lilSS l)()()K . ^ __ MAP OF VIRGINIA PUBLISHED BY THE Virginia Department of Agriculture and Immigration RICHMOND, VA. VI .1^ % '^\y/tl«pl(6buri •^^ A ^^ ^' // ,-^ ■^JDriktTlUe -•2. "^ .^p# ' < ^ ^ ^f""-^ M b*'-i ^ 7^ ftl^N ^^ fP Tf^' !— -pPerpj '"fM S&f • s W- 1^ A a' lA iVp LfcC ^^S^Gj Kr ^. yi i^ mX^ ^ ^< - tic. ' «S» DICKENSON" Y? jJ^CWt/'j.ifk '^^fe |iO '^ ^ n'lirn S^^'n ^^ :^Ui .-^fej P >^^1^ ^ g^ ^ '* 1\^ ^o ^ /tJA 1 '^r M4 S ^~ ^?^ S^^ S ^C A R'C^^L I N E •' "^ ' d'^A ^*:"T^ g-fiiin, c«prri^n. noQ^i ittj. titUMi ft / VIRGINIA ^J» Information for the Homeseeker and Investor PTBLISHEn BY THE 'fitahly, and is not suc- cessfully, raised in \'irginia. In extreme Southside X'irginia are seen great white fields of cotton, as rich in beauty and luxuriant in growth as can be found in North Carolina or (Jleorgia. In Pied- mont and Southern \'irginia are produced the great crojis of tobacco which largely contribute to the world's supply. The magnifieent Valley of Virginia, raising great crops of wheat, corn, oats and hay, is almost unspeakable in her prodigality of production. The beautiful hilltops and mountains of Southwest and Northern Virginia, with their spontaneous and perennial growth of blue grass, have browsing on them herds of cattle and sheep. This lovely section, with its witchery of scenery, salubriousness of climate, rich return for investments, forms a combination rarely seen and unsurj)assed by any section of this Union. In Eastern and Tidewater Virginia we have large truck farms and gardens, which furnish the vast population of the Eastern cities with their vegetables and foods. The profits of this industry are already immense, but the industry is still in its infancy and its possibilities for the future are immeasin-able. Nowhere can fruit grow to greater perfection than in \'irginia, and her great crops of apples, peaches and grapes are bringing her immense returns and have brighter promises for the future. There is not a farm product known to the temperate zone that cannot be raised in the varied soil, climate and conditions of Virginia. Every where in the State are seen evidences of intelligent and scientific farming, of progress and prosperity. The increase in farm products and values in recent years has been striking and excelled by few States in the Union. We have jiroduced this immense agricultural wealth, and yet not more than half our land is under cultivation. When the population of Virginia, which is each year rapidly increasing, .shall put under cultivation the entire soil, the farming wealth of the State will be amazing. With near and accessible markets, no State offers finer opportunities or greater inducements to farmers than Virginia. "coal and okes. "But, great as are our advantages in agriculture, our superiority in other directions is still more pre-eminent. There is scarcely a useful mineral kncnvn to modern civilization that is not found and VIRGINIA 19 cannot be successfully mined in Virp;inia. We have zinc, copper, iron and coal mines all in profitable ojjcration. We have demon- strated that iron can be jiroduced here as cheaply as elsewhere and the products of our furnaces are distributed to all parts of the world. Coal is the foundation of the marvelous industrial advance of this century. Upon it Great Britain built her naval, commercial and manufacturing supremacy. Already in Mrginia and the eastern part of West Virginia, which, from its location, must be used and developed through Virginia, have been disclosed almost as many square miles of coal, and of superior quality, as that upon which Great Britain established her great pre-eminence. The imagination cannot picture the vast manufactures, the varied industrial enterprises which the possession of this vast supply of coal will bring to Virginia. Besides, the rivers that run from our mountains to the seashore, the Potomac, Shenandoah, Rappa- hannock, Appomattox, James and others, are possessed of immense water power, capable of operating large and innumerable estab- lishments. "In Chesapeake Bay, which skirts our Eastern Siiore, we have the finest and safest harbors on the Atlantic coast. This bay is the finest body of inland water in the world, and u])on its smooth sur- face could ride almost the world's fleets and navies. There mag- nificent harbors offer opjjortunities for greater mercantile and com- mercial enterprises, world-wide in their trade and scope. The great increase in our exports and foreign commerce give proof of the future greatness of these parts. The nearness and cheapness of coal to these harbors furnish the best location on this continent for manufacturing industries with products to be distributed in the markets of the world." The Manufacturers' Record of December 21, 1905, says: "While it is true that the industrial develo]»ment of the South is going forward with amazing rapidity, it is nevertheless true that, by virtue of the extent of the agricultural interests of the South, agriculture is yet the foundation of the business of that section. A change from povert}' to prosperity of the farmers, and a change from land without a selling value to land in demand at an advance of 50 to 150 ))er cent, over the nominal price of one or two j^ears ago, is the most far-reaching develoj)mcnt in Southern advancement of the last quarter of a century. It is far-reaching in many ways. It means that within the last year or two Soiithern farm properties Virginia 21 have increased not less than $1,000,000,000 in value, probably at least SI, 500,000,000. "The realization by the people of the entire South, bankers, merchants and farmers, of the power of co-operation in the proper handling and marketing of the two great staples — cotton and tobacco — has brought about a comnumity of interest which is destined to exert a very great influence upon the entire business interests of the South and of that portion of the business world which is in any way dependent upon these staples or upon the general prosperity of the South." The ^'irginia people set such esteem upon the agricultural inter- ests of the State, and the promotion of the various departments of its agricultural industries, that they have incorporated in their constitution, their organic law, a department of agriculture and inunigration to be under the- management and control of a bureau of agriculture. This publication is made by the Commissioner of Agriculture in accordance with the requirements of an act of Assembly. It is the object of this hand-book to present the agricultural and industrial features of the State, together with its climatic and topograi)hical advantages, in such a way as to show that the State of Virginia, old in its history and hoary in its traditions, is exhibit- ing a new life of activity and enterprise and, turning her back upon the past, is setting her face towards the rising sun whose advent is gilding the East with a golden splendor. A free use has been made of the antecedent text-books, and their descriptions, statements, and statistics have been availed of in the preparation of this manual. "I take all knowledge for my pro- vince," said Lord Bacon. In that spirit the author of this hand- book has appropriated whatever seemed of practical value wher- ever found. GENERAL DESCRIPTION No State in the Union offers more attractive inducements, and extends a more inviting hand, to the home-seeker than Virginia. In climate, diversity of soils, fruits, forests, water supply, mineral deposits, and variety of landscape, including mountain and valley, hill and dale, she offers advantages that are unsurpassed. Truly did Captain John Smith, the adventurous and dauntless father of \'irginia, suggest that "Heaven and earth never agreed better to frame a place for man's habitation." VIRGINIA 23 Virginia is centrally situated in the Atlantic tier of States, being midway between Maine and Floritla. It lies between the extremes of heat and cold, removed alike from the sultry, protracted sum- mers of the more southern states, and the severe winters and devas- tating storm and cyclones of the north and northwest. Its limits north and south are the latitudes of 39° 27' and 36** 31', correspond- ing to California and Southern pAirope. The area of the State is 42.450 square miles, of which 2,325 are covered with water. There are 40,125 square miles, or 25,680,000 acres, of land. The State is a little larger than Tennessee, Kentucky, or Ohio, and not quite 530 large as Pennsylvania. The extreme length of the State along its southern border is 440 miles. The extreme width from north to south is 102 miles. NATURAL DIVISIONS N'irglnia is divitled into five natural divisions, consisting of belts of country extending across the State from northeast to southwest, antl succeeding each other from the Atlantic coast to the western State line. They rise in successive steps from the sea level, and differ in natural scenery, climate, soil and productions. These natural divisions are known as Tidewater, Middle Virginia, the Piedmont, the ^^alle)^ and Appalachia. The Tidewater, or coastal plain, is part