322 Transactions of the American Institute. 



their owners realized sixty and eighty per cent on their value from 

 wool and lambs sold. This is the product for the year in money ; 

 sixty to eighty per cent on every dollar invested in sheep. The coun- 

 try abounds in worthless hounds ; if they ever kill sheep it has not come 

 to my notice. And there is still another advantage in keeping sheep. 

 It has been found that by keeping a flock a year or two, even on the 

 poorest of these lands, they will come into white clover, which in due 

 time will improve the land to a degree that a stand of red clover may 

 be obtained. Some attention is being given in this valley to grape 

 raising. Several persons have put out from 1,000 to 8,000 vines, 

 which are now one and two years old, and, without an exception, 

 give promise of success. The few vines planted in gardens years ago 

 bear bountifully every year. Cedar posts and rails abound, so that 

 we may trellis cheaply, and we believe that at two cents per pound 

 grapes will prove the most profitable crop we can cultivate. All 

 other fruits yield abundantly. My peaches were especially fine 

 this year, and the trees bent under their excessive loads, notwith- 

 standing they were so full last year that many broke down. The 

 cause of this bountiful yield I attribute to a free use of wood ashes 

 about the roots and trunk, and thrown into the crotches of the trees. 

 My early harvest apples yielded so bountifully last year that I hoped 

 for but few this ; but I was happily disappointed by getting even 

 more than before. The trees were treated to ashes the same as the 

 peach trees. We have promises from many sections of the north of 

 a renewal of immigration. The several hundred northern families 

 settled in the edge of this and Spottsylvania counties make this a 

 rallying point for those seeking a home in this beautiful climate. 



B. B. Dunville, Suffolk, Nansemond county — I remember to have 

 heard Dr. Trimble give a description of this section, or rather eastern 

 Virginia. He said he would turn it into one vast poultry yard, but 

 there was a drawback. Possibly there he would not be able to raise 

 feed enough, as the land was so much worn out. JSTow, let me say, 

 my first year here I was almost converted to the doctor's side, but, as 

 you may remember, we had several months and no rain ; but this 

 year I am convinced he was mistaken. Twenty-five barrels of Irish 

 potatoes have been made from one of seed, in many instances ; more- 

 over, I can show the doctor several large fields of corn that will yield 

 from fifty to sixty bushels to the acre, that have been ploughed for 

 years ; and there are several young apple orchards well worth visit- 

 ing, that bear fine fruit, and have done every year since they came 

 into bearing. You can all vouch for our Wilson strawberries, and 



