University of Virginia Library

CHAPTER XVII

SOME SOCIAL AND ECONOMICAL FACTORS
(Continued)

The social and industrial changes in Virginia which resulted
from war and readjustment caused a marked increase
in the population of the cities. The railroad development has
brought into existence mining, manufacturing and commercial
towns and cities and has accelerated the growth of others.
The cities of Roanoke, Newport News, Clifton Forge, and the
towns of Pocahontas, Pulaski, Covington, Cape Charles, Alta
Vista, Victoria, and others owe their existence chiefly to railroads
which have been completed since 1880.

Roanoke was a village of 669 people in 1880. Within ten
years a city of 16,159 had come into being. In 1920, it was the
fourth city of Virginia in size, with a population of 50,842
inhabitants. During the '80s, Newport News on Hampton
Roads became a great shipping point. Ship construction was
later begun by the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock
Company, which is now one of the largest private plants of its
kind in the world. Many of the best fighting craft in the
United States Navy has been made by at company. Newport
News has a population of 35,596 and is rapidly growing.

In 1881 Pocahontas was a laurel thicket. Now it is a
thriving mining town. Clifton Forge, Covington, and Pulaski
have large plants for manufacturing iron and other products.
Similar changes have taken place in other towns too
numerous to mention.

Railroads have made available the great mineral resources
of Virginia. The following report of the State Geologist,
Prof. Thomas L. Watson, of the University of Virginia,

gives an excellent view of the location of these resources and
the value of their products in 1920:

"Virginia is possessed of an abundance and variety of
mineral materials, many of which have been worked since
early colonial days, especially coal, iron ores and brick clays.
In 1920, the latest year for which mineral statistics collected
by the State Geological Survey are available, the total value of
all mineral products mined and quarried in Virginia was $82,662,945.
This represents an increase of $32,584,290 in value,
or nearly 40 per cent over the year of 1919. The total value of
the 1919 production of mineral products mined and quarried
in Virginia was $50,078,655.

"Mining of iron ore in Virginia in 1609 by the Jamestown
colonists was the first iron ore mined in the United States. The
commercial deposits of iron ore in Virginia are confined to the
Piedmont and Appalachian provinces. The production of
iron ores in Virginia in 1920 amounted to 320,109 long tons,
valued at $1,227,601. The valuation of the production of pig
iron in Virginia for the same year was $16,086,946.

"Virginia has always held an important position as a producer
of manganese ores, which are derived chiefly from three
sections of the State; (1) The eastern Valley counties, extending
along the northwest foot of the Blue Ridge from Warren
County on the north to Smyth County on the southwest,
inclusive; (2) many of the counties in western Virginia, including
Tazewell, Bland, Giles, Craig, Bath, Shenandoah and
Frederick; and (3) a group of counties in the Piedmont
province, of which Campbell is the principal producer. The
production of manganese ores in Virginia for 1920 was valued
at $73,929.

"Virginia has long held the position of first producer of
pyrite (iron sulphide used in the manufacture of sulphuric
acid) among pyrite-producing States in the United States.
Commercial pyrite occurs in Buckingham, Louisa, Prince,
William, Stafford, and Spotsylvania counties, and mines are
opened in each county. The pyrite mines of Louisa and Prince

Lambert's Point

Terminal Norfolk and Western Railway Co. 3,000 Cars Pocahontas Coal Awaiting Vessels

William counties are the largest ones in the United States.
Pyrrhotite, magnetic pyrite, used for the same purpose as
pyrite occurs in abundance in Carroll County, and is extensively
mined at Monarat for use in acid making at Pulaski.
Only one of the several mines that have produced large tonnages
of ore for acid-making reported a production in 1920.

"Gold occurs and has been mined in Fauquier, Stafford,
Culpeper, Orange, Spotsylvania, Louisa, Fluvanna, Goochland,
and Buckingham counties. Gold mining in the State
dates from the year 1831, and from 1831 to 1850 the production
was reasonably steady, the annual value being between
$50,000 and $100,000. At present the production is small, but
considerable activity is now being manifested in the mines of
this belt, which should yield steady and profitable returns if
properly managed.

"Copper ores are found in Halifax, Charlotte, Warren,
Fauquier, Rappahannock, Madison, Page, Greene, Albemarle,
Buckingham, Floyd, Carroll, and Grayson counties. The principal
area in Virginia that has produced copper ores is the
Virgilina district, which includes parts of Halifax and Charlotte
counties. No production of either gold or copper was
reported in 1920.

"Lead mining in Virginia dates back more than 150 years,
and the old lead mines at Austinville, Wythe county, were the
first to be worked. Mining of zinc ores in the State dates
from the opening of the mines at Bertha, Wythe county, in
1879. The production of lead and zinc in Virginia, which in
1916 amounted to nearly $700,000 in value has been increased
during recent years by the output from the Holladay and
Allah Cooper mines in Spotsylvania County.

"Of the minerals mined in Virginia, coal is the most important
both from the standpoint of quantity and value. In
1920 the production in the State amounted to 11,378,606 short
tons, valued at $45,446,465. The production of coke for the
same year amounted to 714,980 short tons, valued at $6,324,578.
Virginia takes rank among the principal coal-producing

States in the United States because of the extensive coal fields
in the southwest part of the State, which include a part or all
of the following counties: Tazewell, Russell, Scott, Dickenson,
Buchanan, Wise, and Lee. Coal is also produced in
Montgomery and Pulaski counties, and deposits are known
in Augusta, Botetourt, Bland, and Wythe counties. In addition
to these an important coal area, and the only one adjacent
to Tidewater on the Atlantic slope of the United States,
is the Richmond Coal Basin, which covers parts of the following
five counties; Henrico, Chesterfield, Powhatan, Goochland
and Amelia. The coals of this basin represent a good
grade of bituminous fuel which has been mined quite extensively
at several localities on the east side of the basin.

"The clays of Virginia show great variety, are widely distributed,
and are suitable for many commercial purposes. Almost
every county in Virginia contains clay suitable for the
manufacture of common brick, and, in most cases, the deposits
are of such character that common brick of the best quality
can be made. The total value of clay products in Virginia in
1920 was $3,467,105.

"The production of stone has been an important industry
in the State for many years, and the product of some varieties,
especially granite, has been used in many notable structures.
The stone industry for 1920 was fifth in importance among
those based on the mineral wealth of the State. The production
of stone in Virginia for 1920, including granite, limestone,
sandstone, basalt, and slate, was valued at $2,047,675.

"The mineral waters of Virginia are an important source
of revenue in the State. Virginia has a large number of spring
resorts and a great variety and abundance of well-known commercial
waters. Indeed, Virginia is par excellence a mineral
springs State, occupying among the South Atlantic States the
same position that New York does in the North Atlantic section.
Virginia is second only to New York in the number of
springs that are utilized commercially and exceeds New York
in the number of resorts. The total sales of water from the

Iron Furnace, Roanoke

mineral springs in Virginia in 1920, exclusive of water sold
for soft drinks, amounted to 1,248,382 gallons, valued at
$147,600.

"Other mineral products produced in Virginia in 1917 and
their valuations are tabulated below (later data is not available):

             

Lime	$2,201,724
Marl (calcareous)	143,373
Mica	65,500
Millstones and chasers	34,676
Sand and gravel	1,133,279
Talc and soapstone	729,767
Miscellaneous (including barytes, cement emery, gems and precious stones, gypsum, ilmenite, lead and zinc pigments, purite, rutile and salt)	3,532,727"[1]

With the development of transportation facilities and of
mining, there was a marked increase in manufacturing and
commerce, and a corresponding growth of cities.

At the outbreak of the War for Southern Independence,
Virginia was painfully conscious of its dependence upon
Northern factories and ships. Slavery, and the self-sufficient
plantation system, stifled all business but agriculture and a
few simple handicrafts. The Commonwealth possessed, however,
some manufacturing establishments which were very
successful, and was beginning to establish direct commercial
relations with foreign countries. At the outbreak of the war,
Richmond, a city of 37,910 inhabitants, possessed iron works
(The Old Dominion Iron and Nail Works and the Tredegar
Company) established during the eighteen thirties; flour mills
of more than national fame (the Haxall-Crenshaw Company

established in 1809 and the Gallego mills); soap factory dating
from 1804 (Peter J. Crew and Co.); cotton mills established
in the eighteen thirties and forties (the Old Dominion
Cotton Mills and the Marshall Manufacturing Company); tobacco,
and other factories of lesser fame.[2]

Ante bellum newspapers of Virginia contain many references
to a conscious attempt on the part of the people of the
State to become economically independent. The Richmond
Dispatch of January 11, 1860, notes with approval Senator
Mason's appearance in the United States Senate dressed in
a suit of clothes made in Virginia. Three days later, the
paper carried the following advertisement: "Hoop Skirts,
for the ladies—an indispensable article of apparel—are to
be manufactured in this city, by Mrs. Strider, who has taken
rooms on Pearl Street, between Main and Cary. Our lady
readers, who are true as steel to the South, will be gratified to
hear of this factory, and give the proprietress their cordial
support."

Flour shipped from Virginia was in great demand in Brazil
on account of its excellent quality, and its capacity of withstanding
the heat of the tropics, through which it passed to
that country. In 1884, 249,787 barrels of flour were sent from
Richmond to Brazil. Coffee was shipped to the United States
in return, and shortly before the War of 1861 a line of packets
linked Richmond and Rio. By 1868 the former city had become
one of the greatest coffee ports in the United States. The
aroma of coffee from nearby roasting and packing mills which
now and then pervades the State Library in Capitol Square
reminds one of this early exchange of flour and coffee reaching
across the equator.

In 1848, the Assembly of Virginia incorporated the Norfolk
and San Nazaire Navigation Company, which was to join
the great central seaport of America with the French port
that was the terminus of railroad lines leading into central

Bird's-eye View of Richmond

Europe. The act was amended and the stock of the company
increased just after the War of 1861.[3]

Richmond, which, in 1860, was little more than a country
town of 38,000 inhabitants, had grown into a city of over 63,600
by 1885. Its chief development in industry and trade after
1870 was in the tobacco business.[4] Richmond received in 1885,
73,847,252 pounds of leaf tobacco. About half of this was
shipped away and the remainder was manufactured. There
were four cigarette factories, fifty cigar factories, twenty-six
plants for stemming and rehandling, and thirty-six for manufacturing
plug, chewing and smoking tobacco. The first cigarettes
ever made by machinery were produced in Richmond
by Major Lewis Ginter of that city. In the year, 1885, there
were 179,699,870 cigarettes produced in Richmond. Of the
$93,067,408 of capital invested in the city's industries in 1919,
more than a third was invested in plants for manufacturing
tobacco. The total value of the product of all industries was
$156,724,322. Of this amount, the value of tobacco products
equaled $66,447,860. In addition to these manufacturing concerns,
Richmond has large manufacturers of flour, one of the
largest cedar wooden-ware factories in the country, and one of
the largest locomotive works, the largest blotting paper factory,
and many factories producing a wide variety of articles.
Six railroad lines which enter the city, and boats on the James
River at the head of tidewater, afford ample facilities for
trade.

Similar progress could be shown along other lines of business
such as wholesale and retail merchandising, insurance,
banking, real estate, and many others. Nor does this brief
account do justice to the increase in civic improvements. In
the fall of 1879 a telephone exchange was installed and a city
system was first inaugurated. The first successful electric

street railway system in the world was installed in Richmond
in 1887. The trial run was made in the night of November
7th. Electric motors soon replaced the mules of little horsepower
and of less speed—except when they became frightened
at the railroad locomotives on Broad Street and ran away
with the cars.

Norfolk, in 1860, had a population of only 14,620, and
Portsmouth of 9,496. These cities, though situated upon one
of the most magnificent harbors in the world, were just beginning
to come into their own as commercial centers. Located
as these cities are on the northeastern corner of the great
cotton-growing South, with railroads and canals radiating
from them to all points in that region, it was but natural that
they should soon have developed a great export trade in cotton.
In 1858-59, only 6,174 bales of cotton were exported
from the two ports. That number had grown to 32,941 during
1860-61. This increase was checked by war. By 1872 these
ports had risen to the fifth, and in 1874, to the third rank,
among American ports in the net annual receipts of cotton.

During 1874-75, 392,235 bales were received for shipment,
and for the first time shipments were made direct to Europe—
67,312 bales. Ten years later (1885) 484,459 bales were received
in Norfolk and Portsmouth; and of this amount, 204,083
bales were exported direct to Europe.

Between 1865 and 1885, these cities developed a large trade
in lumber, fertilizers, coal, vegetables, fish, crabs and oysters.
Their business in these lines have been greatly increased and
many manufacturing plants have been built. Eight trunk lines
of railroads now have deep water terminals on Norfolk harbor,
which, by 1920, had become the second port in the United
States in the net tonnage of vessels entering and clearing in
foreign trade—10,382,000 tons. It still remains one of the
world's greatest cotton ports (384,824 bales in 1920) and has
taken first rank as a tobacco port (207,713,172 pounds in
1920.) Norfolk and Portsmouth have grown from small towns
in 1860 to cities of 115,777 and 54,387 inhabitants respectively

First Factory to Manufacture Cigarettes by Machinery

in 1920. They are still growing rapidly. Norfolk in 1919 contained
207 industrial plants capitalized at $22,516,307, the
value of whose products amounted to $29,587,662.

Petersburg, like Richmond, is a great tobacco market and
manufacturing center, and like Norfolk, is within easy reach
of the Southern cotton fields. In 1885, five cotton manufacturing
companies with an aggregate of 26,554 spindles were
in operation in the city. It has also developed a large peanut
market. There are many factories for packing peanuts and
for manufacturing products from them. The Seward Company
operates the largest trunk factory in the world. Mills for the
making of cotton fabrics and yarns, lumber products, flour, silk
and other things are located there. Danville is the largest loose
leaf bright tobacco market in the world. It has also established
large cotton and other mills. Lynchburg is one of the
wealthiest cities for its size in the land. Its shoe and candy
industries are perhaps its most noted enterprises. It is
also a large tobacco and apple market.

Suffolk is a railroad center at the head of navigation on
the Nansemond River, and is a great peanut market. Charlottesville
has one of the most successful woolen mills in the
United States and is a large apple market. Farmville and
South Boston are tobacco centers. Towns throughout the
State have manufacturing plants which produce a wide
variety of household articles, farming implements, vehicles,
etc., which formerly were bought without the State. The value
of Virginia's manufactures increased from $108,600,000 in
1910 to $650,000,000 in 1920.

The growth of the population of the chief cities in the
Commonwealth may be seen from the following table:

                     

	1860		1880	1900	1920
Alexandria	12,652		13,659	14,528	18,060
Danville	3,463	(1870)	7,526	16,520	21,539
	1860		1880	1900	1920
Lynchburg	6,853		15,959	18,891	30,070
Newport News				19,635	35,596
Norfolk	14,620		21,966	46,624	115,777
Petersburg	18,266		21,656	21,810	31,012
Portsmouth	9,496		11,390	17,427	54,387
Richmond	37,910		63,600	85,050	171,667
Roanoke			669	21,495	50,842

The following is a table of the population in 1920 of the
other principal towns and cities of the State:

                         

Bristol, Va. Tenn.	14,776
Bristol, Va.	6,729
Charlottesville	10,688
Clifton Forge	6,164
Covington	5,623
Fredericksburg	5,882
Hampton	6,138
Harrisonburg	5,875
Pulaski	5,282
South Norfolk	7,724
Staunton	10,623
Suffolk	9,123
Winchester	6,882

The cities have gradually gained on the rural population.
The proportion of the population of Virginia living in places
of 2,500 or more increased from 18.3 per cent in 1900 to 23.1
per cent in 1910, and to 29.2 per cent in 1920. Between one-half
and one-third of the people of the Commonwealth now
live in cities, or other incorporated places of 2,500 or more
inhabitants. The following table from the Fourteenth Census
gives in figures the story of this change during the last twenty
years:

URBAN AND RURAL POPULATION: 1920, 1910 AND 1900.

                           

CLASS OF PLACES	1920		1910		1900		Per Cent of Total Population.
	Number of places	Population.	Number of places	Population.	Number of places.	Population.	1920	1910	1900
Total population		2,309,187		2,061,612		1,854,184	100.0	100.0	100.0
Urban territory	39	673,984	32	476,529	27	340,067	29.2	23.1	18.3
Cities and towns of—
100,000 inhabitants or more	2	287,444	1	127,628			12.4	6.2
50,000 to 100,000 inhabitants	2	105,229	1	67,452	1	85,050	4.6	3.3	4.6
25,000 to 50,000 inhabitants	3	96,678	3	97,558	1	46,624	4.2	4.7	2.5
10,000 to 25,000 inhabitants	5	67,639	6	95,532	7	130,306	2.9	4.6	7.0
5,000 to 10,000 inhabitants	9	58,694	6	36,764	6	38,261	2.5	1.8	2.1
2,500 to 5,000 inhabitants	18	58,300	15	51,595	12	39,826	2.5	2.5	2.1
Rural territory		1,635,203		1,585,083		1,514,117	70.8	76.9	81.7
Cities and towns of less than 2,500 inhabitants	164	120,783	159	113,016	128	84,703	5.2	5.5	4.6
Other rural territory		1,514,420		1,472,067		1,429,414	65.6	71.4	77.1

Virginia has grown in population from 1,512,565 in 1880
to 2,309,187 in 1920. The table below shows this increase:

POPULATION OF VIRGINIA: 1880 TO 1920.

             

CENSUS YEAR.	Population.	Increase Over Preceding Census.		Per cent of increase for the United States.
		Number.	Per cent.
1920	2,309,187	247,575	12.0	14.9
1910	2,061,612	207,428	11.2	21.0
1900	1,854,184	198,204	12.0	20.7
1890	1,655,980	143,415	9.5	25.5
1880	1,512,565	287,402	23.5	30.1

The population has also increased in density. The total
land area of the State is 40,262 square miles.[5] The average
number of inhabitants to the quare mile in 1920 was 57.4 as
against 51.2 in 1910, and 46.1 in 1900.

Only 1.3 per cent of Virginia's population in 1920 was
foreign born. The percentage of negroes to the total population
has become less each decade. During the twenty years
from 1900 to 1920 the percentage has decreased from 35.6
to 29.9.

It may be readily seen from these figures that, in spite of
the growth of her cities and of her manufactures and commerce,
Virginia is still essentially a rural Commonwealth.
Farming is her greatest industry and upon it her prosperity
in every other line is based.

The chief developments in agriculture since 1860 have been
the introduction of free labor, the establishment of the State
Department of Agriculture and Immigration, the breaking up
of large farms into smaller ones, the coming of the tenant
farmer, more diversified agriculture, new staple crops, more

DENSITY OF POPULATION OF VIRGINIA, BY COUNTIES: 1920

Rural Population Is Defined as That Residing Outside of Incorporated Places Having 2,500 Inhabitants or More

TOTAL POPULATION.

RURAL POPULATION.

PER CENT OF INCREASE OR DECREASE OF POPULATION OF VIRGINIA, BY COUNTIES: 1910-1920

Rural Population Is Defined as That Residing Outside of Incorporated Places Having 2,500 Inhabitants or More.

PER CENT OF NEGROES IN TOTAL POPULATION BY COUNTIES: 1920

scientific farming, cooperation among farmers in buying and
marketing, and the breaking down of rural isolation.

An account has already been given of the great change that
came with the breaking up of the old social and economic
system in the State. Farms and farm values declined and
those who owned the land were reduced to dire straights. Some
gave up their farms; others with much suffering lived through
that trying period, sold part of their land and adjusted themselves
to new conditions. The cheapness of land was a great
boon to many who had been almost landless before and whose
lower standard of living spared them the acute suffering of
those who had possessed a larger portion of the soil. Plantations,
therefore, were broken up, and, in many cases, passed
into the hands of new owners. In 1860, there were 57,188
farms in Virginia. By 1885 the number had increased to 118,517;
and in 1920 there were 186,242 farms. The farms in 1920
were largely managed by their owners, of whom there were
136,363. There were 2,134 managers and 47,745 tenants.
Of course the last number does not take into consideration
the large number of tenants who live on their own little farms
and rent a part of a neighboring farm "on shares." The
average size of a Virginia farm in 1923 was 99.7 acres. The
average value per acre of the land in Virginia increased from
$20.24 in 1910 to $40.75 in 1920. The tenant farmer has not
been always a blessing where land has been cheap since they
have used their leased farms as stepping stones to farms of
their own and have often left them in a worse condition than
that in which they found them. However, the system as a
whole was a God-send to those without land. In a large measure
it helped to solve the labor question, and in that way aided
the owners in saving much of the wreckage of their fortunes.
The State will be fortunate if it can further the change of its
tenants into proprietors.

In 1877 a Department of Agriculture and Immigration
was created by the General Assembly and a Commissioner of
Agriculture was appointed. A Board of Agriculture and Immigration

was created in 1888. As early as 1871, Virginia
began her policy of protecting the farmers from inferior
fertilizers. The law then enacted has been made more effective
from time to time. The Department of Agriculture and
Immigration now has divisions of Chemistry, Botany and Seed
Testing, Agricultural Statistics, and of Marketing. It has
been active in bringing in desirable immigrants from the
northern and western parts of the United States.[6] A year
book and monthly bulletins are distributed and farmers are
aided in many ways through the several divisions of the Department.

The Federal Agricultural Statistician for Virginia, Mr.
Henry M. Taylor made the following estimates of the crops
for 1922:

"The total value of the important crops in order of rank
is as follows: Corn $42,116,000, tobacco $37,620,000, hay $19,520,000,
wheat $12,658,000, white (Irish) potatoes $10,780,000,
apples $7,524,000, sweet potatoes $5,403,000, peanuts $4,290,000,
and cotton $2,744,000. According to value per acre the
leading crops are, tobacco $180.00, sweet potatoes $117.45,
sorghum for syrup $79.90, white potatoes $69.55, cotton $51.75,
peanuts $33.00, corn $22.12, barley $22.00, hay $22.00, buckwheat
$15.99, and wheat $15.75.

"The great variety of crops grown in Virginia is shown by
these percentages: The acreage of corn was 41.9 per cent of
the total number of acres in cultivation; hay, 21.4 per cent;
wheat, 18.3 per cent; tobacco, 4.6 per cent; oats, 3.6 per cent;
white potatoes, 3.4 per cent; peanuts, 2.9 per cent; cotton, 1.15
per cent; sweet potatoes, 1.01 per cent; rye, 0.88 per cent; buckwheat,
0.37 per cent; sorghum for syrup, 0.29 per cent, and
barley, 0.20 per cent. In addition to the above, a considerable
acreage, for which no estimate is made, is devoted to fruits

and truck crops. Virginia is one of the leading States in the
variety of agricultural products grown."[7]

The Albemarle pippins and other Virginia apples have
long been famous in the markets of the world. But only with
the recent inauguration of cold storage plants, modern
methods of spraying, pruning trees, and of packing and marketing
have apples become a large staple crop. Peanut culture
did not assume importance until after 1865. Trucking
and dairying have developed with the improved transportation
and marketing facilities. Virginia now (1923) ranks first
in the production of early Irish potatoes, third in tobacco,
fourth in peanuts, and fourth in apples. Virginia leads all
the South Atlantic States in milk production (110,942,113 gallons
in 1919); has more cow-testing associations than any
Southern state; and more pure bred horses, sheep and beef
and dairy cattle than any other South Atlantic state. Census
figures show that Virginia in 1922 was increasing her annual
yield of corn, oats, Irish potatoes, sweet potatoes, and hay
faster than any other Southern state east of the Mississippi.[8]
In 1922 the land of Virginia produced crops worth 62 per cent
more per acre than the average for the United States. The
State could claim one of the strongest Farmers' Unions, one
of the strongest Farm Bureaus, and some of the most successful
young people's club work in the South. This account of
progress should not obscure the fact that the farmer has not
yet attained his highest prosperity. In no other business
under the sun are there more possibilities for development
than in agriculture. Chemists, physicists, biologists, and
economists have each opened new avenues to wonderful possibilities
in methods of production and distribution. And the
inventors have been making country homes less lonely. A
revolution in farming is already well under way.

The agents of this revolution in the State are the Department

of Agriculture, the Virginia Polytechnic Institute,
Hampton Institute, the Agricultural High Schools which are
being built in every county, county demonstrators, experiment
stations, agricultural journals, and cooperative associations.
The most important development since 1860 in the business
of farming has been the organization by the farmers of cooperative
marketing associations. Only through these organizations
can the farmer hope to escape from bondage to
those from whom he buys and to those to whom he sells.
Farmers have always found it difficult to organize. Only
when faced with ruin did they do it. During the period
of the World War, the farmers shared the inflated prices
with the rest of the world. But when war ended, the
prices of farm products fell until they had in many instances
gone below the pre-war level and even below the cost of production.
In 1921 the State Commissioner of Agriculture Mr.
G. W. Koiner wrote:

"The price of corn in 1920 was only 15 per cent above
1914, and today is 26 per cent less. This is true of other commodities
as well; the 1920 tobacco crop was sold at 50 per
cent below cost of production, yet the manufactured product
is selling today approximately at war prices; hides are selling
below pre-war prices, yet harness and shoes are selling for
double pre-war prices; wool sells for about 20 per cent less
than pre-war prices, yet clothing costs twice as much. In
fact almost everything the farmer must buy cost about double
what it did before the war, and everything he is selling is at
pre-war prices and less.

"These conditions cannot be expected to continue, already
the rural population of our country is about 2,000,000 less
than the urban. The new census shows that in some of the
counties in the richest agricultural States the number of farm
owners has decreased 14 per cent and the number of farm
tenants increased 27 per cent.[9]

RURAL POPULATION.

These figures can only outline the picture of suffering and
ruin which faced the farmers. There was but one way out.
They were directed into that way by an address by Commissioner
Konier, "To the Virginia Tobacco Warehouseman
and the Business Public," which was published in the Richmond
Times Dispatch of September 9, 1920. An editorial in
the same issue of that paper seconded Mr. Koiner's advice.
Both articles advised the farmers to hold their crops for a
better market, to find out the cause for low prices, and to
formulate a scheme for preventing such conditions in the
future. The Commissioner in his monthly bulletins kept the
question of cooperative marketing before the people and he
was ably seconded by the Times Dispatch and other papers.
The farmers in desperation heeded this counsel. Within two
years a momentous change had come. Thousands of farmers
had pledged themselves to cooperate. They were fortunate
in having as an example the Eastern Shore of Virginia Produce
Exchange, "one of the oldest and most successful marketing
organizations in the world." This association
marketed sweet and Irish potatoes, strawberries, tomatoes,
and cabbages, which were produced in Northampton and
Accomac counties in large quantities. It was chiefly responsible
for converting a relatively poor agricultural region into
one of the richest in the country. In 1923, it marketed $19,000,000
worth of products for the two counties. The following
is a brief summary of the cooperative movement in 1923
given by the director of the Division of Markets of the Department
of Agriculture, Mr. J. H. Meek: "Associations organized
in Virginia during the past couple of years and yet
in the process of being born, have enabled producers to receive
many hundreds of thousand dollars they would not have received
had these associations not been in existence. One of
the foremost of these is the Tobacco Growers' Cooperative
Association, which is now marketing the bulk of the tobacco
produced in Virginia, North and South Carolina, at prices
that are very advantageous to the producers. Some of the

other associations now functioning are the Maryland-Virginia
Milk Producers' Association, the Valley Milk Producers' Association,
Richmond Milk Producers' Association, Peanut
Growers' Association, which operates in both Virginia and
North Carolina, Southern Produce Exchange, Southwest Virginia
Produce Exchange, Virginia Sheep and Wool Growers'
Association, and eighteen cooperative Live Stock Marketing
Associations. The poultry and fruit producers are now getting
ready to market their products cooperatively. Virginians
have not only learned to pattern after the wonderful system
for marketing in the great West, but they are organizing on
much sounder and efficient basis, as they are profiting by the
mistakes that naturally would be made in bringing about these
great changes in marketing when they were first started."[10]

The Peanut Growers' Association in 1922 (the year after
organization) secured the field sales manager of the Sun-Maid
Raisin Growers of Fresno, California, to take charge of the
sales and advertising activities of the association. It is composed
of both Virginia and North Carolina planters.

"A complete sales organization has been installed with
contracts in every market in the United States and Canada,
and a movement is on foot to market peanuts in pound packages
through the medium of retail grocers of the United
States. This will enable the housewives of America to purchase
a pound of peanuts at a reasonable price, and, if it
proves successful, it will undoubtedly be one of the foremost
steps taken in the history of the peanut industry since its inception."
This statement plainly shows the influence of western
ideas. Besides caring for the purchasing and sales of
produce these associations are of great benefit in forcing the
farmers to grade and to standardize their products, and in
aiding them in improving their means of growing and handling
those products. They have fostered a professional spirit
and have aided in breaking down rural isolation by creating
closer relations between farmers.

Other factors are lessening the distances between homes
in the country and between the country and the town. Chief
among these are the shrinkage in the size of farms, the recent
introduction of rural delivery of mail, public school houses,
telephones, good roads, and automobiles. The automobile has
greatly diminished the lonliness of the farms. In 1906, when
automobiles were first licensed in Virginia, there were only
626 in the State. Within the next year their number had more
than doubled. There were 3,680 of these horseless vehicles
in 1909. Ten years later (1919) there were 94,000. On November
5, 1923, 222,431 annual licenses were issued and the
State was receiving between two and a half and three million
dollars in license taxes on them.[11]

The author can well remember the first automobiles that
appeared in his community in Prince Edward County. They
inspired the citizens with wonder and their horses with terror.
They were not popular with the masses. There is a member
of the state legislature, the owner of a store in a country
town, who refused to deal with a traveling salesman who drove
a car, since it frightened the horses of his customers. He now
has a car himself, and so have many of those customers. Even
the horses have become reconciled. Only a few years ago a
country church yard on Sunday was filled with horses and
vehicles. Today cars are parked where horses used to be tied.
It has enabled the farmers to meet together or to go to town
for business or for pleasure without inconvenience and loss
of time.

Many new pleasures and conveniences have been added to
country life. Labor-saving devices have lessened the drudgery
in the field and in the home. Country homes are being made
more convenient and more comfortable, and the time may not
be distant when those that live on the farms will have all the
conveniences of electrical power and lights, heat and running
water which their city neighbors enjoy. They will also have
rural libraries, hospitals and community centers.