of the lowland that skirts the seashore from New York to the Gulf of Mexico. The visible outer or eastern boundary of Tidewater is the coast line of the State; but in reality it continues seaward many miles, forming a great submarine terrace, or shelf. Its inland or western boundary is a line extending from Widewater on the Potomac river below Alexandria, through Fredericksburg, Richmond, Petersburg, Em- poria in Greensville county, to the North Carolina line. This west- ern boundary, though somewhat irregular, does not vary nuich from a straight line. The Tidewater section is penetrated by four navigable rivers that cut deep channels, with alluvial bottoms of rare fertility, and inland ports for ocean steamers. Middle Virgiiiin is a wide, undulating j^lain extending from the western boundary of Tidewater to the Piedmont belt. It is the largest of the five natural divisions, and comprises more than one- fourth of the State. The Piedmont Region, as the name implies, lies along the foot of the mountains, and forms the base of the Blue Ridge, varying in VIRGINIA 25 width from twenty to thirty miles. It is a portion of the belt that begins in New F.ngland and strotchos thence soutinvard to Georgia and Alabama. It extends, therefore, across the State from Mary- land to North Carolina. The Valley of Virginia is the belt of rolling country lying between the Blue Ridge on the east, and the broken ranges, known collec- tively as the Alieghanies, on the west. Its length is over three hun- dred miles, and its average width about twenty. It is the most productive and picturesque portion of the great limestone valley that stretches from Canada to Alabama. Though one continuous valley, it is subdivided into many minor ones by detached ranges and the troughs of five rivers that penetrate it. It is very fertile, producing grasses and grain in abundance, and is often spoken of as the "Garden Spot of the State." The Appalachian region is the most western section of the State, consisting of twelve rugged counties, traversed by the Alieghanies proper, and their numerous spurs and minor ranges, being a por- tion of the Appalachian system of mountains. These ranges inclose long trough-like valleys that are admirably adapted to graz- ing, as are also the sides and slopes of the mountains. Comprehensively .stated, the above are the five grand divisions of the State according to its natural conformation. There are other and smaller subdivisions which bear names that have a local signi- fication. These are the Eastern Shore, consisting of the counties of Accomac and Northampton that compose the southern termi- nation of the fruitful peninsula which separates Chesapeake Bay from the Atlantic ocean; the Northern Neck, a long and narrow strip, lying between the Potomac and Rappahannock rivers; the Peninsula, distinctly so called to discriminate it from the other and smaller necks of land formed by many of the rivers and estua- ries of the Tidewater section: this Peninsula lies between the York and James rivers; the Sauthside, composed of the counties east of the Blue Ridge and between James river and the southern bor- der of the State; and Blue Ridge, consisting of the three pictur- esque counties of Floyd, Carroll, and Grayson, with an area of 1,230 square miles, forming part of the elevated plateau into which the Blue Ridge chain or system expands in the southwestern por- tion of the State, JB^ 1 \ IH^^ V' 1 ^ '^^ ^1 1 i H ^^^^^^^^^^p '^ ] "■^^^Pm-i^ l> m'l HJf" ^ fm j^^^i fePii !« m tRMh^^m I k^^A^IHH^ ' ^^s ml "^^P^ffl^ ttiH jm Bn M W^ w l^Ih^^^^^^^^^I 1 Btj ^ d VIRGINIA 27 MORE PARTICULAR DESCRIPTION A somewhat more particular description of these natural divis- ions of the State, their topographical features, productions and resources, water-ways and climate, may be of interest. Tidewater Virginia or the Coastal Plain, as it is sometimes called, comprises approximately one-fourth of the State. It receives the name Tidewater from the fact that the streams that penetrate it feel the ebb and flow of the tides from the ocean up to the head of navigation on the line that separates it from Middle N'irginia. It consists altogether of lowlands, having an average altitude of about 150 feet along its inner or western border (the line that separates it from Middle Virginia) and inclining sea- ward until, at the coastline, it dips beneath the Atlantic. It con- sists chiefly of broad and generally level plains, while a considera- ble portion, nearest to the bay, is occupied by shallow ba3's and estuaries, and b}' marshes that are in most instances reached by the ocean tides. These marshes abound with wild duck and sora. Tidewater is mainly an alluvial country. The soil is chiefly light, sandy loam, underlaid with clay. The alluvial deposits are enrich- ed by the decomposition of shells, forming extensive beds of marl. Its principal productions are fruits and early vegetables, w^hich are raised in extensive ''market gardens," and shipped in large ciuantities to northern cities. This is called "trucking," and is a lucrative business. The trade in potatoes, strawberries, peanuts, etc., is especially large, and last year yielded altogether in the State some $12,000,000. The fertilizing minerals — gypsum, marl and greensand — abound, and their judicious use readily restores the lands w'hen exhausted by improvident cultivation. Middle Virginia is a wide undulating plain, crossed by many many rivers that have cut their channels to a considerable depth, and are bordered by alluvial bottom lands that are very produc- tive. The soil consists of clays with a subsoil of disintegrated sand- stone rocks that supply additional elements of fertility. The soil of Virginia varies according to the nature of the rpck from which it is formed. The lowlands of Tidewater are marked by light, sandy loam with substratum of clay, enriched by the decomposition of shells, forming marl banks, or beds. In Middle and Piedmont Virginia the surface, in general, consists of clay, with subsoil of disintegrated sandstone rocks. In the \'alley and Appalachia, VIRGINIA 29 limestone soil predominates. This section (Middle Virginia) has for its eastern border the rocky rim of Tidewater, where the average elevation above the ocean is about 150 feet. It gradually rises towards its western limit at Piedmont, where it attains a maximum elevation of 500 feet. This is the largest of the natural divisions, and contains some 12,500 square miles. Nowhere on the conti- nent can there be found a region so generally penetrated by navi- gable streams. Four large rivers, having their sources in the Pied- mont and Appalachian region, traverse the Tidewater and Middle Virginia sections. The Potomac below Washington, the Rappa- hannock below Fredericksburg, the York, and the James below Richmond, rise and fall with the ocean tides, and are navigable from Chesapeake Bay. Below the tidewater line (or head of navi- gation) they broaden, and are sometimes miles in width. The principal agricultural productions of j\Iiddle Virginia are corn, wheat, oats and tobacco. The tobacco raised in this section and in Piedmont, known as the "Virginia Leaf," is the best grown in the United States, and has a world-wide reputation for excellence. In this section, as in Tidewater, the low, bottom lands along the streams formed by the sediment of the waters, are exceptionally productive. The second bottoms, as they are called, being a more elevated terrace, have usually a subsoil of dark, but sometimes yellow clay; these are very rich and susceptible of constant and severe tillage. THE PIEDMONT SECTION This belt (for it is properly a belt, extending as it does through the State, with a length of 250 miles and an average width of only 25 miles) is marked by hills and minor mountain ranges and spurs, with valleys of varied form between. The surface is diversified and surpassingly picturesque. The line of separation from Mid- dle Virginia contains wide plains of excellent fertility, which spon- taneously cover themselves with nutritious grasses when not in cultivation. The elevation of this belt varies from 300 to 1,200 feet. The soil is heavier than that of INIiddle Virginia, the subsoil being of stiff and dark-red clay. The disintegrated sandstone rocks supply elements of fertility. On the slopes of the Blue Ridge grapes of delicious flavor grow luxuriantly. These produce excel- lent wines, and the clarets have a wide fame. The pippin apples of the section are of unrivalled excellence. VIRGINIA 31 THE VALLEY The "Great Viille\'," as it is descriptively called, is, in its general configuration, one continuous valley, included between the two mountain chains that extend throughout the State; but it more in a ])articular sense, made up of five smaller valleys that succeed one another in the following order, from northeast to southwest: the Shenandoah Valley; the James River Valley; the Roanoke River \''alley; the Kanawha or New River Valley; and the Valley of the Houston or Tennessee. It is 242 feet above tidewater at Harper's Ferry where the Shenandoah, uniting