WEST VIRGINIA 59 



S9, OSS, 077, or S32 14 per acre. Marshall, tlic largest, averages $20 4G ; Ohio, 

 £44 17; Brooke, 844 11; and Hancock, 834 12. 



From these figures it may be seen that this region, so broken and irregular iu 

 surface by the upheaval which the forces of nature have wrought in the lapse of 

 ages, may become, through the agency of intelligent and persistent labor, a 

 blooming and fruitful garden. 



Marshall county, named in honor of Chief Justice Marshall, has a river front 

 of thirty miles, and an eastern border of tAventy miles on the Pennsylvania line. 

 With the Ohio bottoms, and those upon small local tributaries. Fishing and Grave 

 creeks, the county has a foir share of alluvial soil, much of which is very 

 productive, yielding 80 to 100 bushels of corn under judicious and can>ful cul- 

 ture. It was here that William Alexander, a few years since, produced 288 

 bushels of corn i;pon two acres, for which he received a premium. One field, to 

 which the attention of the writer has been directed, has been in cultivation in 

 corn for sixty consecutive years, without manuring, and the yield has been re- 

 duced to twenty bushels by the gradual depletion of the soil. One of the old- 

 line farmers here gives as the accustomed system of husbandry a twenty-one 

 years' course, namely, twenty years iu com, and a rest of one year in wheat, to 

 be followed by twenty years in corn again. 



The uplands, which are slopes of hills and small valleys, with comparatively 

 little of level land, are generally rich, as is indicated by an abundant production 

 of cereals and grasses, and exports of stock, corn, wheat, and fruit, especially 

 apples. Good crops of potatoes are usually secured, variable in quality, with 

 soil, season, and culture, from 50 bushels upwards, a yield of 800 bushels per 

 acre having been known, and even 1,000 bushels of the large reds. 



Excellent crops of wheat are usually obtained. Hon. James Burley has 

 more than once secured 40 bushels per acre, and others have had similar suc- 

 cess, while the usual average is about the same as for the State of Ohio, scarcely 

 more than a third of that quantity. Oats and barley do very well, and good 

 meadows produce from two to three tons of dry hay per acre. 



Farmers formerly threw their manure into the river; they are now learning 

 something of its value, and are beginning to husband carefully their resources 

 of fertilization. As a means of enhancing fertility, the value of sheep is be- 

 ginning to be appreciated. An instance may be given of an old field grown up 

 in briers, which, with no other manure than the droppings of sheep, aided a 

 little by the f jldiiig of mules, gave a return of 100 bushels of corn per acre. 



This county forms the junction of the "Panhandle" with the great Virginian 

 pan itself, and partakes largely of its characteristics, a diversified surface, slopes 

 sometimes gentle and sometimes abrupt, alluvial formations in valleys, and a 

 soil of more than average general fertility, whether in valley or upland. 



Ohio county, iu which Wheeling is situated, is in a high state of cultivation, 

 supporting, from 37,487 acres of improved land, amounting to less than two 

 townships of the government surveys, 1,441 horses and mules, 1,408 milch 

 cows, 246 working cattle, 1,380 other cattle, 40,050 sheep, 3,244 swine, 

 worth altogether, 8253,090 ; and producing 20,048 bushels of wheat, 5,639 of 

 rye, 138,430 of corn, 82,101 of oats, 22,072 of barley, 4,372 of buckwheat, 

 21,449 of Irish potatoes, 823 of sweet potatoes, 128,448 pounds of butter, 

 102,032 pounds of wool, 6,479 tons of hay, besides the value of 814,420 in 

 garden products, $10,174 in fruits, $26,930 in slaughtered animals, and a vai-iety 

 of other productions. 



The vine has been cultivated with uniform and very gratifying success in the 

 vicinity of Wheeling, both on the hill slopes, at the top or near the bottom, and 

 also on the islands of the river. Low land-, especially islands, have been 

 avoided in other localities as sites for vineyards, but a look at the islands of this 

 vicinity will sufiice to solve the mystery of their adaptedness. If subject to 

 overflow, it is only at rare intervals of winter or spring floods, the water soon 



