Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1913-10-10
the SHENANDOAH VALLEY.

From Columbus (Neb.) Telegram.
The Shenandoah Valley is not
more beautiful in song and story
than a close inspection renders it
to the eye at this time of the
year. l travelled two hundred
miles up and down that valley
last Saturday and Sunday, in
company with Secretary Bryan,
and confess that the beauty of
the landscape was enough to win
both of US away from political
subjects. No more interesting
incidents connected with the
great civil war are centered in
any other section of the South
than cluster within this famous
valley. 1t seemed to me that
Congressman Brown, of Virginia,
or Major Hemphil., who made
South Carolina famous by his ed
itorial genius, and who is now
electrifying and enlightenirg
Philadelphia with the same mag
netic current, constantly pointed
from the car windows to some
vale or some summit where had
been enacted an event of the war
which lives upon and glorifies
the pages of best American his
tory. Not so much could l be-
come interested in the deeds of
valor on the battlefield as in the
magnificence of landscape
which now, thank God, bears lit
tie trace of the saddest, and yet
the most glorious carnage in tile
annals of mems efforts to destroy
each other. We who live in the
western corn-belt have imbibed
the belief that all Virginia is
rocky succession of mountains
aud hills. incapable of producing
enough of corn to feed an average
of one hog to each farmer.
1t is mistake. In the
Shenandoah Valley 1 saw large
fields of corn, ana some of it
looked good for sixty bushels per
acre. Sllamefully conspicuous
are the dead and dying apple
trees, some of them perhaps fifty
years old, aud none of them cap
able of producing good apples.
But the shame OF the legacy of
inferior orchards is ooliterated
by the thousands of acres of new
orchards, planted under scientific
direction within very recent years.
In many of these new orchards
the farmers are experimenting
with alfalfa. 1t seemed strange
to me that the farmers here
should speak of alfalfa as an ex-
pertinent, for indeed l never saw
a soil nor climatic conditions
more favorab BILE to the most yalu-
able member of the clover family.
I feel impelled to the prophecy
that alfalfa is destined to regen-
crate Virginia. agriculturally
speaking, and that within the
near years one will no longer hear
about the barren hills" of Vir
ginia. because the poorest soil on
any hill will be so enriched and
reyiyified by the soil-food of al
falfa roots that it will be capa-
BILE of rewarding the labor of the
farmer abundantly when he shall |
follow alfalfa with any kind of |
grain. And as to fruit-why, |
we grow apples in Nebraska and
in Idaho, and they look like good |
apples. too, but lack always that
magnificence of flavor found in
every Virginia apple which has
a chance against the insect ene-
my. Virginia apples will have
protection against that enemy
very soon. Prejudice against
scientific agriculture and horti-
culture no longer prevails, and i
very soon the farmers will be
growing apples as free from
blemish as are the cheeks and the
lives of Virginia maidens. / was
told that when the first apple j
tree spraying outfit was brough lit
to Virginia by progressive
farmer the spraying machine was
as an evil device, and
the owner of it a lunatic, and
that within three days after its
arrival it had been thrown into
the ditch, and its owner into the
asylum. But the apple-sprayer .
IS here now, and the alfalfa era .
IS almost at hand, and these !,
twain will some day carry Vir- q
yinia to a place in agriculture 9
ind horticulture just as good as
hat now occupied by her place :
n the column of democratic ma :
critics. was surprised to find ?
hat the prevailing prices for the p
,est agricultural lands down here !,
re not up to the selling price of {