with the Potomac, breaks through the barrier of the Blue Ridge, and gradually rises until it attains the height of 1,687 feet at its southwestern extremity, where the waters of the Holston leave the State and pass into Tennessee. The Valley is much higher along its western side, next to the Alleghanies, than on its eastern side. It is one of the most abundantly watered regions on the face of the globe. Deep lime- stone beds form the floor of the Great Valley, and from these beds the soil derives an exceeding fertility, peculiarly adapted to the growth of grasses and grain. One who enjoys its varied and pic- turesquely beautiful landscapes; the long undulating line of the ridge that takes the name of Blue from the heavens that bend to bathe its summits in their own soft tints; its abundant crops of cereals; its cattle grazing upon its grass-embedded meadows; its orchards bearing every fruit known to the temperate zone, and its vineyards bursting with the juices that produce delicious wines, will not wonder that it bears the name of the "garden spot" of the State. APPALACHIA This is the mountainous section to the west of the Great Valley, It overlooks the \'alley to the east, and passes into the rugged upland of the Cumberland plateau on the west. Its altitude varies from 1,000 to 3,000 feet above the sea level. Some of the valley and slopes are of sandstone, some of slates and shales, some of limestone, so that they present a great variety of surface. The sandstone ridges are poor and unproductive, but the valleys are fertile, the soil being enriched by limestone. These valleys and mountain slopes are heavily carpeted with grass, upon which large numbers of cattle are raised. It is noted as a grazing country. Virginia 33 It is an abundantly watered region, and its mountains are covered, their tops and thoir sides, with forests that yield a variety of val- uable timber. FAVORABLE CONDITIONS The advantages and favorable conditions that invite the home- seeker may, in general terms, be included under the following heads:- (1) Situation and Topography, (2) Climate, (3) Agricul- tural Resources, (4) Rivers and Water Supply, (5) Forests, (6) Fruits, (7) Minerals and Mining, (8) Commercial Facilities. In the.se .several inducements Virginia holds a place second to no State in the L'nion; probably the pre-eminent place over them all. Let us briefly consider these inducements in the order named. SITUATION As heretofore stated, Virginia is midway of the Atlantic tier of States, removed alike from the severe winters of the Northern States, and the long, debilitating summers of the States farther south. She po.ssesses every variety of surface: bold mountains, broken uplands, valleys, meadows, lowlands, and the swamp lands of the coastal plain. The two ranges of mountains that extend through the State from northeast to southwest protect it from the storms and tornadoes that devastate the northwest. At Hampton Roads, she has the largest, deepest, safest and best sheltered har- bor on the Atlantic. Her ports of Norfolk and Newport News are nearer than is New York to the great centres of population and areas of production, of the northwest. Chicago is fifty miles nearer by direct line to Norfolk than it is to New York. CLIMATE The climate of Virginia is mild and healthful. The winters are less severe than in the northern and northwestern States, or even the western localities of the same latitude; while the occasional periods of extreme heat in the summer are not more oppressive than in many portions of the north. The diversified physical features exercise a marked influence on the climate, the tempera- ture varying in the several sections according to their elevation, latitude, and distance from the ocean. The variation is from a mean annual temperature of 64° in the low Tidewater belt to 48° in the elevated mountain regions. The average temperature of the State is 56°. The summer heat of the Tidewater is tempered by the sea-breezes; while in the mountain section the warm south- ^yn'fij^***^!?*^ A '7 » ^ 4*'^ ^ \ ;< f V ' ^ *r « ilig H ?» ^ H^ ^ < .v^.V^< VIRGINIA 35 west trade winds, blowing through the long parallel valleys, impart to them, and the enclosing mountains, moisture borne from the Gulf of Mexico. As a place to live in all the year round, Virginia has no equal. The summers are not debilitating, and the occa- sional days of oppressive heat are succeeded by nights of refreshing sleep. The winters are never marked by extreme or protracted severity. Snow rarely covers the ground for any great length of time, and the number of bright, sunny days, even in the winter season, is unusually large. In the spring the bright sunshine, pleasant days and budding nature invite every one out of doors, and hook.s and reel are in demand. Autumn, to many, is the most delightful time of the year. The bright, warm, sunny days, with just enough edge to the air to make one feel like moving, the cool nights unsurpassed for sleeping, the rich and varied colored wild flowers and the many colored autumn leaves, all conspire to make one stay out of doors and absorb health and life. Partridge and pheasant shooting, and fox hunting in the glorious autumn weather furnish the finest sport for the most exacting sportsman. The number of murky, foggy days is very small, and converse!}^ the number of sunny days is unusually large. The United States Weather Bureau gives as the number of fair and clear days for Hampton Roads 258.8, while for Boston 237.6. Thus the num- ber of days when one is kept in doors on account of the weather is very small. In the more western i)ortion of the State the temperature is lower generally, and in the southwest mountains the snow some- times lies on the ground for a considerable time, but the healthful- ness of this region is most excellent, and the size and physique of the men is superb. Along the eastern slope of the Blue Ridge there is a belt of coun- try between 1,000 and 2,500 feet above sea level, in which the humidity is exceedingly low, and in which the number of sunny days is very large. This region has little dew at night, owing to its low humidit}^ and has been found beneficial for consumptives and those troubled with pulmonary diseases. Virginia is also exceptionally free from wind storms and hurri- canes, never having any like those which frequent the western plains and the States of the southwest. Such a thing as a dwelling house being blown over is a practically unknown occurrence. VIRGINIA 37 Below is the mean monthly temperature of Virginia, Fahren- heit, for the last five years taken in July and December by the U. S. Weather Bureau of Richmond: Mean monthly temperature July Dec. 1901 78.6 35.7 1902 76.5 37.9 1903 75.5 32.8 1904 73.5 34.4 1905 75.4 37.7 The westerly winds are the prevailing winds. The annual rainfall is from forty to sixty inches. It is fairly well distributetl through the entire )'ear. AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES Although Virginia has very large, varied and important inter- ests outside of agriculture, still agriculture has been, and is, her greatest and most important interest, and is the occupation of the great majority of her people. She is essentially an agricultural State. The principal agricultural products are tobacco, corn, wheat, oats, buckwheat, barley and the native and cultivated grasses, which, together with the clovers, yield an abundance of hay. In the seaboard section, particularly in the vicinity of Nor- folk and on the Eastern Shore, there are extensive areas devoted to truck-farming, an industry which annually sends millions of dollars worth of garden and farm vegetables and products to the markets of Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston. In this same section, especially in the counties that form the south- eastern portion of the State, between the James River and the North Carolina line, the cultivation of the peanut is an extensive and profitable industry, the annual value of the crop being about two and a half million dollars. Virginia raises more, and better, peanuts than any State in the Union. The cereals are wide- spread over the State, but the Valley is pre-eminently the grain- producing region. Tobacco is, in a very large part of the State, the staple principally relied on as a money-making crop. Only one State in the Union, Kentucky, produces more tobacco than Vir- ginia. The "Virginia Leaf," the finest tobacco raised in the United States, has a world-wide reputation for excellence. It thrives best in the uplands of Middle Virginia and in the Piedmont. In Halifax, Pittsylvania, and Henry counties, bordering on the VIRGINIA 39 North Carolina line, midway of the iState and in smaller areas of rontiguous counties, the famous "bright tobacco" is raised. This always commands a high ])rice. There is every conceivable variety of soil in \'irginia, from the almost pure sand of the sea coast to the stiff clay of the western portions. Although of such variety, there is one noteworthy fact, and that is the ease with which nearly all of the soil can be