VIRGINIA. 



829 



authorized by any court having jurisdiction. Interest 

 is to be paid as it becomes due out of any money in 

 the Treasury not otherwise appropriated. 



The Legislature also adopted the proposed 

 amendment to the Constitution abolishing the 

 poll-tax as a prerequisite to voting, and pro- 

 vided for a popular vote upon it in November. 



Much of the session was occupied with the 

 election of judges and other officers, and with 

 measures designed for the benefit of the Read- 

 justers. They early met with opposition with- 

 in their own ranks, which began with their re- 

 fusal to re-elect Auditor John E. Massey, who 

 had been one of their most prominent leaders. 

 Four Readjuster Senators adhered to his for- 

 tunes, and after his displacement opposed and 

 defeated the Readjuster schemes for congres- 

 sional reapportionment, for redistricting the 

 State for Circuit Judges, for the passage of 

 election and registration laws, and other party 

 measures. 



STATISTICS. The Board of Public Works 

 fixed the tax on the railroads of the State for 

 the year at $138,454.92. 



The Virginia Penitentiary has now within its 

 walls and on public works 977 convicts, an in- 

 crease of 29 during 1882. During the fiscal 

 year there were received 330 criminals. Dur- 

 ing the same period 185 were discharged, 33 

 died, 73 were pardoned, and 19 escaped 1 

 from the Penitentiary and 18 from public works. 

 The number of prisoners confined for life is 16. 

 The number of prisoners confined for terms 

 ranging from twenty to fifty-four years is 49. 

 The youngest convict is eleven years of age, 

 and the two oldest are seventy-six. Of the 

 convicts, 276 are under twenty-one years of 

 age. 



The occupation and distribution of the con- 

 victs in the Penitentiary and on public works 

 at the close of the fiscal year were as follow : 



Shoemakers 400 



Tobacco manufacturers 99 



Coopers 44 



Cooks, jobbers, specials, Capitol Square hands, labor- 

 ers. In hospital, disabled, infirm old men, servers, and 



nurses 128 



Males on public works : 



Valley Railroad 237 



Bristol Coal and Iron Railroad 26 



Danville and New Eiver Kailroad 23 



Laundresses 10 



Seamstresses 10 



Total 97T 



The average term of the sentences of the 

 convicts is eight years seven months and six 

 days, and their average age is twenty-seven 

 years and twenty-nine days. 



The manufacturing industries of Richmond 

 comprise 710 establishments in operation, em- 

 ploying 15,813 hands, with invested capital 

 amounting to $11,213,680. The sales of the 

 products of these aggregated in 1882 $28,061,- 

 332. Large as these sales are, they fall short 

 of 1881 by $4,741,424. The loss is chiefly in 

 tobacco, which drops off $3,029,100, and there 

 is a loss in other branches of $403,203 in iron, 

 of $434,725 in cigars and cigarettes, of $550,- 



000 in pork-packing, and of $49,281 in flour. 

 In other departments there has been steady 

 growth in the number of operatives employed, 

 capital invested, and in productions. 



The following is a comparative statement of 

 the exports of Richmond for the years 1881- 

 1882: 



Total number of barrels of flour shipped to Brazil 

 from Richmond during 1882 142 237 



Total value of same $949,027 



Decrease In shipment of flour to Brazil as com- 

 pared with 1881 number of barrels 81,259 



Total number of vessels engaged in the flour-trade 

 with Brazil 44 



Being a decrease of 29 



During the year two barks and six steam- 

 ships cleared from West Point (port of Rich- 

 mond), carrying an aggregate of 50,288 barrels 

 of flour to Brazil. 



CROPS. The peanut-crop is an important 

 one in many of the counties of Tidewater Vir- 

 ginia, south of James River, and is attended 

 with considerable profit. Virginia raises more 

 than any other State the crop being worth at 

 least $500,000 (estimate of 1879) then North 

 Carolina, then Tennessee these being the only 

 States which raise them for market. Lime or 

 marl is indispensable to the successful culti- 

 vation of this crop. The sweet-potato crop is 

 another important one in Tidewater Virginia. 

 The cultivation of this usually goes hand in 

 hand with that of melons, the same kind of 

 soil suiting each. Irish potatoes are not raised 

 extensively in the State for market. They 

 succeed admirably about the foot of the moun- 

 tains and on the mountains, and do well in all 

 the cooler sections of the State. In Tidewater 

 Virginia they can be raised early for market, 

 and are shipped considerably from the vicinity 

 of Norfolk. There is one root-crop which has 

 been neglected, and which it is thought would 

 succeed well on all the light, good land in the 

 State, viz., artichokes. They are very produc- 

 tive on light, loamy lands near the streams, but 

 are productive on all rich land of almost any 

 kind. 



Grape-culture and wine-making have assumed 

 encouraging proportions in Virginia, and are on 

 the increase, particularly in Piedmont Virginia, 

 in Albemarle, Nelson, Prince William, Warren 

 (in the Valley), etc. A very considerable quan- 

 tity of wine has been made by different parties 

 of excellent quality, though the business is yet 



