University of Virginia Library

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.