culti- vated, and its ready response to judicious treatment. Owing to the great difference of altitude of the various parts of the State, giving rise to a great diversity of climate conditions, and to the almost endless variety of soils within her borders, Virginia can, and does, grow practically everything raised in the United States except the tropical and sub-tropical fruits. If there is any- one, anywhere, who desires to take up any special branch of agri- culture or desires to devote his time to the raising of any variety of cereal, grass, legumes, fruit or animal, he can find in Virginia land and conditions ideally suitable to that identical thing. Under the head of agricultural resources we might appropriately treat fruits. But they will be assigned to a separate head. NORTHERN AND WESTERN FARMERS IN VIRGINIA The following letters from a few northern and western farmers who have settled in Virginia, selected from a number of other sim- ilar communications, and one from Hon. J. Stirling Morton, Ex- U. S. Secretary of Agriculture, will be found interesting to home- seekers: By J. Sterling Morton, Secretanj of Agriculture. The New York Sun says: "J. Sterling Morton, Secretary of Agriculture, has discovered that the late Horace Greeley's advice to young men, to 'Go West,' is no longer sound, and, that owing to changed conditions in the South, the well-wishers of Young America should now urge them to go to Mrginia. "Were I young and about to buy a farm — and if I were young, buying a farm is exactly what Ud go first about — I'd get a farm in Virginia. I was out through the State the other day. To say that I was amazed would not any more than express it. 1 was fairly astonished. 1 never saw better fields or finer crops any where. It's a garden. One has, as some fellow said about some other locality, but to tickle the soil and it laughs with a harvest. 40 VIRGINIA Corn? I met face to face with as vigorous and robust fields as ever waved in Illinois. Other crops were the same. " As a mere crop producer, the Virginia farm would stand shoulder to shoulder with any in the West, and yet, while you buy a farm of 160 acres in Texas, say, for $8,800.00, I'll take the same $8,800.- 00 and buy and locate myself in Virginia, within three hours' drive of the capital of the country, on a fraction over five hundred and eighty-six acres. Just as good land, as I told you before, only instead of one hundred and sixty acres, you get five hundred and eight v-six acres for $8,800. ^^ismsmicMmeii^m PEACHES. "Yes, I said I could cite farms and figures to support what I suggest. I am not an advertising medium for any particular piece of Virginia real estate, but, skipping names and boundary lines, there are 800 acres, twenty-six miles from Washington, with the Potomac River washing its feet, covered with forest trees, and you can buy it for fifteen dollars an acre, just $12,000. A friend of mine bought a splendid farm of one hundred and sixty acres- richest kind of soil; magnificent brick house, one of those old, timers, about one hundred years old, but in perfect shape as if carpenters and masons got through ^^esterday. What do you think he paid? Perfectly appointed farm, remember; brick barn, VIRGINIA 41 all in the best of shape, and within half a day's drive, with the buggy, of Washington. Now, what do you think he gave? Four thousand dollars; just twenty-five dollars an acre. The place would have been worth $16,000 or $20,000 in Iowa. It made me want a Virginia farm myself when T saw it." J. Stkrling Morton. Ex-Secretary Agriculture United States. FROM SOUTH DAKOTA. I came to Prince George County in 1902, from Spink County S. D.. where I resided since 1881. After spending a number of years traveling about, visiting nearly all the States east of the Mississippi, in search of a genial climate and good soil, I was con- vinced that Virginia was the place. I purchased a farm of 400 acres and am now getting it in a very fine state of cultivation for all the cereals and stock raising. This section is exceedingly well adapted to the raising of cattle, hogs and sheep, all of which I am raising successfully and making money. There is nothing would induce me to go back to South Dakota to live, since I am able to live here in comfort and receive larger net dividends than I ever could expect to realize on my former farm. I am more than pleased with my investment. Yours very truly (Signed) Wm. H. Denton. FROM CALIFORNIA. I moved to Virginia with my family six years ago from California, where we were very much disappointed in the climate, the heavy fogs of the coast causing rheumatic troubles and tlie intense heat of the inland valleys in the summer we could not stand. Have visited nearly every State, and can honestly say I know of no climate as equable and pleasant where the water is so soft and pure, where the soil responds so quickly and abundantly to proper cultivation and encouragement, and where there is abso- lutely no malaria or mosquitos. Our winter lasts about three months. Have plowed at times in all winter mpnths. Our garden soil was never frozen over 3 inches at anv time. Dr. J. B. Ross. Bedford City, Va. FROM ILLINOIS. I came to this State several years since and purchased a farm near Forest Depot, paying $14 per acre for the same. I did not VIRGINIA 43 expect to make more than a fair living for several years, but from the very first season I made much more than I anticipated. 1 produce all kinds of cereals, stock, and small fruits, and trucking, all of which has a home market at much better prices than I could hope to receive in the West. I am raising more and better crops than I could produce on $40 land in South Dakota or $100 land in Illinois. I cheerfully send this word of greeting to Northern farmers who are in search of a better climate, good land at low prices and where the seasons are of suflficient length to garner the crop without being in haste all the time. T. J. Ong, Forest Depot, Va. FROM INDIANA. I came to \'irginia broken down in health and bought a broken down farm about six miles from Lynchburg, which had not been worked since the war, thirty-six years previous. I was very unwell and could not do much work at first, but, notwithstanding that, I made a fairly good crop and sold off a quantity of bark and wood, and made more than I would have done at home. There is a ready and good market for all you can raise, and the prices are good. The people are glad to see you and aid you in every way in their power. There are good schools and churches, 'and I have never received more attention or been better entertained than I have been by some of the old ex-rebels I fought against in the late war. My health is good, and I feel like a new man, and would not sell my place at 50 per cent, advance; and I can say if Northern people came down here and attend to their business, they will be received with open arms and can do well. E. R. Burr, Lynchburg, Va. FROM IOWA To any person seeking a home away from the long and cold winters and the ever existing danger of cyclones in summer, we have this to say, conie and see us at South Boston, Virginia. For thirty-four years we lived in the State of Iowa, and for the last five years in Southside, Virginia. We know that there are many people who live in fconstant dread of the cold winters, the deep snow and the awful blizzard. These can all be avoided by coming South, where one can find a most hospitable people, with many beautiful homes and ever ready to give a cordial welcome, and back of all this, cheap lands* * * * There are thousands ot acres of tim- 44 VIRGINIA ber land here that can be bought at from $6 to $10 an acre that would furnish grazing for sheep and Angora goats. The Angora cleans up the brush and brings the land in condition for more grass for the other lines of stock. We have many creeks and springs of excellent water, so that one can have living water in all fenced lots. W. W. Stockwell, SovtJi Boston, Va. FROM NEBRASKA. I came to \'irginia from Nebraska fourteen years ago with very little money and i)urchnsed a very poor farm of 200 acres, for which GRAPE GROWING IN VIRGINIA. I paid_$5__^per]^acre, making^a small cash payment; then went to work. The soil, while worn out, has responded very cpiickly to good farming and natural fertilizers. I soon paid for my farm and improved it in every form, until now I have it in fine shape, and have it well stocked, incluchng improved machinery. Only a VIRGINIA 45 short time since I purchased a second farm of 200 acres for cash. I am very much pleased with Virginia and am convinced that it is all right. John Skdrig. Marmora, Va. FROM NEW YORK I am a former resident of the Empire State, and came to \\r- ginia a number of years since; induced to do so on account of the genial climate, geographical location, and the great future which I saw in the fertile, neglected farms of Virginia. 