University of Virginia Library

Physical Albemarle.

Topography.

ALBEMARLE COUNTY lies close to the geographical
centre of the State of Virginia, and is the fifth largest
county in it, having an area of 755 square miles. It lies
mainly in the noted Piedmont region of the State, a region
famous for the fertility of its soils, the abundance and excellence
of its waters, the beauty of its scenery, the salubrity of
its climate, and the intelligence and hospitality of its citizens.
The western portion of the county lies in the Blue Ridge and
the eastern in Midland Virginias. These three regions are
natural divisions, marked as well by decided differences in the
character of the soils as by natural boundaries.

The average elevation of Midland Albemarle above tide is
about 300 feet; it is a rolling plain with some hills rising to
500 feet. In the Southwest Mountains which constitute the
natural boundary between Midland and Piedmont Albemarle,
there are some peaks as high as 1800 feet above tide.

Piedmont Albemarle is about 400 feet in the eastern part,
rising to 1000 in the western where it merges into the Blue
Ridge, which at Jarman's Gap rises to the height of 3161 feet
above tide. Between the Southwest and Blue Ridge Mountains,
there is a chain known as the Ragged Mountains with
a few peaks 2000 feet above tide.

The James River flows along the southeastern boundary
of the county and receives Rockfish, Hardware and Rivanna
rivers, which with their tributaries Mechum's, Moorman's and
Lynch rivers and Doyles', Buck Mountain and Buck Island
creeks, rising in the western part of the county, flow towards
the southeast, draining the county thoroughly. These small
streams are always well-filled with good water, derived from

the large and numerous perennial springs dispersed everywhere
throughout the county, and falling rapidly in their
courses, furnish at many points excellent motive power for
various forms of machinery. Only a small portion, however,
of this natural power is now used in these days of steam.

There is much diversity in the nature of the soils of the
county, in consequence of the great variability in the rocks
from whose decomposition the soils are derived. In Midland
Albemarle they are most commonly of a grayish color, and
being derived principally from slates are light, but quite fertile
under good cultivation. Along the eastern and western borders
of the Southwest and Greene Mountains, the soils are of
a deep red color, owing to the presence of large amounts of
Titanium oxide and the occurrence of minerals of the Hornblende
and Epidote groups in the rocks from whose decomposition
the soils are derived. These soils are very fertile,
but are heavy when wet, do not retain moisture, and are,
therefore, apt to suffer during a protracted drought. East of
this belt, and south of the Hardware river, the rocks are of the
Mesozoic age principally, and the soils are mainly chocolate
colored. These are of the best, perhaps, in the county. In
Blue Ridge and Piedmont Albemarle we find alternating grey
and red soils. The red soils which usually are derived from
the decomposition of epidotic and hornblendic rocks, and
those of the grey soils derived from feldspathic rocks, are notably
fertile.

Alluvial bottoms are as common as the creeks and rivers;
are of good depth, easily worked, seldom overflowed at seasons
when growing crops could be seriously injured, and are
very productive for small outlays of labor.

Between Moorman's and Doyle's rivers, in the Whitehall
district, the underlying Archæan rocks have been largely
covered with the detritus of these streams, brought from the
Blue Ridge. The detritus consists of much fine material, in
which are imbedded rocks and bowlders showing the action
of running water. These soils are very productive, and this
is one of the finest localities in the county.

Fertile as the soils of Albemarle naturally are, many of them
have suffered from insufficient working, due, no doubt, to the
changed conditions of labor and to the large areas which have
been, until recently, worked by individual land-holders. The
farms are now being subdivided, resulting in their improved
working, and in yielding a correspondingly larger return for
the labor expended.

Climate.

ALBEMARLE lies far enough to the south, and is sufficiently
well-protected from cold northwest winds by the
Blue Ridge Mountains to possess a mild winter climate,
while in the summer its elevation and proximity to the mountains
temper the sun's heat so that it enjoys quite a reputation
as an agreeable summer retreat.

In winter there are but few cold spells, not long or intense
enough to cause any suffering in the lowliest cabins, but
enough to furnish sufficient ice for summer's needs. It is not
unusual to play, with comfort, such outdoor games as croquet
up to and beyond the middle of December, and the writer
well remembers having seen the dandelion in full bloom, in the
fields about the University of Virginia, during the Christmas
holidays.

Albemarle has always been exempted from the ravages of
the terrible cyclones and tornadoes that have done so much
damage in other parts of our country.

The county enjoys a mean annual temperature of 55°, the
minimum of winter seldom falling lower than + 10. The
mean temperature of the months of June, July and August
is about 72° F., and of December, January and February
about 35.8°.

The annual rain fall averages 45 inches, and is well distributed
throughout the year. The following table, compiled from
the meteorological observations of James Wearmouth, Esq.,

made at the University of Virginia, shows the two extremes,
giving, perhaps, the best possible idea of the nature of the
climate:

                             

	1886.				1887.
Months.	Mean temperature.	No. days that cloudiness ave. 8 or more on scale of 10.	No. days in which rain fell.	Rain fall in inches.	Mean temperature.	No. days that cloudiness ave 8 or more on a scale of 10.	No. days in which rain fell.	Rain fall in inches.
January	31.0	3	12	3.59	39.0	3	6	1.79
February	32.5	1	6	3.06	47.2	4	9	3.58
March	47.5	8	8	5.65	44.5	5	8	2.11
April	58.5	4	7	3.11	53,1	4	8	3.01
May	62.7	6	11	9.66	71.0	2	13	6.03
June	70.7	4	14	7.33	72.7	2	11	7.04
July	71.9	2	15	8.34	74.9	1	12	3.37
August	72.0	2	7	1.74	73.2	4	14	2.96
September	66.5	3	8	1.75	62.8	8	9	2.58
October	58.3	2	6	0.80	56.8	7	9	2.51
November	45.4	5	9	4.29	48.5	5	3	1.00
December	29.7	7	8	1.01	35.8	9	8	4.42
Totals		47	111	50.33		54	110	40.40

Mean annual temperature for 1886, 53.8°; for 1887, 56.62°.

Highest temperature during June, 1887 and 1888, 95°.

The reader is respectfully invited to read the following tables
(taken from United States Census Report, 1880), comparing
the death-rate of the United States and other States with
Albemarle (these States were taken at random):

                   

	Death Rate 1000 pop.	Whites.		Colored.
		Male	Female	Male	Female
Albemarle County	15.4	10.4	11.6	20.	19.2
Virginia	16.32	14.02	14.01	19.73	19.34
United States	15.09	15.08	14.41	17.19	17.38
Alabama	14.20	12.66	12.50	15.92	16.06
Arkansas	18.46	19.32	18.89	16.51	16.72
Kansas	15.52	14.34	15.35	24.22	24.02
Massachusetts	18.59	19.06	18.07	24.41	20.12
New York	17.38	18.23	16.36	26.74	22.28

The healthfulness of the climate is best attested by the low
death-rate and the longevity of the people.

DEATH-RATE IN ALBEMARLE.

                             

	Whites.		Colored.		Totals.
	Males.	Females	Males.	Females	White.	Colored.
Population	7,973	7,986	7,910	8,749	15,959	16,659
Deaths	83	93	158	168	241	261
Principal causes of death—
Scarlet fever	2	1	1	1	3	2
Enteric fever	4	6	5	7	10	12
Malarial fever	1	0	1	0	2	0
Diptheria	3	4	3	2	7	5
Croup	0	2	4	1	2	5
Diarrhoeal diseases	9	10	7	13	19	20
Consumption	10	13	12	29	23	41
Pneumonia	4	6	17	22	10	39
Heart disease and dropsy	5	2	13	11	7	24
Old age	3	4	1	1	7	2

     

Death rate per 1,000, entire population,	15.4
Death rate per 1,000, white population,	11.2
Death rate per 1,000, colored population,	19.5

Geology.

FOWEVER interesting the details of the geological structure
of this county may be to the scientific person, the
scope of this publication only permits a general description
of the formations recognized.

