Virginia free press. (Charlestown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1832-1916, 1914-01-01

0uct ever yuu tctClcu Jouh eoAS- tbSAC
were contours that made you wonder
why landscape artists ever went else
where for inspiration.
i came over into the valley from Lee
burg. ia. Loudonn County, via Blue
mont, crossing the Shenandoah at Cas-
| tIeman's Ferry, and thence on through
Berryville. We did not come to the
turnpike zone until we had scaled seY-
eral spurs of the Blue Ridge and had
come down to the winding h enandoah.
its waters ablsze with the fires and
golden lights of the autumn foliage.
All the way. to the river it had been
case of ridge and spur and lovely val
leys in between, but once we sped out
along that turnpike and shot toward
Berryville and Winchester we came in
to new region of splendid farms. fine
old Colonial mansions; passed score
or more gasoline tractors hauling big
farm machinery and innumerablc four
horse teams with The drivers astride
one Of the wheelers; heard of bumper
corn and wheat crops and many new
and encouraging experiments with al
falfa. So it was all across Clarke
County and overlapping into Frederick.
of which Winchester is the county seat
and center'of a very important APPLE
growing district. Likewise it is one Of
the three big stops of the valley pike
The other two are HaIrisonburg and
| Stanton.
No one can dispute that the valley
pike has played big part in the farm
| ing development of the four Virginia
counties it traverses, end in view of
the countrywide interest in good roads
building few words concerning this
superb highways history should be per-
tinent. It was built by the State of
Virginia-begun in 1877 and finished
about 1880. Crozet one of Napoleon
engineers who came to America after
the battle of Waterloo, was state high
way engineer at the time and directed
the road work The, state still owl $
three fifth of the turnpike. stock ard
the citizens Of the valley the remain
ing two-fifths
Management of the road is in the
hands of five directors. three appointed
by the state and two ell cted by the pri-
vate stockholders Its SAID that since
1887 there has never been serious dis
/ $50 .h.,,t tbo voonararaorit ,ond SEQ.
n Dmicaf administration Of the pike, and
Of all the farmers met in the valley,
MT one had complaint to utter. The
farmers pay on an average OF alb u five
dollars year for the use of the road'
visiting motorists are taxed Ave cents
mile. There are twenty toll gates
between Winchester and Staunton. at
each one Of which the mt0orist must
4 nav twenty fvecents as he rolls onward.
Tolls from this source are increasing so
rapidly that they may soon pay all the
expenses Of the roads maintenance
The Land Of Big Apple Crops,
scarcely any valley farms ARE more
than ten miles distant from this sp'en-
did artery of traffi the great majority
| not more than five miles away. So
highly did the valley people regard their
pike generation or go ago that they
voted against the intrusion Of a railroad,
which was characteristic of the ultra
conservative folk of that epoch. The
more railroads they can get in there
now the better they like it. But it is
a rather difficult place to get into and
out of, and if passenger train were to
arrive ard depart on time at any OF the
stations up the valley the train crew
would take rank with the Cardiff Giant
as sensational curiosities
Daring the War, when StoneWal
jackson captured the Federal troops al
Martinsburg, he also seized forty B. &
10. locomotives and one hundred freight
cars He was about to distroy this
rolling stock when a young man in filt
quartermaster's department said nc
would find way to get the engines anc
cars down to Staunton. There was nc
railroad cup the valley then and Gen
eral Jackson thought the only way t.
take the rolling stock south was through
Washington an impossible undertak
ing. He didn't know how good roat
that valley pike was. The enterprisinl
Young quartermaster did. He rigget
up some tire devices that enabled hin
to haul the valuable prize all the way
to Staunton, where there was railroad
line communicating with the south
That young man was Samuel Spencer
later president of the Southern Rail
way, who was killed a few years ag'
while riding in his private car.
Yes, the valley pike is great roa'
to haul grain and apples on. eprobabt!
as fine farmers highway as there
in the world Apple productio is
comparatively recent phase OF IL
Shenandoah's agriculture. but it is
tremendously import one In III
Winchester alone shipped more apple
than the entire State of Oregon. Tn
adjoining county in West Virgins
Berkeley. shipped as many apples tina
Iyear as the State Of Washington. An
in that same big-crop year the seve
counties included in. the Shenandoa
district shipped as many apples as
.a,,r - eovou Rocky Mountain an