Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1908-09-04
SOME NOTES
OF Interest TO Farmers and Truckers

The increase in the value of farm
property in the last eight years is esti-
mated at So. 900, OO0, 900, or nearly nine
times the capital of the country's ma
tional banks. A writer in the Manu-
facturers' Record states that the farms
of the South alone will this year yield
a production valued at nearly 81, 5O0,-
600. .000." This is more than the total
production of the country in 1880 and
about the same amount that all the
States produced in lS90-only Is years
ago. In 1890 the 8. 565, 900 persons en-
gagged in agriculture produced a total
of 81, ACC. O0O. .OOO-$2S7 per capita. The
total production in 1907 was $7,A2,-
600, ,00O-s6lS per capita.
A scientific agricultural writer, c. l..
Marlatt, assistant entomologist in the
National Bureau of Entomology, esti-
mated few years ago that total of
more than $1,000, OOO, 900 annual loss due
TO insect pest in the United States is
below rather than above the actual
damage. Besides these direct losses,
enormous damage is done by insects to
cattle and in the transmission of disease
to man. The loss in the value of horse,
sheep and cattle products directly
chargeable to insects (the OK warble,
the buffalo gnat, and the various biting
flies and ticks) would aggregate, gov
ernment statistician's figure, not less
than SIZE, 200, 600 annually.
WHY NOT IN TIDEwATER VIRGINIA..
(Technicai World Magazine.)
Celery brought into Kalamazoo in
one year more than 81. 900. 900 in hard
cash. Celery is an agricultural indus
try; no expenditure for raw material
obtained from other sources enters into
its cost of production. Hence the
money all remains in the place where
it is grown. For the initial outlay one
might go far to find an industry of the
soil yielding larger profits.
There are more than 400 celery plan
tations in and environing Kalamazoo,
ranging in area from mere plats of or
2 acres to broad fields Of 20 or 80 acres.
In addition to these are numerous small
celery patches" doing business on q
lesser scale. Upwards of 4, 900 persons
in Kalamazoo derive maintenance.
either directly or indirectly, from the
celery business. In its cultivation are
actively employed about / 300 persons.
Some 90 firms are engaged in shipping
the product. The enormous shipments
have contributed to raise Kalamazoo to
the rank of third city in the State in
freight and express tonnage. The
lumber for the boxes used in packing
the celery cost in one year $25,
The advance in the value of the one
time despised marsh lands, since celery
raising began on-them, reads like a
real estate fairy tale. Thirty years
ago large tracts on these marshes went
begging at 81 an acre. People deman-
ded: "Why should we buy them at
any price? They aren't good for any
thing" Today the owners of the same
lands would not take 81 ,OOO an acre for
them. Not bad price for agricultur-
al land, swamp at that! But it would
hardly be known for the same land.
Early Kalamazoo celery growers
have become for the most part finan-
cially well to do. Some ot them have
filled in with hard earth sections of
their celery fields, making building
lots on which they have erected trim
houses and are living comfortably on
their rents.
This filling in" of the celery beds
and their transformation into building
lots is going on rapidly in all parts of
the city. 1t is the fate of any agricul-
tural industry established within the
bounds of fast-growing city to be
doomed by the very prosperity which
it creates. Kalamazoo is increasing i'm
population phenominally. The celery
plantations .djoin and are surrounded by
residences and business portions, and
each year Sees large building encroach-
ments on the celery margins. Whole
streets of factories, shops and dwell
lings now stand where celery once grew.
There are those who predict that X al
amazoo celery has no future. One