1 did not remove to my farm until 1898, and have resided here ever since. My plantations are now well improved, and last year a crop of 75 acres of wheat averaged 29.5 bushels per acre, some of this running in excess of 40 bushels per acre. A neighbor of mine raised in excess of 100 bushels of soy beans per acre; this by a Canadian farmer, who, like myself, does not care to return to the rigorous climate ^ve left. G. C. Jacoks. FROM OHIO After living here two years I find A'irginia more ])leasant to live in than Ohio. The people are friendly and sociable, and the lithia water has been a "God-send" to me. It has cured me of eczema after doctoring for thirty years without relief. In regard to the land, the best improved here is fully equal to Ohio land that sells for S25 to $100 per acre, and if the \'irginia land were side by side with it, it would bring the top price and this land can be bought for from $5 to $15 per acre. Next the crop. Last 3'-ear's wheat was of good (jualit}^ and averaged 15 to 20 bushels per acre; corn was unusually fine — as good as any one could ask, while fruit of all kinds was plentiful. , I am glad I came down to this healthful climate, this wonderful water, these big-hearted people, and other conditions that go to make life worth living. I have no desire to return North. Gko. E. Lusk. FROM WISCONSIN Two years ago I came to Appomattox County from Wisconsin and purchased a farm. When 1 arrived 1 was unable to do any farm work. Now I can attend to my farm and my health is greatly improved. I like the country' so well that last year I l)urchased another farm for my son. I would rather live here with my present health on one meal a day than in Wisconsin on three. I have paid every dollar on both farms, and like the land better every^year I live on it. We can raise anything in Virginia that VIRGINIA 47 can be grown in the North or Northwest. I consider this a great country, and the lands are far below the real value in price. John V. Phillips, Sk., Vera, Va. THE POSSIBILITIES OF SOIL PRODUCTION IN NORFOLK COUNTY It is ])oth interesting and wonderful to note the productiveness of the soil in the trucking belt around Norfolk, Virginia. A leading farmer and trucker this morning said, "Without doubt the truck- ing lands around Norfolk, Virginia, are the finest in the entire United States. This gentleman was entitled to a very respectful hearing, and we had the greatest confidence in his judgment and intelligence, for his experience, as a trucker, was the very best possible evidence in favor of his statement. Our attention was called to a little 4-acre patch of land, in snaps (beans), now just nicely in the pod and ready to go north in a very few days. Answering our ciuestions the owner stated that in September last he sowed spinach on said four acres. Between Christmas and 1st of ^larch following he cut and sold the spinach at the rate of 100 barrels to the acre, at a price ranging from $2 to S7 per barrel — an average of $4.50 per barrel. Early in March the 4 acres were set out to lettuce, setting the ])lants in the open air with no protection whatever, 175.000 plants on the 4 acres. He shipped 450 half-barrel baskets of lettuce to the acre, at a price ranging from $2 to $2. 75 jier basket. Early in April, just before the lettuce was ready to ship, he planted snap beans between the lettuce rows; and to day, June 2d, these are the finest beans we have seen this season. Owner says he will have 150 half-barrel baskets to the acre; but we tliink he will surely have nearer 250. However, 150 will be enough, for he will sell the same for from $1 up to $2 per basket ; perhaps even higher. The last week in May he planted cantaloupes between the bean rows, which, when marketed in July, will make four crops from the same land in one year's time. The cantaloupes will be good for 250 crates to the acre, and the price will run from $1 to $1.50 per crate. A careful investigation of these "facts, figures, and features" will show that his gross sales will easily reach $2,000 per acre, and VIRGINIA 49 his net profits depend largely upon the man and the management; but they surely should not be less than $1,000 clear, clean profit to the acre. This is for farming done all out doors. No hot house or hot bed work — not a bit of it. It is all out-of-doors work, with no extra expense for hot beds, cold frames, hot houses, or extra expenses whatever. We are each day more and more thoroughly convinced that "intensive" thorough tillage and care of the soil will not only pay remarkably well here; but it will pay better here than at any other point or place in the United States. Without any doubt, whatever, the soil is the finest market gar- den or trucking soil in the entire country. The climate also is largely in our favor, as the late and early frosts are kept off by the near proximity of the sea. In regard to cost to get our farm products to market, we are within twenty-five miles of fully 10,000,000 consumers, that is to say, measured by freight rates, we are within twenty-five miles of 10,000,000 hungry consumers of our soil products. If measured by hours, we are within twelve hours of 20,000,000 consumers. Upon the soil, climate, and markets depend the suc- cess of the tillers of the soil — and these three factors are decidedly in our favor. FRUITS \'irginia is one of the most highly-favored fruit-growing States in the Union. Indeed, when the variety, abundance, and excel- lence of its fruits are considered, it is doubtful if any other State can compare with it in this respect. Apples, peaches, pears, cher- ries, quinces, plums, damsons, and grapes are in great abundance, while the smaller fruits such as strawberries, raspberries, black- berries, gooseberries and currants are plentiful. The foothills ot the Piedmont and Blue Ridge are specially adapted to the apple, some orchards producing as much as from $450 to $500 per acre. The peach, requiring a somewhat warmer climate, abounds more plentifully in Middle Virginia and Tidewater. The eastern slopes of the Blue Ridge are especially prolific in grapes, Albemarle county taking the lead in their cultivation. They are of excellent ([uality and flavor, both for table use and wine making. The Monticello Wine Company of Charlottesville, Albemarle county, enjoys a world-wide reputation for its wine, particularly its clarets. VIRGINIA 51 At the Paris World's Exhibition in 1878, this was the only Amer- ican wine that received a medal and diploma; and such was also the case at the Paris Exposition of 1889. Apples may be said to be the principal fruit crop of the State. They are extensively grown, and there is a ^^early increasing num- ber of trees planted. In one of the Valley counties a 17-year-old orchard of 1,150 trees produced an apple crop in 1905 which brought the owner SI 0,000, another of fifty 20-year trees brought $700. Mr. H. E. Vandeman, one of the best-known horticultur- ists in the country, says that there is not in all North America a better place to plant orchards than in Virginia. He says: "For rich apple soil, good flavor, and keeping qualities of the fruit, and nearness to the great markets of the East and Europe, your coun- try is wonderfully favored." The trees attain a fine size and live to a good old age, and pro- duce most abundantly. In Patrick county there is a tree 9 feet 5 inches around which has borne 110 bushels of apples at a single crop. There are other trees which have borne even more. One farmer in Albemarle county has received more than $15,000 for a single crop of Albemarle Pippins grown on twenty acres of land. This Pippin is considered the most deliciously flavored apple in the world. Sixty years ago the Hon. Andrew Stevenson, of Albemarle, when minister from this country to England, presented a barrel of "Albemarle Pippins" to Queen Victoria, and from that day to this it has been the favorite apple in the royal household of Great Britain. Although the Blue Ridge and Piedmont sections are more particularly adapted to the apple, they are grown in great abundance in every part of the State. The fig, pomegranate, and other delicate fruits flourish in the Tidewater region. We have mentioned the cultivated fruits; but in many sections there will be found growing wild, in great abundance, the straw- berry, the whortleberry, the haw, the persimmon, the plum, the blackberry, the dewberry, a fine variety of grapes for jellies and for wines, the cherry, the raspberry, and the mulberry, and also will be found the chestnut, hazelnut, the walnut, the hickorynut, the beechnut, and the chinquepin. RIVERS AND WATER SUPPLY Five large and navigable rivers, with their affluents and tribu- taries, drain five-sixths of the State. These all empty into the VIRGINIA 53 Atlantic, four of them through the Chesapeake Bay, and one through Albemarle Sound. The four that empty into the Chesa- peake are the Potomac, Rappahannock, York, and James. The one that empties into Albemarle Sound is the Roanoke or Staun- ton. These are all navigable to the head of Tidewater by large steamboats and sailing vessels. Besides these there are other long and copious streams or rivers, the Shenandoah that flows through the valley, and New River and Clinch in Southwest Virginia. These rivers are all