CHAPTER XXXVII.

WEST VIRGINIA.

Area, 23,000 square miles. Population, 618,193.
Governor, HENRY M. MATTHEWS. Capital, Wheeling.

THIS State formerly constituted that portion of "Old" Virginia lying westward of the Alleghany Mountains, as far as the Ohio River. It was separated from the mother State during the war; and lies in a horse-shoe formation, between Virginia on the south-east, Kentucky and Ohio on the west and north-west, and Maryland and Pennsylvania on the north. It is a land of mountains, clad in forest of oak, ash, elm, cherry, chestnut, hickory, black walnut, and other trees, equal in quality and diameter to any that may be found east of the Rocky Mountains. It boasts of a surface of great variety of hills and meadows, and valleys of great fertility, abounding in rivers and brooks, and springs deliciously cool. It is underlaid by mineral deposits, and coal measures in especial, surpassed by none in the United States. Its climate is healthful, resembling that of England in temperature, but less subject to continuous rains. It occupies a central position, and is drained in part by navigable rivers flowing into the Ohio, which marks its north-western border for its entire length. It is drained

by the Big Sandy, which separates this State from Kentucky; by the Guyandotte, Cole, Great Kanawha, and its many tributaries, and the little Kanawha, all flowing into the Ohio; by the Monongahela and its feeders, and by branches of the Potomac, which separates the northern division of the State from Maryland. Many of these streams traverse the timber country, and afford admirable facilities for floating rafts down to the Ohio River. There are immense forests on the head waters of the Elk and Gaube, and bordering the Guyandotte and Big Sandy and their tributaries, where the land with the timber standing may be purchased for about $3 per acre. These forests, as yet all but untouched, require capital and enterprise to convert them into lumber, and a source of great wealth to West Virginia. There are saw mills in Harrison, Lewis, Gilmer, Upshur, Randolph, Kanawha, Cabell, and other counties: but when the extent of the forests is considered, the timber trade of the State is inconsiderable.

Out of a total area of 16,500,000 acres in West Virginia, there are scarcely 3,000,000 acres under cultivation. The land from the Ohio River to the base of the mountains is productive in nearly all the cereals, and especially in Indian corn and buckwheat; potatoes and other vegetables do well in every section of the State. The cultivation of tobacco is confined to the counties of Harrison, Calhoun, Lewis, etc. There is an absence of waste land, but the country is often hilly, and the surface irregular, rendering cultivation both difficult and expensive when compared with the valleys and plains of other States. The following farming calendar, from a work on this State, by Mr. Diss de Barr, which I found in The American Settler, will be useful to intending emigrants of the farming class::

"February 28-Break up soil. March 1-Plant early potatoes; sow timothy, blue grass, and clover; sow early garden vegetables; manufacture maple sugar. March 15-Turn out cattle on blue grass. April 1

;

-Sow early oats. April 15-Sow main crop of garden vegetables. April 20-Cherry, plum, apple, and peach trees are in bloom; poplar and maple are leafing; turn cattle on timothy and clover. April 25-Sow late oats and flax; plant late potatoes. May 1-Set out fruit trees; plant early corn; turn out cattle in the woods to range; timber generally begins to leaf out; plant sorghum; light white frosts may be still looked for in the first week. May 7-Plant beans and cucumbers, etc. May 10 to 20— Plant and sow all late garden vegetables, sweet potatoes, and watermelons; dogwood in bloom; plant main crop of corn, also pumpkins and late beans. May 31-Corn and potatoes planted on fresh clear land grapes are in bloom. June 1-Shear sheep. June 8-Plant tobacco; corn may still be planted on fresh cleared land; clover is in bloom. June 15-Harvest clover; plant late cucumbers, beans, melons, and even potatoes; send early grass-fed cattle to market. July 1 to 4-Plough for the last time; early potatoes are ripe. July 10-Harvest wheat and rye. July 15-Commence cutting timothy; sow buckwheat. July 25Harvest oats; early apples are ripe. August 10 to September 1-Sow turnips. August 15-Finish hay harvest; plough for wheat and rye. August 25 to September 10-Peaches and melons ripening; Isabella, Hartford, Prolific, and Concord grapes ripening. September 10 to 20Cut tobacco; sow wheat, timothy, and rye; Catawba and Norton's Virginia Seedling grapes are maturing. September 25 to October 1-Cut corn; harvest buckwheat. October 1 to 15-First white frosts occur; cut late corn; sow wheat and rye on corn ground; cut sorghum and make syrup. October 25-Dig late potatoes; leaves fall fast; send late fat stock to market. November 1 to 15-Gather turnips and other root crops; commence husking corn; commence winter feeeding of young stock and milch cows. November 31-Winter feeding in general.

