bears the name of the
"garden spot" of the state.

Five trunk lines of railroads penetrate and intersect the state. The
lines of steamboats that ply the navigable streams of eastern
Virginia afford commercial communication for large sections of the
state with the markets of this country and of Europe. Norfolk and
Newport News maintain communication with the European markets by
steamers and vessels, while from these ports is also kept up an
extensive commerce along the Atlantic seaboard. The seaports are
nearer than is New York to the great centers of population, and
areas of production, of the West and Northwest.

Market garden crops of every description can be grown. The following
result was obtained on a four-acre patch near Norfolk:

"The owner stated that in September he sowed spinach on four acres.
Between Christmas and the first of March following he cut and sold
the spinach at the rate of one hundred barrels to the acre, at a
price ranging from two to seven dollars per barrel--an average of
$4.50 per barrel. Early in March the four acres were set out to
lettuce, setting the plants in the open air with no protection
whatever, 175,000 plants on the four acres. He shipped 450
half-barrel baskets of lettuce to the acre, at a price ranging from
$2 to $2.75 per basket.

"Early in April, just before the lettuce was ready to ship, he
planted snap beans between the lettuce rows; and today, June 2d,
these are the finest beans we have seen this season.

"The last week in May he planted cantaloupes between the bean rows,
which, when marketed in July, will make four crops from the same
land in one year's time. The cantaloupes will be good for 250 crates
to the acre, and the price will run from $1 to $1.50 per crate. A
careful investigation of these 'facts, figures, and features' will
show that his gross sales will easily reach $2000 per acre; his net
profits depend largely upon the man and the management; but they
surely should not be less than $1000 clear, clean profit to the
acre."

"This is for farming done all out of doors. No hothouse or hotbed
work--not a bit of it, with no extra expense for hotbeds, cold
frames, or hothouses."

"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