supplied by multitudinous streams: rivulets and creeks; many of these long, and of sufficient size to entitle them to the name of rivers. Some of these are the Potomac creek and Occoquan that flow into the Potomac; the Rapid Anne that is a bold affluent of the Rappahannock; the Mattapony and Pamun- key that at their confluence form the York; the Chickahominy, Appomattox, Rivanna, Willis, Slate, Rockfish, South, North, Cow- pasture and Jackson, tributaries, of the James; the Dan, Otter and Pig that flow into the Roanoke. These affluents are but a few of the hundreds of streams in every part of the State that fall below the dimensions o' rivers but which, in conjunction with the bolder streams, irrigate the country, furnish inexhaustible water power, supply numerous varieties of fish, furnish channels for inland navigation, and by enlivening the landscapes, impart a picturesque- ness to the scenery on all sides. Never-failing springs of pure, sparkling water abound in every section, many of them possessing medicinal properties of a high order. The statement is made, upon high authority, that no State possesses such an abundant supply of mineral waters. The rainfall is abundant and evenly distrib- uted, there being two sources of rain-supply, one from the Atlantic by the southeast winds and one from the gulf by the winds from the southwest. The annual rainfall is 35 inches in the southwest and 55 inches on the eastern coast, the average throughout the State being about 43 inches. From the above statements, it can easily be believed that Vir- ginia is one of the most abundantly watered countries upon the face of the earth. There can scarcely be found a square mile on which there is not either a running stream or a bold spring. There is probably no other area ot the world's surface, of equal dimen- sions, that is so abundantly and uniformly watered. VIRGINIA 55 WATER POWER In this busy age, when every accessory of human industry is eagerly utiHzed, it may not be amiss to call more particular atten- tion to the marvelous supply of water power which the rivers and streams of the State aflford. In this connection we will quote the following passage from the paniphlet entitled "Information for the Homeseeker and Investor," publislied by this Department (the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Immigration), more particularly for the purpose of distribution at the recent St. Louis Exposition. Even in Tidewater, the flattest part of the State, the numerous smaller rivers and creeks have sufficient fall to furnish ample water power for grist mills and, of course, the same power could be used for other purposes. Where Tidewater joins Middle Vir- ginia, there i.s a rocky ledge which rises up quite abruptly, and over which all streams have to pour to reach the ocean. In pouring over that ledge rapids are forme'd which give magnificent water power. This water power is especially fine just above Alexandria, on the Potomac; at Fredericksburg, on the Rappahannock; at Richmond, on the James, and at Petersburg, on the Appomattox. To take only one locality as an illustration: At Richmond, in a distance of three and one-halt miles, there is a fall of 84 feet, and in a distance of nine miles there is a fall of 118 feet. The other streams mentioned have practically the same fall. This enormous water power, occurring just at the head of Tidewater and deep water navigation, gives the manufacturer who uses this power the benefit of both railwa}^ and water trans- portation. As the mountainous region is approached, every river, creek and branch is capable of furnishing fine water power. The effective fall of the James from Lynchburg to Richmond, a dis- tance of 146.5 miles, is 429 feet; between Lynchburg and Buch- anan, 50 miles, the effective fall is 299 feet; between Buchanan and Covington, a distance of 47 miles, the effective fall is 436 feet. "Indeed," as Commodore M. F. Maury says, "the James river and its tributaries alone afford water power enough to line their banks from Covington and Lexington, with a single row of facto- ries, all the way to Richmond." New River also furnishes mag- nificent water power. In fact, all through the State an abundance 56 VIRGINIA of the finest water power is awaiting development. A very small proportion of this power is at present developed. Of the four navigable rivers of Virginia that are tidal to the ocean, three of them, the Potomac, Rappahannock, and James, take their rise in the mountain region and wind through land- scapes of surpassing loveliness to deliver their waters into that Bay which, like an inland sea, washes her eastern front. The York, a wide, straight stream, navigable for the largest vessels, is less than forty miles in length, and is rather an estuary, or arm of the Bay, than a river. The Mattapony and Pamunkey, that unite at West Point to form the York, drain a considerable portion of Tide- water and Middle Virginia. The Chesapeake Bay is not only the most picturesque and beau- tiful sheet ot water upon the globe but it has no equal for the abundance and variety of the marine food which it supplies. It is 200 miles long, with an average width of 15 miles. It has the most abundant oyster beds in the world, and its Lynnhaven Bay oyster is confessedly the largest and most delicious specimen of this bivalve to be found in any water. It supplies, in inexhaustive quantities, every fish known to the southern waters, with the exception of the pampano, which is peculiar to the Gulf of Mexico. Turtles, crabs, -terrapins, lobsters and clams abound, while birds by tens of thousands, crowd its waters, and the inlets and marshes that mark its borders — swans, geese, ducks and sora. The can- vass back duck, that feeds on the wild celery and grasses that fringe its banks, possesses a game flavor that is coveted by the epicure. We have not overdrawn the picture of the attractive invitation which Virginia extends to the home-seeker, particularly the one who desires to reside in the country and follow the life of a farmer, With her diversified surface and varied elevation, her mild climate, fine rainfall, well distributed through the year, Virginia, with her numerous water courses and streams, and her fertile soil, presents an opportunity for all kinds of agricultural pursuits. The home- seeker can find an attractive location for any line of cultivation he may wish to follow. From the fish and oysters of the bays and estuaries, the peanut growing and trucking of the Tidewater, the raising of corn, wheat, oats, tobacco, fruits, and stock of the Pied- mont, to the blue grass grazing of the more mountainous section, he has a varied field of selection. VIRGINIA 57 FORESTS The forests of \'irgini:i jiIxjuiuI in an unusual variety of woods, especially the valuable hardwoods, so important in modern con- struction. In these forests are found every wood known to south- ern soils except the noted red cedar of Alabama. Most of the uncultivated land consists of woodland tracts. Fine forests and (•y|)ress swamps cover vast areas of the Tidewater section. This soil favors also the growth ot the cedar, willow, locust, juniper and gum. and to some extent the oak — woods that furnish the best material for staves, shingles, ship-timber, and sawed lumber. In the central and western sections are found the oak, hickory, wal- nut, chestnut, birch, beech, maple, poplar, cherry, ash, sycamore and elm. In the higher latitudes are found the hemlock, spruce, and white ])ine. Oak. pines and poplar are the chief woods for l)uilding. The durable hardwoods, oak, hickory, walnut and chestnut, are valuable in the manufacture of agricultural imple- ments, cars, and furniture. Paper is made from the pulp of the soft poplar. Oak bark and sumac leaves are extensively used in tanning and dyeing. MINERAL RESOURCES OF VIRGINIA Virginia presents probably the most promising field for invest- ment in its vast resources of almost every known commercial min- eral product. Building stone, granite, limestone, slate, soapstone mica, clays of all kinds available, from the common red brick to the finest pottery-day, coal, coke, iron, lead, zinc, tin, copper, manganese, pyrites, arsenic, gypsum, salt, baryta, marble, asbes- tos, gold and silver are all found more or less in paying quantities. Cheap labor, fuel, timber and water are abundant. Transpor- tation facilities are of the best, and climatic conditions are such that out-door work can be carried on the year round. The mineral lands can be acc^uired at the most reasonable priceS; and every facility is offered to induce capital to undertake the development of these products. No State in the Union produces such a variety of mineral waters nor contains such a number of medicinal springs, situated, for the most part, in a delightful summer climate in the most beautiful scenic parts of the Blue Ridge and Alleghany mountains, offering ideal locations for summer and health resorts; some of which are VIRGINIA 59 now world-famous, but the most of them are not utilized on an extensive scale. They, however, only lack the necessary