There are but two ages certainly represented—the Archæan
and Mesozoic. Some sandstone west of the Southwest Mountains
is so much like the Potsdam sandstone, found west of
the Blue Ridge in adjoining counties, that it is not improbable
that it belongs to that epoch. Of the two formations certainly
represented the Archæan is the most extensive; the

Mesozoic being confined to an area roughly bounded, on the
west by an irregular line beginning at Howardsville, extending
north-easterly, and gradually diverging from the eastern foot
of the Greene Mountains to Hardware river, which it crosses
at the plantations of Messrs. Moon and Barksdale, quickly
retreats towards the south, by a very roughly defined line to
near the north-western part of the town of Scottsville, from
thence south-westerly to the James.

Its western border is marked by a very coarse conglomerate,
which most likely rests upon the underlying Archæan rocks
throughout the Mesozoic area, for it comes to the surface at
many different points throughout this region. This conglomerate
is very properly called a "bowlder conglomerate," being
made up of fragments of the common Blue Ridge rocks, large
rounded, or angular, such as epidote and hornblende schists',
green quartzites and fragments of the Potsdam sandstone. It
is extremely hard and difficulty is experienced in attempting
to secure specimens, even with a sledge hammer. Besides
this conglomerate there is a finer-grained one in which are
white particles of quartz, feldspar or calcite embedded in a
brown matrix. A brown sandstone of varying degrees of
induration and texture is also found; in some localities it possessess
a texture and appearance that make it valuable for
building purposes.

At several points, within this Mesozoic area, Diorite of igneous
origin lifts itself to the surface, always at the axis of the
anticlinal folds. Near Glendower Mills there is a ledge of
slates, variegated in color, but not cleaving well enough to be
valuable. A mile west of Glendower, on the Porter's Precinct
road, an impure limestone is found. The strike of the Mesozoic
is about N. 25° E., varying but little locally, the dip is
most commonly towards the south-east, and amounts to about
25°. No fossils have been reported from this formation.

At the period when the James was breaking its way through
the Blue Ridge, the locality now occupied by this Mesozoic
area, was most evidently a bay, into which the river carried
and deposited the debris, produced by erosion, coarse at first,

afterwards becoming finer, and these, by consolidation and induration,
were converted into the conglomerates and sandstones
of the formation.

The remainder of the rocks of the country belong to the
Archæan. Two periods being recognized — the Laurentian
and Huronian. There being no uncomformability nor fossils
in the strata, the division is based entirely upon the differences
in the rocks. The granitic rocks and gneisses, diorite (bedded)
and mica schists are considered as Laurentian, while the slates
and other schists are most usually considered to be Huronian.
The strata of this age have been frequently and so closely
flexed, and their tops so much eroded as to render it almost
impossible to accurately determine their connection and relative
superposition. The strike of these rocks is about W. 32°
E., varying locally to a slight amount. The dip is always towards
the S. E., except along an east and west section passing
through Dudley's Mountain, where there is an anticlinal fold
in the Mica schist.

The Blue Ridge is mainly made up of a series of metamorphic
schists, greenish, blue and black in color. Concretions
of epidote and other minerals are frequently found in the
schists, giving them a curious mottled appearance.

The Ragged Mountains is composed of a species of granulite,
the quartz possessing a waxy lustre and bluish color, due
to being filled with microscopic crystals of Titanium oxide.
This rock varies much in composition, weathers unequally,
and hence gives to the mountains the appearance which justifies
their name.

The range east of the Virginia Midland railway, in which
are Dudley's, Appleberry, and Lead Mine Mountains is made
up of mica schist and some bedded Diorite.

The Southwest Mountains are are made up of metamorphic
schists, like the Blue Ridge, and some granitic rocks and
quartzites. The Greene Mountains, towards their southern
part, become very slaty, and in some localities the slates are
so highly impregnated with iron oxide as to appear to be fairly
good micaceous hematite.

East of these mountains there is a succession of slates,
sometimes hydro-micaceous in character and usually soft.

In the debris of Moorman's river, which rises in the Blue
Ridge, Potsdam bowlders are so frequently met with as to
lead to the belief that Potsdam S. S. is to be found in situ, on
the eastern slopes of the Blue Ridge; and in Black Rock gap,
in which a tributary of Moorman's river rises, there are
found, near the summit, masses of Potsdam embedded in the
soil as if they occupied their original place. These masses
are usually detached from each other, their strike and dip being
different for each mass, points to the belief that they have
been moved down the mountain from their original position.
Their position may be accounted for by the following facts:

The Potsdam formation lies upon the western slope of the
Blue Ridge, forming a range of mountains which are usually
of a lower height than the crest of the Blue Ridge. But,
north-west of Black Rock Gap, in Rockingham county, there
is a peak, surmounted by the Potsdam sandstone, higher than
the crest of the Blue Ridge at the Gap; this peak is connected
with the crest by a long slope, and it would be only a matter
of time for the Potsdam sandstones, propelled by action of
frost, &c., to work their way down and over the crest to the
eastern slope of the Blue Ridge.

Minerals.

ALBEMARLE county possesses deposits of iron ore,
slate, soapstone and building stones, which have been
and some are now, worked with profit. Besides these,
there are deposits of graphite, zinc, and clay, which may develop
in the future and become valuable. In addition to these
minerals of industrial importance there are found specimens
of galenite, gold, quartz of different varieties, including the
amethyst, orthoclase, albite, oligoclase, muscovite, biotite,
amphibole, asbestos, epidote, chlorite, serpentine, pyrolusite,
psilomelane, rutile, pyrite, chalcopyrite, azurite, göthite pseudomorphic
after pyrite and others.

Iron Ore.—Specimens of red and brown hæmatites and
magnetites are found abundantly at many localities, but have
been worked at only three localities.

The largest known deposit is near Stony Point, not far from
the Virginia Midland railroad, at about ten miles north of
Charlottesville. A track runs from the Virginia Midland railroad
up to the mine, though it is not worked now.

The ore is a brown hematite with some specular. Averages
of numerous analyses, give—

       

Metalic Iron	55.00	per cent.
Silica	5.00	per cent.
Phosphorus	0.16	per cent.
Sulphur	trace.

Six shafts have been put down varying in depth from 50 to
180 feet. The width of the vein varies from 4 to 6 feet, and
it has been traced by shafts for a distance of a half a mile.

Ore of the magnetic variety was taken from Cook's Mountain,
near North Garden, several years ago and shipped to the
North. This, and a deposit one mile south of Covesville, belonged
to and were operated by a Pennsylvania company,
which ceased its operations several years ago for unknown
reasons. The Covesville deposit is larger, perhaps, than the
North Garden, but is injured somewhat by the Titanium oxide
which it contains.

Specular ore is frequently met with along the James River,
between Scottsville and Howardsville, and at some localities,
as at Mrs. Scruggs, it appears to be in large quantity. Mr.
George W. Clarke, a gentleman who takes great interest in
the development of this county, had samples of this ore analyzed
abroad, and the great metallurgist, Prof. Siemens, in
speaking of it, pronounced it as quite valuable for conversion
into steel by the direct process. Analysis of this ore gives—

               

Peroxide of Iron	91.10.
Protoxide of Iron	1.10.
Phosphoric Acid	0.03.
Sulphuric Acid	0.07.
Siliceous Matter	7.20.
Water	0.50.
Total	100.00.
Metallic Iron	64.63.

Slate.—Slaty rocks are abundant in Albemarle, and in the
neighborhood of Slate Hill church, which is about 7 miles
south-east of Charlottesville, a deposit of this valuable material
has long been worked. The Albemarle Slate Company
has operated the deposit very successfully for a number of
years, and now employ 75 persons in the manufacture of slate
pencils; their sole product at present. There is a vein of slate
so soft and free from grit as to make the finest quality of slate
pencils known in the trade.

Adjacent to this property lies that of L. W. and A. D.
Cox, which is larger and contains a greater variety of valuable
slate than the other. It is not operated at this writing but will
be before the end of the year.

At both these deposits valuable slate for manufacture into
mantels, window caps, sills, coffins, &c., is also found, and
both companies are arranging to manufacture these goods.

Building-Stones.—The brownstones of the southern part
of the county have never been utilized, although in some
places their quality is such as to indicate valuable properties.

A greyish sandstone occurs west of the Southwest Mountains.
It has been quarried at several points near Charlottesville,
and used in the construction of the Brookes Museum
and Chapel of the University of Virginia. From the results
of the practical tests thus made, there can be no doubt as to
the value of these deposits.

