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I7 Agriculture and Rural Life Agriculture in the New State. West Virginia entered the Union as a rural state, with about eighty percent of her people engaged in general agriculture, which included both horticulture and animal husbandry. Corn was by far the most important crop, but wheat, oats, hay, particularly timothy and bluegrass, and potatoes were also produced in abundance. Small acreages were put to rye, and buckwheat flourished in higher elevations in Greenbrier and Preston counties . Tobacco, which had thrived in southwestern sections before the war, had begun to decline because of labor shortages and soil depletion. Sorghum, or Chinese sugar cane, first introduced into the state in 1857, was grown in most sections and converted into molasses, which was consumed at home. Maple sugar and maple syrup continued as important farm-related products. Wheat and livestock dominated the marketable farm products of West Virginia. Wheat production gave rise to numerous flour mills along the upper Ohio River and the South Branch of the Potomac. Those on the Ohio shipped flour to Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Louisville, New Orleans, and other inland cities, and those in the Potomac section supplied Washington, Alexandria, and other eastern centers. Baltimore, Richmond, Pittsburgh, and Cincinnati provided important markets for West Virginia livestock. The western market for West Virginia whiskey declined as the temperance movement gained momentum in the country. Insufficient attention to scientific practices hampered the development of commercial agriculture. In 1851 W.S. Miller of Garrardstown introduced a business aspect into fruit growing and eventually had thousands of apple and peach trees, as well as large numbers of cherry, pear, and plum trees, in the vicinity of Apple Pie Ridge. The Shenandoah Valley achieved a reputation for its apples before the Civil War, and the Northern Panhandle also produced fruit of good quality. Improved strains of livestock had been brought into the state early in the nineteenth century, and by the mid-1850s the Ludington, Renick, and Rogers families had introduced Shorthorn cattlt into the Greenbrier region. Cattlemen along the South Branch of the Potomac had also gained a significant place in the improvement of livestock and often had close connections with breeders in Kentucky and southern Ohio.' 'Otis K. Rice, "Importations of Cattle into Kentucky, 1790-1860,"Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 49(January 1951):36-38. Agrku#ure and Rural Ufe 175 Late Ninetemth Century Growth. After devastating setbacks during the Civil War, West Virginia agriculturerevived rapidly with the return of peace. Between 1869and 1879the numberof farms increased from 40,000 to 63,000, and tile number of acres of improved land rose by more than one million. Average farm size, however, decreased from 214 to 173acres, indicating a trend toward more intensive forms of agriculture. With the liftingof the depressionin the 1870s,the increased use of commercialfertilizersin the 1880s,the introduction of improved farm machinery, and greater attentionto improvementof seed and breeds of livestock, agriculturebegan to surge forward. Oneevidenceofthenew interest inagriculturelay inthecultivationoffruits. Berkeley, Hampshire, Jefferson, and Morgan counties took the lead in apples, while Hampshire,Mineral, and Berkeley led in peach crops. Older commercial orchards featured York, Imperial, Ben Davis, Grimes Golden, and Yellow Transparent apples. Newer ones leaned toward Stark's Delicious, Golden Delicious, and Stayman Winesap. The Grimes Golden was developed on the farm of Thomas Grimes in Brooke County, and the Golden Delicious apple originated on the farm of A.H. Mullins on Porters Creek in Clay County. In 1869Joseph H. Diss Debar, the state commissionerof immigrationand author of a valuable handbook on West Virginia, described stock farming as "the pulsating artery of agricultural prosperity in West Virginia."2 Each year thousands of cattle were driven from the South Branch, Greenbrier, and upper Monongahela valleys into the glades of the Alleghenies, where they grazed during spring and summer months. In the autumn they were sent on the hoof to eastern markets or returned by the graziers to their owners for wintering and further conditioning. West Virginiacattlemengave increased attention to improvementof breeds. During the 1870s Hereford cattle were introduced into Summers County and breeding stock was sold throughout the state. Shorthorns, imported into Jefferson , Mason, Greenbrier, and other counties, gained rapidly in popularity. The Aberdeen Angus, probably first bred in Mineral and Randolph counties, was accepted somewhat more slowly. By World War I Herefords accounted for nearly one-third of the blooded cattle in the state, Shorthorns for about onesixth , and Aberdeen Angus for about one-tenth. The beef and dairy industries were never sharply differentiated in West...

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