capital and enterprise to make them ecjually famous with their more fortu- nate neighbors. Building stones of superior quality are found in a large part of the State. Notably from Richmond west to the eastei'n edge of the Blue Ridge. Chesterfield and Henrico granites are well known outside of the State, having been used in building the postoffices of Philadelphia and Harrisburg, Pa. Buckingham slate is being shipped to England in competition with the Scotch and Welsh slate, and orders cannot be filled fast enough. This is a guarantee not only of quality but cheapness of production. Soapstone, of a very fine quality, is produced near Schuyler, in Nelson County, and is mostly marketed as a finished product. Limestone from the quarries of the Shenandoah Valley and southwest is well known. Clays, from that used for common brick making to pure kaolin for China clay, are found in abundance east of a line running tiu'ough Alexandria, Fredericksburg, Richmond, Petersburg and Emporia. Coal-bearing formations cover an area of about 2,120 square miles in the State. The most notable deposits are those of the Richmond coal basin. Pocahontas Flat Top Field, Tazewell County, the Clinch Valley and Big Stone Gap districts in Wise and Lee counties, and the hard coals of Price and Brusli Mountains, Mont- gomery county. Copper ore is found in Grayson, Carroll, Floyd, Halifax, Char- lotte, Prince Edward, Buckingham, Louisa, Fluvanna and Gooch- land counties, and in the igneous rocks of the Blue Ridge, notably Warren county. The most extensive development has been done in Halifax county, where there are a number of mines producing ore in paying quantities and showing most excellent prospects for extensive development. Tin is found in Rockbridge and Nelson. In Rockbridge, at least two parallel workable vein systems exist. Lead and zinc are found in many parts of the State, notably, Wythe, Pulaski, Smyth, (jiles. Bland, Tazewell, Russell, Scott, and Grayson counties. The most extensive development is in 60 VIRGINIA Wythe county, at Austinville, on New River. Work has gone to a depth of 200 feet without getting to the bottom of the deposit. The U. S. Arsenic Mines Co. have a plant near Ferris Ford in Floyd county, for the production of white arsenic from tlieir mines at this point. o o o o o o" CO Asbestos is found in Frankhn, Buckingham, Amelia, Wythe, Floyd, Grayson, Bedford, Goochland and Fauquier counties. VIRGINIA 61 Deposits of commercial mica are found in Caroline, Spottsyl- vania, Hanover, Goochland, Powhatan, Buckingham, Prince Edward, and Amelia counties. The iron industry of Virginia is so well known that very little need be said about it. The four varieties of ore used in iron man- ufacture — magnetite, specular ore, limonite and spathic ore — are all found in the iron ore regions of Virginia; the first three in great abundance. Deposits of manganese ore, including high grade oxides and manganiferous iron ore, occur widely distributed through the State, particularly along the James River Valley and the Valley of Vir- ginia, and have heen extensively developed at several points. Of high grade ores, Virginia has for many years supplied the greater part of the total output of the United States, the most of it coming from the well-known Crimora mines, situated in Augusta county, about two miles east of Crimora station, on the Norfolk and Western railroad. i^yrite is one of the most frequently occurring minerals, and is found in the rocks in all parts of the State. It is a constituent of the ore of all the gold mines in the Virginia belt below water level and it is only when auriferous, or when it occurs comparatively pure and in large quantities, that it is commercially valuable. The extensive deposits of Louisa county, which are being worked by the Sulphur Mines and Railroad Company, and the Arminius Copper Company, are of great interest and importance, contribut- ing as they do about 150,000 tons annually of high grade pyrites — more than half of the total output of the United States. The deposits extend in a northeast and southwest direction in the vicinit}' of Mineral City, on the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, for a distance of five miles, and consist of a succession of great lentic- ular masses of high-grade pyrite, lying conformably with the strat- ification of the enclosing hydromica and talcose slate rocks. In extent these deposits can only be compared with those of Norway, Spain and Portugal, and they possess the advantage over the Eurojican do])osits of being quite free from arsenic. CJold is found in two distinct belts, crossing the State in a north- easterly and southwesterly direction, the western ore passing through Floyd county and the counties to the northeast and south- west of it. The eastern belt which, so far as it is at present known, is the more important ot the two, begins at the Marylandline about \ 'IRG7NIA 63 14 miles west of Washington City, and extends across the State to the North Carolina line, passing through the counties of Fairfax, Prince William, Fauquier, Stafford, Culjjeper, Spottsylvania, Orange, Louisa, Fluvanna, Goochland, Buckingham, Cumberland, Appomattox, Campbell, Pittsylvania, and a portion of Halifax. In most of these counties mining for gold was successfully car- ried on previous to the war, but since that time little or no intelli- gent work has been done. Many attempts have been made on a small scale with inexperienced management and insufficient capi- tal and, for the most part, failure has been caused by putting all available funds into a mill to treat the ore, while in no case has sufficient development work been done to warrant this expendi- ture. There is no doubt that were this belt worked with capital and experience, such as is employed in gold mining sections in the west (very few of which can show such well-defined and continuous veins), results would compare favorably. It is a matter of jNlint record that the mines in the State have produced from shallow workings (from 40 to 65 feet deep) several millions of dollars, and that with the crudest of mills. It is also a known fact that sulphide ores exist in the bottoms of some of these workings of payable value. Modern appliances, capital and enterpirse is all that is necessary to develop the belt into a marked feature in the production oi gold in this country. COMMERCIAL FACILITIES In respect to ready access to markets for the products of her soil, ot her foundries and factories, and of her inexhaustible beds of coal and iron, as well as in respect to facility of purchase from the markets of the world without, Virginia is most favorably circum- stanced. Five trunk lines of railroads penetrate and intersect the State. These, with their numerous branch lines, and their connections with other roads, place every portion of the State in communication with every principal port and city in the coun- try. The lines of steamboats that ply the navigable streams of eastern Virginia afford commercial communication for large sec- tions of the State with the markets of this country and of Europe. At Norfolk and Newport News are ports that maintain communi- cation with the European markets by means of sea-going steamers and vessels, while from these ports is also kept up an extensive commerce along the Atlantic seaboard. The harbor of Hampton VIRGINIA 65 Roads, upon which these ports sit hke crowned queens of com- merce, is the largest, deepest and safest upon the whole Atlantic coast. Upon its bosom the combined navies and commercial marine of the world can ride in safety, and with ample berth. As has been before stated, these ports are nearer than is New York to the great centers of population, and areas ot production, of the west and northwest. Chicago is nearer by fifty miles, in a direct line, to Norfolk than it is to New York. The harbor on the south- ern coast of England, between the Isle of Wight and the mainland, has been named, from its safety, the " King's Chamber." Hamp- ton Roads, sheltered by the Virginia capes from the storms of the Atlantic, may well be regarded as our King's Chamber. NATURAL WONDERS Many of the most marvelous natural wonders of the world are found in Virginia. The most widely known of these is the Natural Bridge, in Rockbridge county, 14 miles from Lexington. It is a stupendoi.o bridge of rock, and from it the county (Rockbridge received its name. It is 215 feet and 6 inches from the creek below to the top of the span or arch above. The arch is 90 feet in length, 40 feet thick, and 60 feet wide; and across, there runs a public county road. On either side of this road there are trees and bushes, so that travelers frequently pass over the stupendous chasm with- out being aware of its presence. This bridge is part of the root of an ancient limestone cave. In the limestone section of the State there are numerous caves. The most noted of these are Weyer's Cave in Augusta county and the Luray Caverns in Page county. There are in both of these, numerous halls, chambers and grottoes, brilliant with stalactites and stalagmites, and adorned with other forms curiously wrought by the slow dripping of water through the centuries. Crab Tree Falls near the summit of the Blue Ridge, in Nelson county, are formed by a branch of Tye river. They consist of three falls, the longest of these leaps of the stream being 500 feet. This freak of nature, and the unsurpassed mountain scenery of the surrounding region, attract many tourists. The Balcony Falls, immediateh' where Rockbridge, Amherst and Bedford counties corner, the passage where the James river cuts its way through the Blue Ridge, presents a scene of grandeur, little, if any, inferior to the passage of the Potomac at Harper's Ferry through the same range of mountains. 