A soft, bluish, black schist has been worked near the gasworks
of the city of Charlottesville, being used for paving,
curbing and building purposes. Though so soft as to be
easily sawed, it proves quite durable on exposure.

Soapstone.—A valuable deposit of this material is worked
near Hardware P. O., about 4½ miles from North Garden
station, of the Virginia Midland Railroad. The quarries here
were first opened in 1883, and in spite of a destructive fire,
and other impediments, the company has overcome all obstacles
and is now doing a large and profitable business. Sixty
to seventy-five men are kept constantly employed in the quarries
and in preparing the rough goods for shipment to New

York, where they are finished and placed upon the market. It
has no superior for fireplaces, register borders, laundry tubs,
sinks and bath-room fixtures, it being non-porous, acid and
fireproof; and as it is a large absorbent of heat and a slow
radiator of it, it is much used for heaters and radiators in the
public and private buildings of the East.

Graphite.—A belt of slate passes through Charlottesville
in a northeasterly direction, which contains considerable
graphite, or black lead, and at Hardware P. O. there is so
much of it in the slate as to give it a probable value for the
manufacture of crucibles.

Graphite of good quality is found in the northwestern part
of the county, at Shifflet's Hollow and at Mr. Naylor's, about
one half mile north of Wesley Chapel on the Nortonsville
road. These deposits have not been developed enough to
form any definite idea as to their value. The mineral occurs
as a vein in a decomposing feldspathic rock. It is found
amorphous and also in crystallized aggregates composed of
long, narrow prisms, apparently of a monoclinic habit.

Analysis of the two varieties of the Naylor Graphite show—

         

	Crystals.	Amorphous.
Carbon	90.799	74.645
Ash	6.555	19.195
Moisture	2.646	6.160
	100.000	100.000

The large amount of ash shown by the amorphous variety
was due to some mechanically adherent mineral silicates.

Clay.—Clay for the manufacture of building brick is
quite plentiful and of good quality. No china or firebrick
clays are worked. Near the Tilt Hammer road in Turk's
Gap, and near Christ church in the Scottsville district, there
are deposits of fine clay worthy of examination, for the manufacture
of queensware.

Zinc.—On the eastern slope of what is known as Lead
Mine Mountain, there exists a vein of mineral which, during
the war, was operated by the Confederates for lead. The
shafts which were opened then, and the buildings which sheltered
the operatives, have all fallen in, and it is only with

some trouble that specimens of the ore can now be secured.
Zinc blende is more abundant than the Galena, and the reputation
of the deposit has no doubt been injured by calling it a
lead mine, for there is but little lead there.

In 1883 the writer collected an average sample from the
"dump" and submitted it to analysis, with these results:

                 

	Pts. in 100.
Zinc Sulphide	48.22	per cent.
Lead Sulphide	4.65	per cent.
Calcium Fluoride	17.75	per cent.
Iron Sulphide	2.92	per cent.
Insoluble Silicious Matter	25.24	per cent.
Silver (two-thirds ozs. to ton).
Copper and Arsenic	traces.
	98.78

There is good reason to believe that this, and other undeveloped
mineral resources of Albemarle, may one day become
as valuable as other deposits more favorably situated.

Limestone.—At Buckeyeland creek, on the property of
Mr. Frank Glimer, and elsewhere in the same locality, there
is an impure limestone, which has furnished agricultural lime
on burning; containing, as it does, from 70 to 80 per cent. of
calcium carbonate. It is surprising that the farmers of that
neighborhood do not take advantage of the opportunity to
improve their farms by use of this most valuable fertilizer.

Mineral Springs.—The mineral springs of the county are
chiefly of a chalybeate character. That of Fry's Spring, about
one mile from Charlottesville and the University of Virginia,
amongst many others, enjoys a considerable local reputation;
an analysis, by R. D. Bohannon, made in the Laboratory of
of the University of Virginia, under supervision of Prof. Dunnington,
shows it to be an excellent water of its class.

One imperial gallon contains—

             

Carbonate of Iron	1.010	grains.
Sulphate of Lime	.490	grains.
Sulphate of Soda	.640	grains.
Chloride of Sodium	.260	grains.
Chloride of Potassium	.030	grains.
Silica	1.320	grains.
	3.840	grains.

Forestry.

ALTHOUGH Albemarle can in no sense be considered
as a lumber producing county, there is still standing in
its forests a considerable quantity of white oak and
yellow pine, and other varieties of less value, of such size as
to furnish enough lumber for building purposes. Good pine
is sold at from $8 to $12 per 1,000 square feet and other
varieties proportional to their relative values.

Besides the larger growths, there is a much larger quantity
of second growth timber now large enough for fencing and
fire-wood, and, if not improperly managed, there is sufficient to
supply the lumber necessary for the growth of the county,
and for all demands of the farm.

Tan bark is being taken from the forests in great rapidity,
particularly in the Blue Ridge region, where, at the present
rate of cutting, the supply must soon be exhausted. It is a
great pity that of the vast amount of lumber cut down for
this purpose, only the bark is used, and the growth of centuries
is ruthlessly cut and permitted to rot, inflicting needless
injury to the future citizens of the county.

The time is not far distant when the people will have to
rise and prevent further desecration of this favored county,
and require new trees to be set out where one has been cut
down.

According to the Census Reports of 1880, 158,985 acres
of the 424,424 of the county's area are covered with timber.
This estimate is about correct for the present year, to which
should be added 21,000 acres of old fields, now occupied with
scrub pines and oaks of from 10 to 15 years growth.

The Umbrella tree, Magnolia Umbrella, is very common
along the cool branks of streams in the Piedmont district.
Its light and soft wood makes excellent pumps.

The White Wood, or as it is most commonly called in Albemarle,

the Poplar, Liriodendron Tulipifera, attains perfect
growth, and is everywhere met with, furnishing excellent lumber.
The inner bark of its branches and roots possess medicinal
properties of value in intermittent fever.

Astmina Triloba, the Papaw or Custard Apple, is found
along the banks of streams, but is nowhere abundant.

Tilia Americana, the Linden tree, is rarely met with away
from the cool hollows in the Blue Ridge, near Moorman's
river, where it attains its full size. Besides being a beautiful
tree well adapted for ornamental planting, its lumber is highly
prized for cabinet work. When reduced to pulp it is valuable
in the manufacture of paper. In Europe, an infusion of the
flowers, buds and leaves of the various species of Linden is
much used as a remedy for indigestion and nervous disorders.

Ilex Opaca, the Holly tree, is occasionally found in the forests,
always alone. They having evidently sprung from the
seeds dropped in the passage of migratory birds.

The Sugar Maple, Acer Saccharinum, is like the Holly only
occasionally met with in the natural state. But the Red Maple,
Acer Rubrum, is common, though not abundant in any locality,
as it is so widely distributed it would appear that it is an excellent
tree to cultivate for lumber, being much valued in
cabinet work.

The Box-Elder or Ash-leaved Maple, Negundo Aceroides,
grows along the streams in the eastern part of the county. It
is readily recognized by its peculiar ash-like leaves. Its timber
is soft and well adapted for the manufacture of paper pulp.
Its sap contains a small amount of saccharine matter, and
yields, on evaporation, a small amount of maple sugar.

Rhus Typhina, the Stag-Horn Sumach, attains the height
of 12 feet and a diameter of 2 to 3 inches along the roadsides.
Large quantities of its leaves are gathered and shipped
for the tanner's use.

Rhus Venenata, called the Poison Elder, is found in the wet
parts of the county occasionally. It is exceedingly noxious
when brought in contact with the human body.

Robinia Pseudacaia, or Common Locust, is common, grows

vigorously and attains maturity when left to itself. No attempt
is made to utilize its valued timber.

The Honey Locust, Gleditschia Triacanthos, is found occasionally
in the woods in the eastern part of the county. In
other portions of the county it is more frequently met with
along the roadsides, where it has escaped cultivation. It is
said that good beer can be made from its fruit.

The Red Bud or Judas tree, Cercis Canadensis, from its
oriental namesake from whose limbs Judas is said to have
hung himself, is widely distributed through the forests and
frequently attains a diameter of 18 inches. Its wood is not
only beautiful in color and susceptible of a high polish, but
shows a beautiful wavy grain, giving it, when polished, the
appearance of a piece of watered silk. It is worthy of being
made into veneers for the manufacture of furniture.

