian, the Egyptian, &c., &c., but the writer has not had sufficient experience with them to give an estimate of their value. But he is sure that the Italian is a great acquisition. Queens, too, can now be bought much more cheaply than when they were first introduced. Hives are also much cheaper and section boxes for surplus honey much more easily obtained. These sections present comb honey to the purchaser in its most attractive form,
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Extracted honey can be kept indefinitely and with far less trouble than comb honey. All pure honey will candy in the course of time, but it is easily restored to its original state by heating in a vessel of water to the temperature of 180°, which simply redissolves the crystals which constitute the candy.
To many persons, however, bees are a terror. Yet with a pair of rubber gloves, a bee veil costing twenty-five cents, and a good smoker, the most timid may soon become, em- boldened. Let me show how little there is to fear. This occurred in my own apiary last winter : Seeing a swarm just beginning to come out of one of my hives, I ran to it, soon found the queen on the grass in front trying to rise, and im- prisoned her in a little wire cage. Seeing my daughter stand- ing in the door, I called to her to run to me. She came with a broad hat on, no protection for her face, and her arms bare to the elbow. "What do you want, father ?" " Just hold this cage." In a short time the bees found the imprisoned queen, gathered lovingly around her, and the whole swarm settled on my daughter's hand and arm, a peck or more of them. After she had stood there with them until they all settled, and I had called out everybody near to look at the beautiful sight, I took her to a hive, made ready for them, and taking hold of her arm shook the swarm down in front, and in they all went happy in their new home, and my daughter received not a sting, though she certainly had a new sensation.
Many parts of Virginia are favorable to bee-culture. White clover is perhaps our best honey plant, and most widely dis- tributed. Red clover will grow everywhere with proper at- tention. South of James River "Sourwood " affords much beautiful honey, as do also many of our native trees, such as lindens and poplars. Catnip is a great honey plant and blue thistle promises to be equally good. Buckwheat often gives a supply, when most needed, at the close of the season. Piedmont Virginia is an exceptionally good honey region, especially the mountain sides. These having their flowers to mature in succession from the bottom to the summits, greatly prolong the honey season. Anywhere in this region with in-
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telligent attention hives may easily be made to yield fifty pounds each every year, which even at ten cents a pound is a good return for the investment. Often the yield may be far greater than this. As to overstocking, inasmuch as the honey of each flower must be gathered in a few hours after its open- ing, it would seem could not occur till there were bees enough in a locality to visit every such flower.
Half a million more people than are now engaged in bee- keeping in Virginia might find delightful and profitable em- ployment in it, if they be only willing to make their living in an honest, Scriptural way, according to the Word, which says : " In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread."
Wm. Dinwiddie.
Grape-Culture.
HE VINE, like wheat, antedates historic records. The sepulchres and mummies of Egypt reveal both the fruit and the seed, and the latter have been found in the lacus- trine habitations of Northern Italy. In Europe it is found growing and bearing fruit from the Tropic of Cancer to the Baltic Sea; while in North America it is found in native luxu- riance, of different species, from the Gulf of Mexico to the Lakes of the North.
In the Icelandic saga of Eric Raeda (Red) found in 1650 in manuscript, and the Kraelsefne saga, translated by Prof. Raffn of Copenhagen, in the beginning of this century, we find that those Icelanders made a permanent settlement in Greenland ; and the sons of Eric the Red, followed up his expedition and must have reached the coast of Rhode Island and Massachu- setts, near Martha's Vineyard, about the year 1000, and after- wards, when they found wild grapes in abundance, from which they named the land "Wineland" (Vinland). The knowledge of this was probably lost through the fearful pestilence which spread through Northern Europe in 1394 under the name of the Black Death, devastating entire populations,
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ALBEMARLE COUNTY.
About the same time of this translation, that versatile ge- nius, Thomas Jefferson, first attempted the regular cultivation of grapes in Albemarle county. He imported French vines and Italian Swiss vignerons, and planted quite extensively about Carter's Mountain, near his beloved Monticello. This was a failure. It is strange that his investigating mind should not have suspected the cause of this and preceeding failures. We say preceeding, because the London Company in Virginia had made a similar attempt in 1630; William Penn had tried it in Pennsylvania, in 1633; a Swiss Geneva Colony in Ken- tucky, in 1790. All these were failures. Strange that this fruit, abounding in its native luxuriance here, and which, brought into Europe, from its probable original habitat, Asia, had "intertwined its tendrils with civilization and refinement in every age," should not be a success here.
All these trials were made with the Vitis Vinifera of Europe. These, by ages of transplanting and abnormal culture, have probably become so enervated in root and foliage that they readily succumb to unfavorable climatic conditions, and their constitution is too weak to resist the assault of Phylloxera, a root louse, that for ten years past have laid waste millions of acres of French vineyards, reducing the yield of French wines from near one and half billion gallons in 1875 to some 700,000,000 gallons at present. From a large exporter, France is now an importer of wines for her own supplies. This too in the face of that persistent vigilance and continued efforts of the French Government, to uphold this most important of its agricultural products. As yet no remedy is found for this pest, save im- mersion, where practicable. Now, the planting of the Phyllox- era-resisting roots of American grapes, on which are grafted the Vinifera, rests the hope of rebuilding their vanishing grape products. The same method is pursued in the new plantings of European grapes in California, where all are grafted on native roots.
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