66 VIRGINIA Mountain Lake, in Giles county, is a beautiful botly of deep water, some 3,500 feet above the sea level. The water is so trans- parent that the bottom can be seen in every part. Pleasure boats sailing u]ion it pass above the trunks and tops of large trees that are plainly seen. This would indicate that the lake is not of very great antiquity. Mountain Lake is a great summer resort. The Dismal Swamp may pro])erly be accounted a natural won- der. It is an extensive region lying mostly in Virginia, but partly in North Carolina, and covered with dense forests of cypress, juni- per, cedar and gum. It is a remote, weird region, inhabited by many wild animals. Its silence is broken by resounding echoes of the woodman's axe in hewing its trees that are oi great value for the manufacture of buckets, tubs, and other varieties oi wooden ware, and for shingles, staves and ship-timber. In the middle of the swamp is Lake Drummond (lying entirely on the \'irginia side), a round body of water, six miles in diameter, being the largest lake in the State. It is noted for the purity of its amber-colored water, the hue being derived from the roots of cypress and juniper. This water will remain for years without becoming stale or stag- nant, and is used by ships and vessels going on long sea voyages. EDUCATIONAL ADVANTAGES In the pamphlet heretofore referred to as prepared by the Agri- cultural Department for distribution at the St. Louis Exposition, there is an accurate account of the educational advantages of Vir- ginia which is here transferred to this handbook: Virginia has, from early colonial days, been a leader in eckica- tional matters. While the system of African slavery and the long distances between the great plantations prevented the develop- ment of a pubhc school system like that in the New England colo- nies, yet some of the first free schools on the continent were in Virginia. William and Mary College, next to Harvard, the oldest in America, was founded in the latter part of the seventeenth century, and sent out from her walls fifteen United States Sena- tors, seventy members of the Federal House of Representatives, seventeen Governors, thirty-seven Judges, three Presidents — Jefferson, Monroe, and Tyler — and the great Chief Justice John Marshall. Excellent private schools abounded in Virginia prior to the Revolution; but Mr. Jefferson, who believed that in a de- mocracy all the people should be educated, introduced into the General Assembly, while the Revolutionary War was going on, a bill for the establishment of a complete system of public instruc- VIRGINIA 67 tion from the primary school to the university. The bill failed to heeome a law, but in 1797, that portion of .Jefferson's bill providino; for jirimary schools was enacted into a law. l)ut the execution was, unfortunately, left with the old County Court, which failed to carry the law into operation. Mr. Jefferson lived to see the State University opened, in 1S25, but his chief concern to the day of his death wat the estal)lishnient of a system of jirimary ])ublic schools in which the children of all the peojile could be etlucated. The General Assembly enacted a public school law in 1846. leav- ing]: it optional with counties and cities to adopt it. AVhen the war of secession came on, this system had been ado])ted in a num- ber of counties and cities, but it was wiped out by the devastating waves of Civil War. The Convention of 1867 framed a Consti- tution that provided for a sj^stem of public free schools for every city and county of the State, and the General Assembly put the system ijUo ojieration in 1870, four years before the Constitution required it. The development of the pul)lic school system since its inaugu- ration has been steady and ]:)rogrcssive. During the last school year 9.06.5 schools were opened; 385,640 pupils were enrolled in them; the value of school property owned by districts was $4,- 2.50 000, and total amoimt spent for public schools was $2,667,- 167.24. The pcojjle of \'irginia are manifesting great interest in the movement for better schools. Associations for the im])rovement of the schools have been formed in ever}' section of the State, and educators are constantly delivering addresses to interested audi- ences on the value of education and the importance of increasing the efficiency of our public school system. The Co-operative Kducation Commission, organized about one year ago, and com- posed of many of the leading citizens of \'irginia, is doing effective work in arousing public sentiment throughout the State in favor of better public schools, and in every neighborhood the educational advantages are being enlarged. The State Constitution, ordained in 1902. contains liberal pro- visions for public education, under the operation of which the local revenues for school i5ur])Oses will he largely increased. The demand is going up from every section for better school houses, better teachers, and longer school terms. In addition to the pri- mary and grannnar schools all the cities and towns, and many of the rural districts, have excellent public high schools. VIRGINIA 69 The State Female Normal School at Farmville and the State Male Normal School at William and Mary College afford excellent preparation for the work of teaching in the public schools. The Virginia Polytechnic Institute at Blacksburg and the University of \'irginia at Charlottesville are among the foremost institutions of the kind in this country. The Virginia Military Institution at Le.xington, also a State institution, affords excellent instruction in military science, being second only to the United States Military Academy at West Point. At William and Mary the Virginia students get the tuition free. At the University of Virginia the academical students (but not the professional) from Virginia receive their tuition free. At the Virginia Polytechnic Institute 400 students may receive free tui- tion, that is four for each member of the House of Delegates. At the Virginia Military Institute there may be fifty cadets who receive board and tuition free, one from each senatorial district and ten from the State at large. At the State Female Normal School there may be one student trom each county and city in the State who shall receive tuition free. In addition to these State institutions of higher learning, there are many excellent denominational colleges for both sexes in Vir- ginia at which students can obtain an education in the higher branches at comparatively a small cost. ]\Iention should also be made of the private academies and high schools which may be found in every section of the State. It will thus be seen that Virginia has a complete system of pub- lic instruction, extending from the primary grades to the univer- sity and the technical schools, and many private high schools, academies, and colleges. Industrial training has been introduced into the public schools of some of the cities and towns, and the State Board of Education has just made provision for introducing instruction in agriculture into the rural public schools. The Virginia School for the Deaf and the Blind at Staunton is one of the most efficient of its kind in the country. Virginia maintains an efficient system of public schools for col- ored children, and the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Insti- tute and the Mrginia Normal and Industrial Institute at Farm- ville, both State institutions, afford unsurpassed facilities for prac- tical education. VIRGINIA 71 VIRGINIA AGRICULTURE IN THE LAST CENSUS The following itiius of interest are taken from the last census, !<)()(), the crojjs rei)orte(l Ix'ing those grown in 1899: SUM.MKK APPLES IX VIRGINIA. Virginia increased in the value of vegetables produced in the last ten years 491 per cent. The value of all kinds of vegetables pro- duced in the year 1899 was .19,000,000. The value of all crops was §o4,9:J0.()00. Average value per , acre of vegetables. $47.63. Average value for all crops, $12.06, as compared with States like Ohio, whose average value per acre for all crops was $12.59; of vegetables. $44.97. Pennsylvania's average value per acre for all crops was $13 .86; of vegetables, $51 . 00. The average value per acre of corn last year in Mrginia was $11.55; in Indiana, $11 .59; in Iowa, $10.64. ^ PUBLISHED BV THE CTATR nnADH np AnDlcni TIIRR AND IMMIQRATION 1