Prunus Americanus, the wild plum, is not a stranger to the
lover of nature, and attains in a few instances at least the
remarkable diameter of 24 inches.

Prunus Pennsylvanica, the wild red cherry, is occasionally
met with; its timber, though sometimes used, is much inferior
to that of Prunus Serotina, the wild black cherry, which
is common.

Spirea Opulifolia, the nine bark, is a shrub attaining the
height of ten feet, easily recognized from the peculiar manner
in which the layers of its bark separate.

Pyrus Augustifolia, the Southern Crab apple, is sometimes
met with. Its sour fruit is not utilized, no doubt from the
rareness of its occurrence.

Cratœgus Coccinea, the Scarlet Fruited Thorn, is found
along the eastern slopes of the Blue Ridge.

The June berry, or as it is more commonly called in this
locality, Wild Currant, Amelanchier Canadensis, is found everywhere.
Its beautiful white flowers appearing before the leaves
in early spring gives to the woods a fresh appearance that is
most pleasing to the eye. Its hard and dense heartwood furnishes
excellent blocks for the tanner.

The Witch Hazel, Hamamelis Virginica, is found in the
mountain hollows.

Liquid Ambarstyraciflua, the Sweet Gum, is found between
Hardware river and Buckeyeland creek. The wood of this
tree when seasoned is exceedingly well adapted for cabinet
work, being equal in beauty to walnut.

Cornus Alternifolia, the Swamp Dogwood, is found along
the Rivanna river, while the Flowering Dogwood, C. Florida,
is known everywhere in early spring by the four white conspicuous
leaves of its involucre. The wood of the latter is
well adapted for turning. When cut in early spring there
exudes a yellowish-red colored sap resembling blood to a
slight extent.

The Tree of Heaven, Ailanthus Glandulosa, has escaped
from cultivation, and is in some localities very common. It
is a rapid grower, and as its timber is very durable and possesses
much strength, it should be encouraged.

Nyssa Sylvatica, the Sour or Black Gum, is common, adding
great beauty by its scarlet leaves to the forests in the fall. Its
timber is very compact.

Viburnum Prunifolium, the Black Haw, with its white cymes,
lends beauty and fragrance to our woods.

The Laurel or Ivy, Kalmia Latifolia, is common in Piedmont
and Blue Ridge Albemarle. Its close grained wood is
susceptible of a high polish and much prized for turning work.

Rhododendron Catawbiense, the Rose Bay, is found only near
Col. Duke's farm in Sugar Hollow.

Diospyros Virginiana, the Persimmon, is common. The
timber of this tree is valuable for shoe lasts and spools, and
would make excellent axletrees.

Fraxinus Americana, the White Ash, is not abundant now
in the county, though it is well adapted to the soil and climate,
as shown by a few magnificent specimens of this beautiful
forest tree.

The Fringe Tree, or Old Man's Beard, Chionanthus Virginica,
is easily found in June along our streams, and may be
recognized by its fringed white flowers.

The Catalpa tree, Catalpa Bignonioides, is frequently found
in the natural state, having in most cases escaped from cultivation.
Its timber is of value for fence posts and rails.

Sassafras Officinale, the common Sassafras, is very abundant
along fences and in old fields. The oil obtained from its
roots is valuable, and its manufacture is worthy of some attention
in this county. It is not an unhandsome wood, polishes
well, and as it does not permit vermin to harbor near it,
it possesses properties well fitting it for chamber furniture.

Ulmus Fulva, the Red or Slippery Elm, and Ulmus Americana,
the American, or Water Elm, are found along the streams,
Ulmus Alata, the Winged Elm, is met with in the swampy
portions of the eastern part of the county.

The Sugar Berry, Celtis Occidentallis, occurs along Moorman's
river, and elsewhere.

The wood of the Red Mulberry, Morus Rubra, is worthy of
attention, for veneers, it having a very fine satiny grain susceptible
of very high polish.

Platanus Occidentallis, the Sycamore or Button-Ball tree, is
found everywhere, though no effort is made to utilize its lumber,
which makes splendid tobacco boxes.

The White and Black Walnuts, Juglans Cinerea and Nigra,
are found in the rich soil along the small streams. Very few
trees are now standing large enough for timber. As the Black
Walnut grows so well in this county, it is one of the best for
planting, and as they attain in 20 to 25 years development
sufficient for timber, their planting could be made a source of
large revenue.

Carya Alba, the Shell Bark Hickory, is found only along
the Blue Ridge, and there of large size only in the remote
hollows.

Carya Micro Carpa, the White or Small Fruited Hickory,
is quite common in Piedmont, where its closely appressed
bark distinguishes it readily from the Shell Bark.

Carya Tomentosa, the Red or Mocker Nut Hickory, is the
most common member of the genus Carya. Attaining large
size, its timber is valuable for many purposes.

Carya Porcina and Carya Amara, the Pig Nut and Bitter
Nut Hickories, are occasionally seen.

The Oaks are well represented by the following species:

Quercus Alba, White Oak; Q. Obtusiloba, Post Oak; Q.
Bicolor, Swamp White Oak; Q. Prinus, Chestnut Oak; Q.
Prinoides, Yellow Oak; Q. Rubra, Red Oak; Q. Coccinea,
Scarlet Oak; Q. Tinctoria, Black Oak; Q. Nigra, Black Jack
Oak; Q. Falcata, Spanish Oak; Q. Palustris, Pin Oak; Q.
Phellos, Willow Oak, and Q. Ilicifolia, the Bear Oak.

Of the above varieties the most common are the Black,
Scarlet, Post, Chestnut and White Oaks. Q. Princides is but
rarely met with, but always of the size of a tree. The Chestnut
Oak is being rapidly used by the "tan bark" gatherers.
It is a great pity that these, the noblest of our trees, are most
sacrificed by our citizens.

Castanæ Pumila, the Chinquapin, is very abundant as a
shrub, and occasionally met with as a small tree. Castanæ
Vulgaris, var Americana, the Chestnut tree is extremely abundant.
The fruit is gathered and sold to shippers. Its wood
attains perfect development, and for fence timber it has no
superior.

Fagus Ferruginea, the Beech, with its umbrageous shade, is
found in the Piedmont district.

Carpinus Caroliniana, the Water Beech, and Ostrya Virginica,
the Iron Wood, are found along most of the mountain
streams.

Betula Lenta, the Cherry Birch, is common in the Ragged
Mountains, and found elsewhere in the county. It is better
known locally as Mountain Mahogany. Betula Nigra, the
Red Birch, is frequently met with along the streams east of
the Southwest and Green Mountains.

Alnus Serrulata, the Black Alder, is known along every
stream where, as a shrub, it forms dense thickets.

The Black Willow, Salix Nigra; White Willow, S. Alba,
and Silky Willow, S. Sericea, are also very common along our
streams.

Populus Tremuloides, the American Aspen, or Silver Maple,

as it is frequently improperly called, is found occasionally
along the Rivanna river and near the Nelson county line.

Amongst the Pines, Pinus Pungens, the Table Mountain
Pine, is one of the most interesting. Pinus Strobus, the White
Pine, is found most commonly in the hollows of the Blue
Ridge, where the saw-mill men are closely following, so that
it will soon be very rare. Pinus Rigida, the Pitch Pine, with
its rough and dark bark, is most commonly known as an Old
Field Pine. Its resinous wood is of little value. Pinus Inops,
the Jersey Scrub, is also well known. The Yellow Pine,
Pinus Mitis, once very common, is disappearing beneath the
devouring teeth of the circular saw. Pinus Toleda, the Loblolly,
is found occasionally in the eastern part of the county.

Tsuga Canadensis, the Hemlock, attains a diameter of three
feet along the head waters of Moorman's river.

Thuya Occidentalis, the White Cedar or Arbor Vitæ, is only
found as a very small shrub, but the Red Cedar, Juniperus
Virginiana, occurs abundantly enough to be shipped north
for the lead pencil manufacturers.

Agriculture.

IN SOIL, climate and accessibility to market, Albemarle
county possesses advantages unsurpassed by any other
county in our State.

Intersected as it is by two great lines of railway, with still
another on its southern border, connecting it with tide water
in one direction and giving us easy and rapid communication
with the great markets of the country; its great advantages
in that respect are only equalled by the general adaptability
of its soil to that diversified agriculture which brings the
surest and best rewards to the cultivator of the soil.

