Evening star., 1927-05-08
Farming, Dairies S
And Orchards Give
Growing Secti o n
Wealth and Beauty
Realty Developed.
Many Pretty Towns,
Linked by Electric
Lines, Dot Ter
r1tory.
BY THOMAS X. HENRY.

pastures, rail fences and Old stone
farmhouses. But they also can jour
ney through another medium within
its borders-time.
Probably no other section of the
United states is so rich in historical
association. In few other localities in
the New World is il so easy to go
wandering backward dreamily among
~o.on,al mansions, hoop-skirted bellies,
white-wigged gentlemen, British ON
GERS with scarlet coats. painted Indian
chiefs and half-forgotten battlefields.
Few UnhalIowed Spots.
There is hardly a spot in Fairfax
County that is not ghostly with mem
cries, from it's antique courthouse to
dandelion-studded fields where q little
more than half a century ago blue
and gray skirmishers took pot shots
at one another in the early dawn.
The very name is suggestive of the
countryside of England. Thackeray S
Virginians haunt it's roads.
The county's bins of history are
overfowing. Yet its historic places
are not particularly well known nor
frequently visited. Every visitor to
Washington, of course, tries to see one
of them-Mount Vernon. Otherwise
they are messy with neglect-which
gives them all the more historical
flavor. Few, indeed, pause at the cross
road village of Chantilly to reject
that one of the bloody battles of the
Civil War was fought there. And TO
fewer still does Pimmitt Run sug-
cest one of the major Indian wars OF
colonial days.
Fairfax County could well rest on
its strenuously earned historical
wealth. But it isn't that kind of q
county, Sometimes it may have lived
in the past, but just now 1t is living
in the nresent with a live-Wire Cham
her of Commerce and some of the
most progressive farmers in the East.
Only Fringes Suburban.
ONLY the fringes of Fairfax County
are suburban. The expansion or
clusters of bungalows up the Fairfax
nike from Chain Bridge and in the
neighborhood of Falls Church has
gained momentum only within the
mast six or seven years. The county
nrohablv is less the home of the sub
urbanite than any other area imme-
diately adjacent to Washington. NOR
ia it, to any great extent. section
of beautiful country estates 1t never
adequately has sold its history. The
county remains a stronghold of the
dirt" farmer. Agriculture is its one
consequential industry-and one that
is undergoing constant Improvement.
Doubtless the suburban infiltration
will increase, especially with the COM
pletion of the Lee Highway. Inc
present difficulty is that the roaos.
off the two main pixies and some or
the more important secondary hlgh-
WAYS are none too good. There are
parts of the agricultural area where
the automobile has not yet replaced
the saddle horse as a means OF per
sonal transportation. But the whole
county is intensively cultivated. Fair
fax disputes with Loudoun preeml-
nence as the first dairy county or
Virginia. The whole county is in the
Washington milk district. About 80
per cent of it's dairy products come
10 the National Capital. Only or
8 per cent go to Alexandria.
The dairy farms are mostly in the
. Providence and Dranesville districts
the former with headquarters at FAR
fax Court House and Vienna and the
latter with headquarters at Herndon.
. The last census, that OF l52U, reVealeu
/ that there are 1854 dairy cattle in
/ the county with products valued at
81. 600, 900. The great majority of the
] COWS are Holsteins-with enough
Jerseys and Guernseys in each herd
/ TO bring up the percentage OF butter
7 fat The average production per
:. dairy COW at the time of the last
I. census was 426 gallons.
I Many Orchards Found.
! In the Providence district between
+ Chain Bridge and Fairfax, however
/ nurseries and orchards are disputing
the agricultural supremacy with the
contented Holstein. This is a county
of various kinds of speciality farming.
Oakton, the village which lies just
beyond Mclean, is becoming center
for ornamentals and several new va
;rieties of roses have been developed
there. Nurseries also are developing
5around Falls Church. The suburban
5ievelopment of Washington had Gre
3ated a considerable demand Tor ever
greens, poplars, grape vines, hover
1nC bushes. perennials and roses. rms
safest deyelopment of agriculture in
Fairfax County goes back curiously,
Jas does almost everything else con-
s,ected with farming in this secuon,
10 the greatest farmer who ever hVed
in the !ocality-the justly celebrated
hroprietor of Mount Vernon. WASH
ngton was the first rose breeoer III
America and at least one of the va
.ieties he originated-the apple'Dlos-
dom pink climber Mary Washington
ysema1ns standard stock for the local
isose farmers.
Apple growing on commercial
,s>ale also is new enterprise Tor
1earby Fairfax County. OF course,
there have been home orchards OF
considerable extent for more than
Century. OF late years many or these
lave been running out badly. FOR the
rsost part the older trees are YORK
Jhlperials, Winesaps and Ben DaVises
-Lvarieties which are not so well
sslited to the fancy trade OF city
ssores. The new orchards are OF
S*amen, Delicious and Rome Beauty.
SHINE of the Shenandoah valley or.
caardists are buying Fairfax land ana
making big paintings. They are able
~ make savings on the cost of haul
irk to Washington and Baltimore and,
according to the Fairfax County Farm
Bureau, there is no better apple land
inj the United States.
Spraying Is Demonstrated.
sghe Farm Bureau just now largely
is concentrating its efforts on inn
pl5ved orcharding. Spraying demon
stations are given and farmers given
advice on how to improve or re-
place their home orchards. Market
inA data also is furnished. Last year
Fairfax County had the biggest apple
year in its history. Unfortunately
fo4 the farmers there, the rest of the
CoAntry also had a record crop and
the very benefcence of the golden
September was almost ruinous, for
thTre was no market.
Che apple orchard belt of the Provi
deslce district is a light, gravelly
risge which extends well into the
ID anesville district. Among the
services of the Farm Bureau, by the
WY, has been a soil survey of the
co;inty so that the county agent is in