180 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY 



"Intensive," thorough tillage and care of the soil will 

 probably pay as well here as at any point in the United 

 States. 



Apples are the principal fruit crop of the state. There is 

 a yearly increasing number of trees. In one of the valley 

 counties a seventeen-year-old orchard of 1150 trees pro- 

 duced an apple crop as far back as 1905 which brought the 

 owner $10,000, another of fifty twenty-year-old trees brought 

 $700. Mr. H. E. Vandeman, one of the best-known horti- 

 culturists in the country, says that there is not in all North 

 America a better place to plant orchards than in Virginia; 

 on account of its "rich apple soil, good flavor and keeping 

 qualities of the fruit, and nearness to the great markets of 

 the East and Europe." 



The trees attain a fine size and live to a good old age, and 

 produce abundantly. In Patrick County there is a tree nine 

 feet five inches around which has borne 110 bushels of apples 

 at a single crop ; other trees have borne even more. One 

 farmer in Albemarle County has received more than $15,000 

 for a single crop of Albemarle Pippins grown on twenty 

 acres of land. This pippin is considered the most delicious 

 apple in the world. 



The fig, pomegranate, and other delicate fruits flourish 

 in the Tidewater region. 



New England, from Maine to Rhode Island, is suffering 

 from one disease lack of intelligent labor. Thirty 

 years ago the sons and daughters who, in the natural course 

 of events, would have stayed to cultivate the home acres, 

 left to form a part of the westward throng making for the 

 level, untouched prairies of Illinois and Iowa. 



The old folks have died or become incapacitated. New 

 interests chain their children to adopted homes. Result, 