All of the cereals, with the exception, perhaps, of barley,
and all of the grasses common to the temperate zone, flourish
well. There are no better wheat and corn lands than can be
found in Albemarle.

Extending as it does, from the apex of the Blue Ridge to
the lowlands bordering on the James River, almost every
character and quality of soil can be found, from the sandy
lands and rich alluvium of the rivers to the rock-made,
inexhaustible red lands which characterize so large a section
of Piedmont Virginia. It is capable of producing abundant
milk, corn and wine; and with such capability would, in all
ages, be regarded as a most promising section of country. No
section of country possesses greater natural advantages for
the varied productions which the necessities and comfort of
our race demand.

That king of all the cereals—wheat, can be successfully
produced. Corn—the farmers mainstay—thrives everywhere,
in the hands of the skillful cultivators; and while the yield of
oats may rarely equal the products of more northern and
humid climates, yet as fine fields of that grain are harvested
in Albemarle as anywhere in the Middle States.

Large sections of our county are eminently adapted to
grazing, and the cultivated grasses always flourish, on large
areas, under the care of the intelligent farmer. As tobacco
planting yields in importance, as a staple crop, and grasses are
cultivated in connection with cereals, it will be found that our
red lands will be rapidly improved. The present writer has
seen in Albemarle county as heavy yields of hay as the most
favored lands in the best dairy sections of New York can produce.

Stock-raising and dairying is successfully pursued here, and
it can be indefinitely expanded.

Fruit-growing is now an important interest, and is yearly
attracting the attention of wide-awake farmers who begin to
realize that diversified production is safer than a reliance on
one staple crop.

Our orchards have long been celebrated for the excellence
of their fruit; and our vineyards, now covering hundreds of
acres, not only supply hundreds of tons of table fruit for the
markets of the country, but supply two prosperous wine-cellars
with the fruit from which the famous Virginia Claret wines

are made. All in all, there is believed to be no more favored
section of our country for the production of all the fruits
common to the temperate zone, and its accessibility to all the
most important markets adds greatly to the value of this
locality for this important branch of agriculture.

Stock-Raising and Feeding.

IT IS not claimed that Albemarle is a cattle county par
excellence, but stock-raising and feeding has a prominent
place in the general farming practiced by the best managers.
The advantages for this business are the same as those
specified for dairying, except that it possesses two additional:

1st. The prevalence of garlic or wild onion, a disadvantage
to the dairyman, is, from its very early and rapid growth and
nutritious qualities, a blessing to the cattle and sheep raiser;
awakening from its dormant state, begun the previous July, as
soon as the frost is out of the ground, it brings into vigorous
action the material for rapid plant growth stored in its ripened
bulb, and in fields where it is thickly set, gives a carpet of
green in February, and though it may be killed to the ground
by a subsequent freeze, persists in its rapid growth on every
warm day, and gives cattle a good bite in March. Many a
farmer who failed to secure a sufficiency of provender in the
fall, has been indebted to the wild onion for the salvation of
his cattle and sheep the next spring.

This rapid growth is maintained, though with decreased
energy until late in May, by which time the other grasses
have so far advanced that the onion may well be spared. It
is true that animals taken directly to the slaughter house from
an onion pasture, give meat of a bad flavor, but by keeping
them twenty-four to thirty-six hours on other food, this disappears
entirely. On farms where the onion abounds, the
cattle are generally sent to the pasture the last of March, or
early in April, thus shortening the winter feeding by several

weeks, and to these farms the butchers generally go for their
early fat lambs and veals.

The second advantage is that on the Blue Ridge and its
spurs, on the Southwest Mountains and the Ragged Mountains,
there are large areas of very cheap mountain land,
which, as soon as the trees are deadened and undergrowth
killed, turf over with the rich blue grasses and white clover,
and from the coolness and absence of flies, resulting from elevation,
make the best of summer ranges. These mountains
are so interspersed through the county that most farmers,
who make cattle-raising and feeding a prominent part of their
system, own a mountain pasture, easily accessible from their
farms. On these the young stock spend the summer, while
the farms, relieved of the burden of pasturing them, are enabled
to produce the larger crops of hay, corn and other
produce.

There has been established at Charlottesville by Messrs.
Burnley, Smith & Burnley, a monthly cattle sale, where graziers
dispose of their feeding animals and stock up with young
cattle, and farmers buy such as they want for stall feeding and
sell their fat beeves. These sales are well attended by buyers
and sellers, and a considerable number of horses, cattle and
sheep are bought and sold each month either at auction or by
private sale, greatly to the convenience and advantage of
those who raise or fatten cattle in the county. There are
several fine herds of thoroughbred cattle in the county, one
owned by W. J. Ficklin, who is the son and successor of the
late S. W. Ficklin, whose reputation as a breeder of fine
horses and cattle was second to none in the State; another of
Shorthorn is owned by Warner Wood, Esq., whose farm is
near the University of Virginia. This gentleman recently
sold the largest and heaviest pair of steers ever raised in the
State. They were grade Shorthorn, bred and fed on Mr.
Wood's farm, near the University. At three years old the
pair weighed 8,000 pounds (I think) and when sold a few
months ago weighed 8,300 pounds (I believe). It is said they
were purchased for the purpose of being exhibited for pay, to

the people of other sections, as curiosities in the mammoth
cattle line.

Major R. F. Mason, whose farm is near Charlottesville, has
some fine Holsteins. There are numerous other high-bred
animals of different breeds scattered through the county, and
owned by various farmers.

Owing to the early introduction of the Shorthorns by the
late S. W. Ficklin, and his active exertions in disseminating
them through the county, the cattle are for the most part
good grade animals and well adapted for feeding into first-class
beeves, and it is a growing practice for farmers to feed a
lot every winter on ensilage, hay and grain, stalling them at
night in cheaply constructed stables, where they are well littered
and the manure carefully saved. This practice gives a
home market for much of the produce of the farm, and the
manure with which to improve it at the same time; and is
found to pay well in the long run.

The increased value of the animal, after four months of
judicious feeding, will generally pay $20 per ton for the corn
consumed, $10 to $12 per ton for the hay, and $3 to $3.50 per
ton for the ensilage, leaving the manure to pay for the labor
of feeding and use of the stable, &c. If the buildings are
well arranged this labor is very light, as the cattle are allowed
to run, in the day, on a sod field, where they have access,
usually, to spring water, and can pick over coarse forage,
straw, &c.

Cattle, suitable for feeding, cost, in the fall of 1887, 2½ to
3 cents per pound, live weight, and sold in the spring of 1888,
when fat, at 4 to 4½ cents per pound here. A good average
gain on 1,000 pound steers, from four months winter feeding,
is 200 pounds; thus a good 1,000 pound steer cost in November,
thin, about $30; in the following March, if well handled
and sold, he brought from $48 to $54.

The practice of putting up ensilage for winter feeding is
becoming very common, and engines and cutters can easily be
hired by those who do not care to incur the expense of buying
the machinery for filling their pits.

The Revenue Commissioner's books show that 10,344 head
of cattle were listed for taxation in 1887; adding a fourth for
cattle not found by the Commissioner, and for young cattle
and beeves, and we have 12,900 head as about the true number
of cattle kept in the county. These are worth about
$260,000. There has never been a case of pleuro-pneumonia
or other contagious disease in the county, and the only infectious
ones that have ever troubled us have been outbreaks of
Texas fever, from infected cattle being ignorantly or carelessly
brought in amongst our healthy ones, this always disappeared
with the first frost and never reappeared unless freshly imported.
With more knowledge, and the exercise of more
care in this matter, we have not had a case of this now for
many years, and our cattle have been exceptionally healthy.

Live stock in 1880 (U. S. Census): Horses, 5,897; Mules
and Asses, 636; Oxen, 986; Milch Cows, 4,834; other cattle,
7,617; Sheep, 10,832; Swine, 20,302.

Dairying.

THIS county offers great advantages for dairying, chief
among which are:—

1st. Its numerous springs of pure, cold freestone water,
which, with their running streams make it difficult to lay off
a 30 or 40 acre field without including running water within
its bounds; and afford on every farm a choice of locations for
a dairy-house, where an abundance of that first requisite, pure
cold water, can be had.

