Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1907-10-04
Friday, October 4, 1907.
SOME THINGS We ARE YET
TO DO.


Northern Neck have been reconnted
time and agsin-in fact, so much
talked about that our people are
taking the bounties of nature as
their natural deserts and heritage
When recounted it does not make
the Impression upon us that it doe.
upon the outsids world, hardly any
part of which within ordinary ken
can equal this spot in Virginia.
A saline atmosphere that is COM
paratively free of both malaria and
mosquitoes; with fish, oysters, crabs
and CLANS in their seasons; garden
trucks and melons as early as the
Norfolk section produces, and grain
crops that are by no means indif-
ferent; an abundance of small fruit.
both wild and cultivated, and larger
fruits In reasonable amount; mari,
clay and timber to furnish fleets of
boats with freightage-all conspire
to build up trade and business enter
prises that give employment the year
round aud ready cash in as great
degree, we venture, as on the Amer
lcsn continent outside of the mines
of precious metals. Yet with all
this our people, as a class, lack the
enterprise essential to reap in full
measure what nature would gener-
ously surrender if properly courted.
Nevertheless, each year sees some
new enterprise started, and when
once successful there are plenty to
follow suit. We are copyists to large
extent. Some years ago it was al
most impossible to blaze the vay
to tomato-growing. A few spirits
started it, but it was some years be-
fore others would engage in the
cultivation--not until they saw it a
success, and then there was a rush.
Today the Northern Neck is alive
with tomato canneries, furnishing
summer living to farmers and labor
ers that are off the water courses
chiefly. The same is the case with
the industries on the water. Shipping
oysters in barrels or vessels to Bslti-
more is thing of the past, to the re-
greet of that city. We now keep our
by-product, the shells, for planting,
giving employment to Virginians
at the same time saving in freight
charges by shipping the oyster un-
shelled.
Another industry, as yet large
ly q secret, is coming to our water
fronts. We allude to the can
ming of herring roe, something that
has gone to absolute waste heretofore.
We presume it is used as an inferior
grade of caviar, or sturgeon roe, but
why it should not be preferable to
the latter We do not understand.
This will soon grow into a great in.
dustry here and go hand-in-hand
with the big salt herring pack that
Is furnished from our waters.
There is still another enterprise to
come, one that will pay large returns
but which it seems our people are
10th to venture upon. This is the
picking business. Cucumbers for
pickle have made farmers rich in
some sections, and our soil in yites as
large returns in this line as any Sec
ton we know. And now that green |
tomatoes (from the size of walnut
app are also IN demand for picking
purposes We do not see why every
community that has cannery
'hould not have also pickle factory,
20 save what has heretofore been
ost and also provide an output for
cultivation. Think on
hese things, ye men of the Northern
Neck, and keep in the van where
nature would push you.
Since writing the foregoing cocl
Eave has passed over the country,
eaVing frost in its track at Staunton
nd as low down as Williamsburg Va.
We of this section are not immune
rom frost but nature blesses us
nth weeks of frostless weather, in
pring and fall, beyond our friends
n other sections. Particularly is
his true of sections immediately on
alt water. We have seen frost, on
lay first, kill every tomato plant a
aiie back from the water while it
Tas but heavy dew on the water
curses.