"Dates for the higher plateaus and mountains are from ten to fifteen days later in spring and earlier in autumn."

TABLE SHOWING THE PRODUCTS OF EACH PRINCIPAL
CROP, ETC., FOR 1879.

This is an excellent State for fruit culture, and I quote an extract from a Report of the Agricultural Department in this connection. It says:—

"It is essentially a fruit-growing State. Apple-growing for the New Orleans market has long been a speciality of the river counties. Vineyards in the vicinity of the Ohio bave proved exceedingly productive, and far more reliable than in the vicinity of Cincinnati. On the Kanawha, the soil, elevation, and climate seem particularly adapted to grape growing. In the interior, in the absence of transportation facilities, much fruit is dried for the market. Apples and pears are claimed to be best adapted to the soil and climate of Hancock County, the crops yielding a greater revenue than anything else raised from the ground. The Kanawha correspondent says that a neighbour told him he had an apple tree which frequently produced 40 bushels, but only every second year. Peaches will yield from four to eight bushels, but cannot be relied upon every year; as much as one year in three will miss. The bell flower, golden russet, Milan and Rambo apples are general favorites, well suited to the river region, very productive and reliable. Peaches in Mineral County are reported at 50 cents. per bushel. Of all fruits in Wood County apples are the most certain and most profitable, and approach nearer to a staple; a good orchard of five or six acres sometimes yielding as much money as the remainder of a good farm. In Tyler, 251 apple trees yielded 1200 barrels, worth $2,500. In Jefferson, an average of 200 gallons of wine can be made from an acre of grapes, with moderate cultivation, and with a profit of 90 cents. per gallon, equal to $180 per acre. There are some drawbacks, of course, as elsewhere. Early frosts occasionally change the prospects of peaches and other fruits. No correspondent complains of depredations by insects, with the single exception of the curculio upon plums in Harrison. Apples in this county will average a net profit of $600 per acre.'

The surplus fruit is fed to the cattle in districts remote from market. All the berries do well, and a failure of a fruit crop to a people who utilize it for food and forage, as the West Virginians do, is a serious loss.

The entire State is exceptionally well adapted for cattle breeding, and the following extract from a Report of the Department of Agriculture is quoted to this point:

"The pasture grasses of West Virginia are blue grass, red top, white clover, and crab grass. The length of the season for exclusive feeding on pastures is seven months; in a few mountain counties it is returned as six months; in a few others, eight or nine months; at the same time

it is true that cattle are wintered in pastures or forests with very little extra feeding, and sheep often with none at all. On the 1st of April sheep may be seen in excellent condition, which have received little if any attention or fodder during the winter. The price of pasturage varies; increasing in accessible and improving localities."

The number of live stock in West Virginia, on the 1st of January 1880, and their average value, are as follows:

Land suitable for grazing may be purchased in the counties of Randolph, Pocahontas, Webster, Nicholas, and others for about $1.50 per acre. This land, however, generally requires clearing or deadening of timber, that the sun's rays may penetrate the soil, as well as fencing, at an outlay which enhances the cost of the land to about $5 an acre. The capital invested in stock-breeding in West Virginia is estimated at $18,000,000; while the annual income derived from cattle slaughtered and sold amounts to about $5,000,000.

West Virginia is rich in minerals. Sulphur springs are reported from Berkeley County, petroleum in Wood, and other counties, while nearly every section of the State contains iron and other minerals. Coal is abundant along the banks of the Upper Ohio, and in the hills overlooking the Monongahela and its branches, in Kanawha Valley, and in seams from 3 to 11 feet thick in the valley of Guyandotte, as well as in the central district of the State. The coal on the Brooke and Guyandotte is bituminous, and the seam in the last-named region is about 4 feet thick. On the Ohio River the mineral exists in the hills, about 200 feet above the river, and are easily mined. Iron abounds in many regions; while lead, anti