2nd. The great variety of nutritious grasses, either indigenous
to the soil, or which can be readily produced; amongst
which grow, spontaneously, the blue grasses (poa compressa
and pratensis) and white clover on the hills; herd grass or
red-top on the bottoms, and ceap grass and foxtail, almost
everywhere; while orchard grass, red clover and timothy are
easily produced, with a proper preparation, on both hills and

bottoms. These very best of pasture and hay grasses do so
well that our farmers have not troubled themselves to propagate
the new and foreign grasses of which we read so much,
and whose seeds have been so generally distributed by the
United States Agricultural Department.

3rd. The rolling, undulating surface causes an almost entire
absence of stagnant, impure water, or unsavory marsh grasses,
which so often injuriously effect the quality of dairy products
from cows running in the pastures.

4th. The comfort of the cows is greatly promoted by the
plenteous shade afforded by the numerous detached trees and
wood lots, which good taste, and, perhaps love of personal
comfort, caused our ancestors to leave in suitable spots when
clearing away the forests.

5th. The mild short winters, during which the thermometer
falls to zero not more than once or twice in a decade, and in
which the dairyman must be ready to fill his ice-house at the
first two-inch freeze, or he runs the risk of having to do without
this almost indispensable accessory during the next summer.
And yet with ordinary diligence, and by selecting a
suitable location for an ice-pond, our octogenarian farmers
will tell you that they have never failed to secure a sufficient
supply of this planter's luxury and dairyman's necessity.

The mild temperature of the winters renders much less
costly stables necessary than are needed in the Northern
States, and the cows are generally allowed, except in very
stormy weather, to run during the day in a lot where they can
pick over cornstalks, &c., and have access to wheat straw and
plenteous spring water at its normal temperature of 55° to 60°.
That this climate and mode of treatment is good for them is
shown by the fact that there has been no epidemic or general
disease among the cattle of Albemarle in the recollection of
the oldest inhabitant. Pleuro-pneumonia and all that class
of diseases are only known to us by name.

6th. Its nearness and convenience of access to good markets.
The city of Charlottesville and the University of Virginia,
both in the centre of the county, consume in the shape

of fresh milk the product of the largest dairies which are in
their vicinity. The smaller and more remote farm dairies
produce butter which meets a ready sale to regular customers
at these places, at prices ranging from twenty to forty cents
per pound, according to season and quality; hence there is
but little shipped out of the county, in spite of the exceptional
facilities for so doing afforded by the numerous trains on the
two great thoroughfares of travel, which bisect the county,
and the railway, which skirts its entire southern border, placing
the markets of Washington 4 hours distant, Baltimore 5
hours, Richmond 3 hours, Norfolk 5, Lynchburg 3, and the
Virginia Springs from 3 to 5 hours distant. The prices for
butter are low in all these markets in summer, but contracts
for a regular supply of fresh cream are readily made at very
remunerative prices. The dairies too remote from the stations
to ship cream, find winter their most profitable season,
as the demand is brisk for choice fresh butter at from thirty
to forty cents per pound from October until June. While the
abundant supply of hay and corn ensilage that can be easily
and cheaply secured, make the feeding of the cows a comparatively
easy matter.

The product of a dairy of good common cows fresh in the
fall, will average about three-fourths of a pound of butter per
head per day during these eight months of good prices, if
well fed in stalls, night and morning, on hay and ensilage,
sprinkled with a mixture of corn meal and wheat bran. The
ratio, allowing cost for the bran, and a liberal price for the
corn, hay and ensilage, will be worth about seventeen cents
per head per day, leaving the manure, and from five and a
half to thirteen cents a day profit on each cow, besides giving
a home market for the corn and provender. And most important
of all, a means is thus afforded for improving the land
and increasing its capacity for carrying cows, and at the same
time returning a fair profit to the farmer. With cows of the
butter breed, more butter could be made from the same feed
and a larger profit realized. Take the Edgmont farm, of 300
acres arable land, as an example of what can be accomplished

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 buying
a few tons of bran, and feeding everything made on the
farm except wheat, carefully saving and applying all the resulting
manure. He has, from this farm, comfortably maintained
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 1st, they will do nearly as well as if on pasture;
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 bare and close. An ample

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 advantage
to the dairying interest of the county, as it would make
coöperative 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.

Sheep-Raising.

ALBEMARLE 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.

While the medium temperature of the climate is no inconsiderable
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 husbandry;
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 presents
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.

A Fruit-Growing County.

LYING on the sunny-side of the Blue Ridge, which shelters
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 leading
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 improved
by growing them on the mountain sides. The peculiar
light soil on the Blue Ridge and its outlying foothills,
kept constantly fertile by the decomposition of rocks furnishing
potash, which is so necessary to all fruit trees, and perennially
moist by numerous springs, yet thoroughly drained of
stagnant moisture by the rock débris, furnishing a soil unequalled
for the successful culture of the apple. These mountain

sides, worthless otherwise, except for sheep pastures, are,
therefore, as valuable as any lands in the county. The favorite
market apple of Albemarle, except the Pippin, is the Winesap,
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 perfection
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 surface
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 Albemarle
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 barrel,
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 apples,
can ship his own fruit, usually at a large profit over the
price generally paid in the orchard. Apple culture in Albemarle
must prove a great source of wealth to those who pursue
it in an intelligent manner.

Along the base of the Blue Ridge and immediately adjoining
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 orchards
of Eastern Maryland and Delaware, have I seen finer

peaches than grow in this part of the county. The level character
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 surface
of the land becomes too broken for extensive peach culture,
since the constant cultivation essential to the success of
the peach tree must result in such washing of the steep surface
as would permanently injure the land. On the level plateau
at the base of the mountain this is not the case. This
land, though sheltered by the mountains, is too elevated for
fruit to be injured by premature blooming, and being in the
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
orchards in the State. Those who are growing peaches in
this section are doing well. Albemarle peaches go into market
two to four weeks ahead of the great Maryland and Delaware
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 experience
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 am 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 cultivation
of improved varieties is profitable. Most of those who

have paid any attention to the cultivation of improved cherries
have made the mistake of cultivating the light-colored varieties
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 bottoms
have a very deep soil, the deposit of many years of
freshets, until now many of them are so elevated as to be seldom
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 productiveness
of these bottom lands, the crop, with intelligent management,
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

large cultivated blackberries, such as Wilson's Early and Kittatinny,
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 perceive
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 Charlottesville
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 competent
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 remunerative
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, Alexder's,
&c. The present season the Arnsden, from Albemarle,

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 Albemarle
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.

Bees and Honey.

WHAT 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 certainty
that it seems strange that everyone who has a home,
in a region productive of honey, should not engage in its production;

at least so far as to secure for his own table an abundance
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 interest
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 Staunton,
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 beautiful
golden-banded workers, so gentle and yet so brave to
defend their stores from robbers, and so much more industrious
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.

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 emboldened.
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 imprisoned
her in a little wire cage. Seeing my daughter standing
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 distributed.
Red clover will grow everywhere with proper attention.
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 intelligent

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 opening,
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 beekeeping
in Virginia might find delightful and profitable employment
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."

Grape-Culture.

THE 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 lacustrine
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 luxuriance,
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 Massachusetts,
near Martha's Vineyard, about the year 1000, and afterwards,
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.

About the same time of this translation, that versatile genius,
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 stranger 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 Kentucky,
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 immersion,
where practicable. Now, the planting of the Phylloxera-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.

This Phylloxera louse abounds with our native grapes, and
consequently those now in existence are those whose constitution
was strong enough to survive its ravages: all others

have disappeared. This pest, together with a tenderness of
foliage of the "Vinifera" not adapted to the climate of the
United States east of the Rocky Mountains, save in New
Mexico and portions of Texas, was the cause of continuous
early failure of grape culture.

It was not till in the forties, that Nicholas Longworth, of
Ohio, conceived the idea that this should be a wine-producing
country, and to make it so, the native stock must be taken as
a basis. This he encouraged most generously, searching for
all favorable varieties. Developing the better, discarding the
inferior. The Catawba was obtained from North Carolina, and
is about the only one of that date still largely grown. A host
of grapes then used have been cast aside and substituted by
new varieties with better properties, either for table or cellar
use. With proper cellars and vignerons he made wines in
Cincinnati, Ohio, on a large scale, which subsequently resulted
in grape-culture about Lake Erie, and extended throughout
the country.

