The Big Stone Gap post. [volume] (Big Stone Gap, Wise County, Va.) 1892-1928, 1899-12-14
me Future Of Agriculture In
Virginia.
Samuel B. Wood. ia s,u,l,.rn 9

"'oh' AZ ITS close she has fallen fs
oack IN the procession Of sts,s. T., >,
p'oaue''on Of corn she is no longer srs
D", 'our'een'a, IN the production of ost
eighteenth, wheat the twentieth. b.v ~
twenty-second.
'"'ee causes may be assigned for tbi
.'u'' The first is the opening of IN
on'o and Mississippi valleys and tn
p'a'''es OF the west, bringing virgini
INTO competition with an almost boundles
extent OF the most fertile lands NJ IN,
"orl1' This cause is regarded by man,
as the undoing Of Virginia, but a careful
investigation Of il leads to the conclusion
mat 1t is more apparent than real. While
is true that the rich fields of the west
VIII produce more abundant baryests
acre Tor acre, than the soil of Virginia ne
I" present farmed, yet the advantageous
location OF Virginia, her proximity to the
great markets, more than recompenses her
LOT the difference. The Year Book of the
department of agriculture for 1898 gives
'he value of the average acreage of hay in
virginia as 81 81, Illinois 1912. Indiana
s9'2o and Iowa $7O9; of corn, Virginia
*"~' Illinois $3.50, Indiana 80, Iowa
$o'oo. The average value of the average
acres OF these three staple crops in vir.
gina was greater in 1898 than in Illinois.
INDIANA or Iowa. If sve take the per acre
value OF corn, wheat and hay in Virginia
Tor hve years from 1892 TO 1897 we find
that in Virginia it averages 1915, in Iowa
S'3i. We thus see that Virginia CON-
pares most favorably with the best of the
prairie states, and we conclude that there |
must be other causes than the one named
which have injuriously affected Virginia's
position as an agricultural state.
The second cause which may be assign
cd is the loss inflicted upon Virginia by
the war-the loss Ct men, not the loss of
wealth. In the broad old commonwealth
there are today thousands of deserted
homesteads, hundreds Of thousands Of
acres that ia former days we're fruitful
fields, but which now have lapsed into a
the breeding place of deer
There are in the state great boundaries of
land and almost in every county number
less smaller tracts, which formerly were ,
iighly cultivated, that have not paid taxes
'ince the war. This is attributed to the ,
act that in the war between the states
Virginia's sons fell on every battlefield .
Thousands aud tens OF thousands, who .
low should be the fathers of stalwart sons
md fair daughters, filling the land with =
lappy homes, have for nearly two genera /,
ions slept in soldiers graves. There has
lever been any adequate effort made by -,
he state OF Virginia to induce immlgra- y,
ion and thus repair the losses of war. or
he census ofleG0 gave Virginia a country -,
opulation of ,430, 100; the census of 1890, A,
Rough in the mean time the population r.
the United states has doubled, 1874
So. If it lie patriotism to make two
ladies' of grass grow where one
rev before, how much more to reclaim q"
ese waste places. TO build up broken -
alls, replace pines with golden wheat, ?
e forest with waving corn and the will '"'
rness with homes Of men? 'n'
The third reason for Virginia's retro ""
essiOn as an agricultural state is our '"'
nging to obsolete methods and our lack ae'
intelligence in farming. In the good =, Wv
days before the war in Eastern Vir- ~
liza man was not regarded as being -'''
,cb of farmer IL bo Ala mn, bo,o ,ooo spe
10 or 5000 acres Of land. The method ''"
farming these great plantations with an Z
,rseer and darkey labor was generally the
? shod, and was directed rather to get. is II
6 crops out of the soil than to the i'm mas
or maintenance Of the fertility sti'
he land. There were some who boldly tea'
claimed the policy that it was cheaper the
work lands to death and abandon them ior
buy others than to undertake to take exp
e of them. The sOphistry of this ten
soning, as we'll as its unhappy results, outs
apparent enough to the present gen. ooo
ton. We are all trying to farm too cons
ch land, aud by poor cultivation we are II
ling poor results. We need intensive by ,
ming, scientific farming, book farming. and
remarkable the prejudice that exists men
he minds OF many farmers against the stat,
n "scientihc;" they regard scientific hume
ner as one who talks much and accom- prov
hes little, and seem to think that there fines
ecessarily conflict between theory inco
praetic. A good farm library, care ferti
read, is what the farmers Of Virginia temp
J. Life is too short to learn by ex- base
ence and observation alone. Ii is a grow
man who learns by the experience of peac
RS, aud it is from books that we get prof
The doctor will not practice without othel
BOOKS, nor a LAWYER without a library. State
the farmer is just as dependent, if he on tn
knew It, for success on q good farm be ill
ry' Of re,
might mention the experience Of bear
er VINO a lew years ago entered a corn ton,
,st The first thug he did was to buy that q
atest work on corn culture. One fact the v,
was worth all the study he gave; he / won
ed that, contrary to the general i'm the IA
ion, the roots OF the corn plant grow expec
sl,l