Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1912-01-26
What About lt4
Norton, va, Jam. e 1917

I; Norton, Va, Jan. % 1912
Your Wise correspondent, Wise
county. of course, caught an idea the
other day from casual remark made
by man who sits in his New York
office and holds the business interests
of this country at his fingers tips.
He merely remarked that the next
: twenty-five years would show great
er development in agriculture than
it Ind in railroad development the
past twenty five.
When the New River division of the
Norfolk and Western began hauling
coal out of Pocahontas about twenty
Eve years ago. it was with little
mason engine, converted from wood
to coal burner, and could bring
seven or eight little gondolas of coal
TO Graham, cut loose and make two
loads Of that to the summit now
Bluefieid. Now, as we look upon the
great V class eng mes, and the mighty
Mallets as they make the very hills
tremble with thunderous tramp over
the same grade; easily pulling 80 of
the 100 ton coal cars and after leav-
ing the mountains hook up to humid
red cars and go sweeping on to the
sea, we conclude, if this is com
parison there is going to be "some-
thing doing" in agricultural prog
ress. in the next five years.
The past quarter of n century has
been laden with opportunities for the
wise young man to make an indepen-
dent fortune in wild lands, mineral
lands of all kinds, timber, new
towns, ETC., but such opportunities
are about gone. The opportunity for
the young man of the next quarter of
century lies in the broad fields of
agriculture. Looking up the old worn
out. abandoned farms; searching for
good clay subsol and finding it sto-
red with rich fertilizers; that old
cheap, thrown-away farm will beat
searching for gold in the Klondike,
and is not near so dangerous, or ex-
pensve. The book of holy writ tells
us when we find the hidden trea-
sure" in field, "buy that field, >"
and there's little danger of making n
mistake when we follow the teachings
of the "good Book.
About twenty years ago young
man WINS left what he considered a
most undesirable heritage, an old
WORKOUT farm on the bleak ills
back IF Syracuse, N. Y, with a
mortgage on it to boot. He had about
decided to let it go for the debt, but
at last sentiment prevented. After all
it was the cold home." of father and
grandfather back for generations 1t
vas ancestral acres" and they held
MIN in thousand unseen bonds.
Could he not improve on the methods
of the old folks? Fruit appealed to
him, and he saw as Amos did rich
basket of summer fruit. He looked to
the small tract of timber that was
left and reasoning from analogy, said
that land that would produce such
timber would produce good apple
trees. He begun at once the study of
fruit SOIL" To make the story
short, today Grant Hitchings is re-
garded as one of the authorities on
fruit growing in NewYork state. For
several miles before you reach the
old farm you can see picture that
beats the vision of Amos: from four
teen thousand apple trees you can see
in shining blood red and lvid green,
apples bending every limb and branch
low toward the ground, as if in reve-
renee to the Mother Earth that gave
them being. The result of brain work