Native Grapes.—Thus started, this new industry, with
varying success, but steadily advancing, by the erection of
proper cellars throughout Lake Erie region, in Ohio, Lake
Cayuga, and other places in western New York, up to 1865,
when domestic (American) wines demanded some attention
from the wine dealers of the country.

To the grape nurserymen in the United States from that
day to this, too much praise cannot be awarded. Looking, it
is true, to gain, they studied this most fascinating subject with
a true devotion, as humble citizens, wholly unknown in the
annals of grape-culture in Europe. Experimenting on the
traditional system that the "Vinifera" (European grape) was
a sine qua non for wines; they adopted a system of hybridizing
to obtain strength from the native, and quality from the
Asiatic descendant. The result is, that most of these experimentors
enjoyed a life of delightful anticipation, devoid of
realized funds, for the substantial comforts of life. Others
similarly fascinated, continue in the course yet, abandoning
the Vinifera mixture, devoting themselves to the improvements

of intermixed stock. Though delighted in his day (30 years
ago), Mr. Longworth would be amazed at the present results
of his initiatory movement on behalf of native grapes. With
the exception of his Catawba—immortalized by the melodious
verse of our genial poet, Longfellow—his then best varieties
have been discarded for other standard native grapes, numbering
now over 400 varieties. New kinds are in vogue, producing
wines, giving, satisfaction to the true European connoisseur.

This vast variety of our native developed stock is not all
adapted to the same or any one section, however perfect they may be in some given locality. This but corroborates the
grape history of Europe, where the removal of a given variety
to a different section or country results either in a total failure,
or such modification in the properties of the grape as to make
it practically a different fruit, the result of climatic influence:
for example, the grape of Burgundy transferred to Bordeaux
yields no more a true Burgundy wine.

Albemarle Grapes.—With Thos. Jefferson's failure with
his Vinifera as above stated, Albemarle county in the production
of tobacco for transport, and raising corn and cereals to
feed the negro slave, ceased to think of grape-culture. With
the exception of a few scattered vines about country gardens,
grapes were ignored, although its woods abounded with varieties
of the Vitis Æstivalis, now recognized as the leading
characteristic wine grape of the continent. Prior to this, the
country gentry affecting style, followed their English ancestry,
drinking at their homes, Port, Sherry and Madeira wines (so
called). Later this habit decreased and the native Apple Jack,
distilled from fine home-grown apples, and whiskey, usurped
the place of wines entirely.

The War.—With the little "sectional unpleasantness of
1861-'65," grapes were unthought of. Grapes and their product,
wine, are reverently spoken of in the Bible as symbols
of contentment, peace and social happiness. This unpleasantness
between the sections of the union promoted neither
of these triad conditions. Self-preservation, simple existence
in barbaric aspect was the utmost of our efforts.

After the War.—Albemarle county had escaped the
actual horrors of a battle field, but bordering on these, it
became the hospital and nursery for the wounded and dying,
the sepulchre for the dead, the granary for the fighting soldier.
The actual clash of arms ceased in 1865—the laborers
are freed and rioting in unknown realms of so-called liberty.
This was recognized property now confiscated by the conquering
section. It means poverty and bankruptcy to the former
master. With lands taxable and no labor; farming implements,
working stock, cattle all devoured in the past four
years of civil strife and no money, the people are at a loss
how to produce means for existence.

The superabundant lands alone are a burden; they are
offered for sale at any sacrifice. This induces many from the
Northern States and Europe to purchase and make their
homes in this invigorating climate. Amongst these are Mr.
W. Hotopp, purchasing "Pen Park" farm near Charlottesville,
once the home of William Wirt, an orator and Attorney
General of the United States.

Grape Culture.—Mr. Hotopp (at the suggestion of an old
Swiss, Sol. Seiler, who had lived here for long years before,
and who knew something of viticulture from his native land,
followed up here by garden grapes with a Frenchman, Mr.
Alphonse, a teacher of gymnastics at the University of Virginia)
conceived the idea that grape-culture would pay here
as an industry. In 1866-'67, Mr. Hotopp planted out some
grapes, with a view to shipping them for table use to some of
the Northern cities. Not having studied nor being familiar
with the subject, he planted indiscriminately different kinds,
with Concord grapes in the lead. Fine luscious grapes in
abundance was the result, and prices from shipping were more
than satisfactory. Here was a new product of agriculture
brought to light! Eagerly grasping for something more remunerative
than corn, wheat, oats and tobacco, several Germans,
who had settled here, planted vineyards, and some of
the old settlers pulled out of the ruts of antiquarian traditions
and embarked in this new pursuit. It grew successfully

from year to year, until now it is estimated there are over
2,500 acres in vines within the county limits.

Planting.—Climatically we occupy the latitude and climatic
conditions of some of the most favored vine countries
in Europe. The season is ample for perfect maturation of the
best wine grapes, exempt from serious spring frosts and early
frosts in autumn, with no excess of rainfall in the months of
April, May and June, nor in the maturing months of July,
August and September, seldom suffering from extended hail
storms, a clear sky and dry atmosphere. The conditions primarily
essential for successful grape-culture in perfection are
combined here. The fact that the grape abhors wet, as Virgil
taught, and still holds true, therefore a hillside is preferred to
a low, flat location. The soil should be dry, calcareous loam,
loose and friable, to facilitate self-drainage. Wherever there
are any disintegrading rocks, that will be an advantage as a
gradual feeder and mulch. Fresh lands preferable to those
long cultivated.

Trenching is the mode advocated for planting in France
and Germany. With the expense and scarcity of lands, and
cheap labor there, that may hold good—not so here. Plow
deep and thoroughly, following with subsoiler to make perfect.
Then land perfectly loosened and deeply plowed to eighteen
or twenty inches, is preferable; the plants should be put out in
the fall of the year, any time before a severe freeze. Spring
planting is preferred by some, and often with equally good
results; yet with ampler time in the fall and perfect settling
of soil, fixing the rootlets when spring opens, the fall is
deemed to be the best time as a rule. Planting should be in
rows from eight to ten feet wide, and the plants from six to
ten feet apart in the row, depending on the kind and its habit
of growth. Small growing ones like Delaware may be planted
6 × 8, the Concord and Ives 8 × 8, but such as the Norton and
Cynthiana should not be nearer than 10 × 10.

The number required for an acre at above named distances
would be 8 × 6, 907; 8 × 8, 680; and 10 × 10, 435. The plants
should be first-class year old. Their cost will vary much as

to kinds, times and places—from $20 to $75 per thousand
prevails with regular nurseries. The first year the land is to
be cultivated and kept clean, letting the young plants throw out
one or two good shoots, no more. The second year this is
repeated, cutting back to two eyes. Posts not smaller than
4 × 4 inches and 7 feet high, should be put in 2 feet this early
summer, 20 feet apart, and one wire No. 12 stretched, to which
the plant should be fastened taut, 2 feet above ground, to form
a permanent stock, letting two branches grow above the wire
to bear the fruit. The third year these two branches above the
wire should be pruned back to four or five eyes on each side,
and tied in a bowed position at the stem and extremity. Another
or two other wires should be stretched, to which the
summer growth is fastened during early summer, and the land
cultivated and kept clean. Some do not bear fruit until the
fourth year, and it is thought preferable that none should be
permitted to bear much, if any fruit, until the fourth year.

The cost of all this up to fourth year bearing, outside the
land, should be from $50 to $125 per acre, depending on
many surroundings and circumstances.

What to Plant.—A difficult question. No locality will
suit all grapes. A slight variation in soil, exposure, &c., at
but small intervals in space, adapts one kind of grape to a
given spot, when two miles away this grape would not do so
well, but another much better.

