Evening star., 1927-05-08

a pOSltlOn TO tell the IdrTner from
any locality just what branch of agri
culture should prove most successful
Along with apple orchards go vine.
yards. Fairfax County for years led
| the State in grape production. Then,
just before the War, the market be-
Came oversupplied and, almost stimuli,
taneously, the black rot struck the
vines. Control methods had not been
worked out at the time. Most of the
| grape growers went out of business.
! But the unprecedented appetite for
unfermented fruit juices in Washing
ton and Baltimore since national pro-
hibition became effective has worked
| wonders. There is better grape
market than ever before in history
and successful sprays for combating
the rot have been found. More and
more vineyards are being set out each
year This is particularly true in the
more or less suburban sections. 1t
is a very profitable line of farming
but the County Farm Bureau warns
prospective grape growers to know
something about the business before
| going into it very heavily. A few
grape vines in back yard may thrive
with little care, but the crop of sew
eral thousand may be ruined by a
|
proper Kind of spray
Truck Farming Developed.
The Providence and DranesviHe
districts, with splendid soil and ex.
cellent transportation facilities to
| Washington, are in every way the
| banner agricultural areas of Fairfax
County. But considerable milk is pro-
duced in the Mount Vernon and Falls
Church districts. In these districts
| also there has been considerable
development of truck farming-much
of the produce of which is sold from
door to door in Washington. The soil
of these districts is we'll fitted for
vegetable growing and a rapid ex-
pansion is expected in the next few
years.
The Centerville and Lee districts
are entirely agricultural, but the soil
is poorer and transportation is not so
good. Both areas, of course, supply
great quantities of milk to Washing
ton, but on the whole the agriculture
is more diversified. A great deal of
corn and wheat is produced, most of
which is ground locally.
For the whole county corn is the
most important crop. Nearly a mil
lion bushels year is produced. Prac-
| tlcally every farm has its cornfield.
The greater part of the crop is used
for feeding work animals and for. fat
tening hogs and beef cattle. Much
corn also is grown for ensilage. On
the whole, the corn crop hardly meets
the local demand.
Hay Also Important.
Next in Importance comes hay. The
last agricultural census showed
total of 23,S48 acres devoted to this
crop, with an average production of a
ton to the acre. 1t is all consumed
locally. Within recent years the hay
production has been increased by the
introduction of alfalfa, soy beans and
other legumes.
More than 10000 acres are devoted
to wheat. The average yield per acre
is 10 bushels, although many of the
farms have a much higher figure
Some run as high as 27 and 80 BUSH
els. Fairfax ranks sixth among the
counties os the State in wheat pro-
duction.
Irish potatoes are an important
crop. The last census showed 1853
acres producing 126, ,591 bushels. There
are some potato paintings of as
much as 80 acres, but on an average
these do not run much over Is acres.
Two crops are made in a single sea-
son, the early Irish Coblers maturing
early in August and the later Green
Mountain being ready to dig some time
in November About 80 acres in the
county are planted to sweet potatoes
with a production of about 5000
bushels.
The soil Of the county is generally
clay loam-the characteristic red
grounds of the plowed fields. There
is, however, wide variety which per-
mits the growth of almost every kind
of crop. About $1,000 acres are in
woodland and this is not allowed to
decrease greatly.
Little Tobacco Grown.
Fairfax County. like so much of
Virginia and Maryland, before the
| Civil War was largely given over to
tobacco. This almost ruined the soil
and it has been built up again only
after years of diversified cropping.
The farmers learned their lesson and
very little tobacco is grown now de-
spite the fact that it is one of the
most profitable of all farm crops.
Fairfax County schools are excel
lent and conveniently located, a mat
ter of no small consequence when the
, scattered nature of the population is
=
provided, however, except in a few
points where one-room schools have
| been closed in slowly advancing con-
solldatlon program. Approximately
! 5000 children are enrolled in the coun-
| ty schools, white and colored.
! In the incorporated towns there are
| five high schools-at Falls Church,
| Oakton, Clifton, Herndon and Nc
Lean. All these schools draw pupils
| from wide areas of rural territory. In
addition is an interesting experiment
| in education maintained by the coun-
| ty-the Fairfax County Vocational
| High School at Floris, near Herndon.
| Here, in addition to general high
school subjects, particular stress is laid
| on agriculture and domestic science
/ 1t Is intended for those pupils who
intend to remain on Fairfax County
| farms and who have no intention of
! advancing in a general cultural edu-
| cation of which the academic high
school course is the foundation.
| The number of one-teacher schools
| in the county, necessarily poor in
| equipment, still is large, but is being
| reduced in accordance with the move
| ment throughout all progressive rural
! sections in the United States. With
| the extension of good roads the prog
ress of consolidation doubtless will be
| accelerated.
Nearly All Churches Represented.
I Nearly all the standard churches are
| represented in the county, and no
farm is so isolated but that there is
church within convenient distance
| Churches represented, in the order of
membership ranking. are: Baptist.
Southern Methodist, Northern Method
ist, Catholic, Episcopalian, Presby-
terian, Church of the Brethren and
Disciples of Christ. Many of the
churches are very small chapels, in
| some instances several being served
by single pastor.
Each of the incorporated towns has