Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1911-07-13
FROM OLD VIRGINIA
Mrs. Lilley Writes Of Her Experience
in That Country
Blackstone, Va, June 20. 1911.

Dear Editor-Thinking my Alma
friends would like to hear from me
and Virginia | thought would write
a few lines. We came to Virginia
two years ago, we started February
twenty-hfth and reached the town
of Mattoway next day, which is
about six miles from where we now
live and three and one half fom
Blackstone. When we left old Mich
igan we were haveing about as hard
a storm as we ever had there. When
we reached Nottoway the grass was
green and the birds were singing
and quite few flowers were in bloom
and the farmers wives were taking
care of little chickens.
have been homesick since | have
been here ! think | should know
that disease, as l had it once in my
life.
l like Virginia very much, and l
have no desire to go back to Mich
igan, although ] should very much
like to see my Alma friends We GER
tainly have a fine climate here, with
the best of water, such beautiful falls
as we do here which are nice until
Christmas. 1t seems strange TO us to
have no snow for Christmas but just
think of having holly tree for
Christmas tree that is what we had
last Christmas. We had last Christ
mas. We have very little snow here
it never lasts but one day. My
health has improved since coming
here so ! hardly know what it is TO
see a sick day any more We own a
farm when we bought. 1t had only
about three acres cleared and we had
good crops this last year for new
land We had a nice piece of corn
of fifteen acres. We had sixty-hve
bushels of Irish potatoes and fifteen
bushels of sweet potatoes, which we
sold for fifty and seventy-fve cents
bushel. Everything sells ut about
the same price as in the north at pre-
sent. Old potatoes sell at one dollar
buShel and new ones for two dollars
and butter twenty-five to thirty cents
pound. We also raised small
piece OF sorghum besides the feed it
made we had ten gallons Of syrup
which sell at forty-ilve cents a gallon
We raised a number Of bushel of pea
nuts which sold for one-thirty
bushel, and besides raising our own
meat / canned two hundred cans of
fruit, and also had a nice garden
My Alma friends can see I am not
starving TO death We had a nice
piece of wheat which has been cut
and in the stack Tor the last two
weeks. We SOW oats here in the
fall and they arc ready to cut about
the twenty-frst Of June We raise
acres OF tobacco here The straw
berries are ripe the first part of May
and SO are cherries. | am canning
huckleberries now. We have ripe
melons about the first Of August.
We picked the last of our water
melons last fall the twenty-ninth of
October, which was when we had
our first frost.
I do not feel the heat any more
here than | did in the north. The
people have been very kind to us,
thought so the day I moved here
from Nattoway 1t was dinner time
and the first load OF our goods had
gone with the stove when | heard a
knock at the door and going to the
door found lady there with nice
warm dinner and my neighbor here
had supper for us. The Alma Re-
cord reaches us Monday morning,
and the first thing | do is to sit down
and see what the Alma people are
doing regardless of my washing, as
| was reading the account of that aw-
full kailstorm that passed through AL
ma it seemed to me that there could
not be any glass left unless it was J.
w Glass himself, and l really hope
he is all right
l will close with kind regards to
all my old Alma friends
Mrs. F. Rutland, formerly Mrs.
Nelson Lilley of Alma Michigan.