vor of crops with
respect to which he still enjoyed natural advantages. Thus, during the
last quarter of the nineteenth century, Green Spring Farm is
identified with dairy products and orchard and garden produce--all
commodities which had to be marketed the same day they were produced
or picked or which could be made into derivative products which could
be easily transported to market and sold at prices which reflected
value added by processing. Transportation, however, was a key factor.
Virginia's country roads were publicly acknowledged to be in a
"lamentable condition," and over even the best of them travel often
was impossible in wet seasons of the year.[62] In this respect, the
Little River Turnpike was one of the best of Virginia's rural roads,
having been laid out and constructed by professional engineers and
maintained by hired labor with even more care and regularity than the
public roads. In Beattie's day, as in Moss's time, the turnpike was
the main road between Alexandria and Fairfax, the county seat, and
thence to the Valley.

All these considerations led Fountain Beattie to direct his main
effort to expansion of the orchards and herd of dairy cattle as
rapidly as it was feasible. Year around, the farm was a busy place,
with work enough for all of the Beatties' 12 children--six boys and
six girls--as well as their parents and hired hands. Daily chores,
including milking and churning, went on all year, for the farm
generally had numerous cows, horses, and mules. There was also a
certain amount of grain to be raised each year for livestock feed, and
a large vegetable garden. Fruit trees included pears, cherries, and
apples in two 25-acre orchards--one located on each side of the
Turnpike--which provided the principal produce of the farm. Farm
produce was regularly marketed in Washington, Alexandria, and local
grocery stores, as well as at a roadside stand during the harvest
season.[63]

[Illustration: Reunion at Manassas: Colonel John S. Mosby visits Bull Run
for the first time since the war. Pictured are (left to right) Fountain
Beattie, Lycurgus Hutchison, John Mosby, and George Turberville.]

The markets of Washington were only about nine miles from Green Spring
Farm, but on market days it was customary for the farm wagons of the
neighborhood to be loaded and on the road well before dawn. The
Washington city wholesale market opened at 3 A.M. each weekday, and
farmers who came there sold directly from t