The natural and ultimate destination of the grape is the
wine vat, yet there are varieties popular and profitable, to a
certain extent, for shipping. These should be attractive either
to the eye or the palate, when perfect, combining both properties.
The light-colored grapes excel in this respect. Of
the large number of these now recognized as superior in
quality, the finely pink-tinted, transparent Delaware has held
the highest place in the New York market, for consecutive
years, in price excelling the much larger bunched fine grapes
of California. Of these, it must be borne in mind, that either
the table market becomes glutted or there are a number of
imperfect bunches which, if not put into the wine vat, are lost,

and materially affects the profit derived. This county abounding,
as it does, in a large admixture of iron in its soil, seems
peculiarly adapted to highest perfection of red wine-grapes.
This peculiarity is noted in the most favored claret-producing
vineyards in France, the land of the finest light clarets. Many
of the Labrusca species, such as, notably Concord and Ives,
prevail here, making a good, sound, palatable wine. But the
Æstivalis are unquestionably the finest native wine grapes in
America. The Norton's Virginia (miscalled seedling) originated
at Cedar Island, in James River, above Richmond city,
and comes to the highest perfection in Virginia. Dense in
color, abounding in tannin, it makes a characteristic wine of a
heavy Burgundy nature. The Cynthiana, first brought from
Arkansas, is so similar to the Norton that the two cannot be
distinguished in foliage, seed or growth. It is claimed to
make a finer wine, though that is questionable. The maturity
of grapes for eating purposes opens generally about the first
week in August, and for wine purposes they are gathered
throughout September until as late as October tenth. When
healthy and properly cultivated they yield a profit far exceeding
that of any other agricultural product, when sold to the
wine makers here at from $30 to $80 per ton delivered, while
the finer table varieties pay still more, to the extent they can
be shipped to the larger cities, all in easy reach by the diverging
railways intersecting at Charlottesville.

Although free from the effects of the scourge of Phylloxera
devastating the fields of Europe, and the pourridie, a root
rot, now making serious inroads on the Vitis in California,
the grape is not exempt from all diseases. The black rot and
mildew have of late years greatly affected the industry. These
are two different though somewhat similar fungi. The mildew,
long known in France, was there treated with considerable
success by the application of sulphur. More recently the
spraying of a liquid mixture of sulphate of copper, mixed
either with lime or liquid ammonia, on the foliage has proved
a perfect cure against this defoliaging fungus. Two years ago
the black rot also made its appearance in France, and the government,

with its vigilant protection of agriculture in all its
branches, is seeking for a remedy. None has yet been officially
reported. From present appearances (August, 1888) in a
few of the local vineyards it is thought that the above named
French mildew application is a promising preventive of the
rot also, when spraying is early commenced and repeated at
short intervals, May it not be that these two forms of fungi
are so closely allied that the death of one affects the other,
and a steady fight may gradually destroy them both?

The Wine-Making Industry.

WINE," means the fermented grape juice. Unfermented
wines do not exist any more than undistilled brandy.
It has been in use in all ages and with all peoples of
the globe, furnishing the elements of healthy stimulation, demanded
by the human race in some form, as we learn from
the most ancient records and can observe at the present time.

Wines are to be divided into white and red, as to color, and
dry and sweet as to their taste or sugar contents.

Except for family use (and they more properly cordials than
wine) no mercantile wines were produced in this county till
about 1870-1, when Mr. Hotopp utilized his common house-cellar
for converting his cultivated grapes, not shipped for
table-use, into dry wines—red and white. As grape-culture
extended, the late W. W. Minor, Sr., and Oscar Rierson procured
casks, press, &c., and made their grapes into wine, in an
ordinary house-cellar, at Charlottesville. The two latter gentlement
then procured the coöperation of other fruit-growers
and formed the Monticello Wine Company, which was chartered
in May, 1873. A good building was erected and properly
furnished with all the necessary apparatus for the work, and
placed under the charge of Mr. A. Russow. This structure,
with its entire contents, was destroyed in 1881. It was replaced
in 1882 by a larger and more perfectly equipped building,

four stories in height, 44 × 100 feet inside measurement.
The vaults of this building are fire-proof, and it is furnished
with the best and latest appliances for the economic production
and preservation of wines and brandy.

This, with the now large wine cellar of Mr. Hotopp, together
with a few smaller establishments, furnish, at all times,
a safe and sure home market for the grapes raised in this and
adjoining counties.

The products of these cellars are of the highest excellence,
and if they were allowed to acquire the "bouquet," that age
alone can give, they would stand comparison with some of the
noted wines of Europe. As it is, they are far superior to the
average wine placed on the market.

From the four to six thousand gallons produced by the
Monticello Wine Company and Hotopp in 1873-4, the product
has steadily increased to some 50,000 gallons annually
by each; besides a goodly quantity, of two or three barrels
to the family, made for private use by many of the grape-growers.

In the beginning it was no easy task to find a market for
these wines. Wines were not a general beverage. It was a
kind of luxury indulged in by men of means, and these had
acquired a real or fancied taste for European wines. They
adhered to the prejudiced idea that America could make no
good wines. Wine dealers shared the same opinion and even
now wine importers boldly maintain such is the case. They
are excusable, because they make larger profits of importations;
or they buy a good native wine, put foreign labels on
it and sell at imported prices.

That there were good, sound meritorious native wines made,
were acknowledged at the Vienna Exposition, in 1876, when
a Missouri "Cynthiana" wine was awarded a first prize and
this was followed by the award of a silver medal for red wines
to the Monticello Wine Company, or the Paris Exposition in
1878, subsequently followed by two first-class medals at the
Word's Exposition, at New Orleans, in 1884-5.

But the Albemarle wines did not have to wait or rest their

claims for merit on exposition medals. Fighting its way up
hill, against long established prejudice, it gradually forced its
passage into good society, gaining a recognition by the public
of real intrinsic worth, till now it stands at the head of all
native wines in all the large northern cities. It is a demonstrable
fact that Albemarle County wines sell at a higher
price to dealers and consumer than any wines made in America.

Of course, it will be understood that we do not claim to
have produced wines equal to the Grand Vins of France, the
Rhine and the Hungarian Tokay. These are produced in but
limited quantities, from grapes raised at particular points, and
their price places them far beyond the reach of all except a
few. But for sound, clear, pure wine of a grade generally
used by the world and at prices of a popular standard, our
wines compare favorably in every respect with similarly classed
European wines.

With the persistent efforts of America in producing higher-classed
grapes, and continuous exertions to advance the qualities
of wines, it is not improbable but that we may yet produce
wines superior to the finest wines of Europe.

The general character of the Albemarle wines may be
briefly indicated as follows:—

Catawba, made from the grape of that name, is probably the
most extensively used of all American Wines. It has a strong
flavor, and possesses less acid than the western wines of the
same name. Its color is pale amber, like the Rhine wines,
and it contains 13 per cent. of alcnhol, by weight.

The Delaware is of a yellow color, fine flavor, great body
and an alcoholic strength of 12 per cent.

Claret is mainly made from the Concord grape, and for a
light table wine is superior to the imported clarets. Its low
price places it within the reach of all. Its alcoholic strength
is from 9 to 10 per cent.

Ives Seedling is a claret with some astringency, fine color,
improving greatly with age. Its alcoholic strength is 10 to
11 per cent.

The Alvey wine is made, to a limited extent, from the grape

of the same name. It resembles, in character and flavor, the
finer wines of Bordeaux.

Cynthiana is considered the most characteristic of our native
wines. It resembles the strongest Burgundy, very dark, great
body and exquisite flavor, alcoholic strength 10 to 12 per cent.

Norton's Virginia is another wine of a Burgundy nature,
possessing decided medicinal properties. Its color is nearly
black, very heavy and of strong flavor. It is known to be a
preventive of intermittent fevers and other malarious diseases,
as well as for chronic diarrhœas and summer complaints in
children. It is fully appreciated in Europe as one of the best
red wines of the world. Age improves it greatly. Its alcoholic
strength is from 10 to 12 per cent.

Clinton is a claret with wintergreen taste not liked except
by a few. This taste disappears with age and is then quite
popular as a claret.

Grape brandy is produced from the juice of all these grapes
of a high class. Its distillation is the old plan still pursued
in Cognac, France.

Hermann is a native sherry of good properties as a cooking
wine, as well as a beverage for those partial to this class. Its
alcoholic strength is 14 to 17 per cent., being nearly the same
as that of the natural Sherry of Spain, ere it is fortified to 30
per cent. in the London Docks, from whence it is delivered to
the consumer as pure.

What Albemarle Can Do.

To show what can be done in Albemarle we publish the
following sketch of Ellerslie, the home of Eolus: