Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1882-08-03
A ViSittO LlVraY.

"SO true is it that Nature has Caprlces
which art cannot initiate. "-Mdc0ubty.
A ride up the Shenandoah Valley, from
Hagerstown to Luray, is, in itself, so far
from being devoid OF interest, that with
the pleasures it brought us on our trip last
week, we would be we'll content. The ex.
cursion train, in charge of gentlcmanly
and efficient committee, Messrs. G. II. Van
derford, E. ]. Lawyer and r. W. Shriver
of Westminster, made the trip without &C
cident or delay and carried aboard as gra-
cious and sociable q company as it rarely
becomes ones good fortune to encounter
on en- excursion. Being equally at home
in Carroll and Frederick counties, we OBJ
served hut little ceremony in making our
selves "at home" We found kith and kin,
friends. acquaintances and frequent re-
minders oc"Auld Lang Syne' and got
well through our hand shaking only in
time to seat ourselves for view of the
country, new 20 us, traverscd by the
Shenandoah Valley railroad.
The first few turns of the wheels and we
are upon historic grounds, Antietam, and
three miles south of Sharpsburg we cross
the Potomac river and are in Shepherds
town. the oldest town in the state, founded
by Thomas Shepherd in 1894.
As the train halts only for fuel and wa
ter, the run is smooth and pleasant, rapid
but not at any dangerous speed. Through
Jefferson county we find the farmers en-
gagged principally in threshing their wheat
crops, oats harvest being over. The grass
fields have neither produced nor promise u
heavy crop and as the heat has been
taken from the field in this county, we arc
not so well enabled to judge of the yield
In Clark and Page counties however, we
found the major part of the wheat yet in
the field and were struck by the incongru-
ity of the scene for by the side of heavily
shocked fields of wheat, the stubbles OF
which were rank and green with grass, VIC
noticed what at first glance appeared to be
mere commons, nude, gray soil, upon
which stones the size of a mans hand be
came painfully prominent, and yet all en-
closed in fairly good fencing; all this for a
while remained an en- gina, until we re
called last seasons parching drought and
then we recognize these bare fields rs be
ing those that should have yielded hay
and pasturage this summer, but in which
every root and spear had died last sum
mer under burning sun and for lack of
rain. We noticed also throughout the en-
tire length OF the valley, n most pcrnclous
waste in the matter of last years straw
crop, huge unrottod stacks of which stand
untouched on a great number of farms
and we find the same system obtains this
season and doubtless is the custom, for in
no instance did we ste the straw being
,hrcshed out by scparators and thousands
of bushels were 1hrcshcd on chat day I'M
WI tiiC ilic W. VhS Ao'io"'",
Judging from the number of steam thresb.
ers seen at work. The acreage Of the corn
crop is very great along the line of the
road, but it is short and beginning to suf
fer for want of lain, except in the river
bottoms, where the crop is forward and
thrifty. Owing to the rocky surface, a
large part Of the wheat crop is harvested
with the cradle; In the adjoining parts of
Clark and Page counties, we believe much
the lesser part is cut by machinery and in
one large field we found the wheat un'
Lounl and gathered in vast conical heaps,
| ike hay cocks. it having evidently been
cut by grass mower.
The lumber and bark trades are large
items in the traffic of the Valley, there be.
ing large lumber yards at Bentonville and
other points AID at Luray the DcFords
have large tannery. AT Rlverton the
railroad crossed the Shenandoah river at
the junction of North and South forks snd
from this point the land is broken and in
many places barren The great valley is
here divide by the Massanutton mountain
into two parts, the one in which we are,
being much the narrower of the two. Lu-
ray reached, we find hacks, jersey wagons
ambulances and carriages awaiting us and
in this way we are transferred from the
train to the cave, distant about one mile.
The drivers cvinccd a laudablc ambition
to arrive ut the cave in the shortest pos
sible time and considering the extreme
hilliness of the road, which, by the way,
is the nam street of LII ray. we lose but
little time in the transfer
In clouds of dust we arrived at the build
ing that is erected over the entrance and
after parting with the coupon attached to
our ticket we descend a stairway through
the thirty-iivc feet of limestone, the roof OF
the cave, and find ourselves in tempcra-
tura Of about fifty -siX degrees, or just thlr.
ty five lower than we encounter in the room
above, And now that we have brought
the reader with us to Entrance Hall OF the
Luray Cavcrns, it requires more than or
binary courage, more possibly than we
have been accredited with, to do rs We
shall, which will simply be, to make the
admission, that there is not that
ability abiding with us, nor the conccit Of