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Next display: 06. "The Savior of the Virginia Fruit Industry"

05. Other Early Local Advocates of Modern Viticulture

Henry Minor Magruder, a leader in the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors and the Virginia Pomological Society, fought hard to enact legislation on behalf of the grape-growers whose vineyards were devastated by the fungoid diseases. As an adjunct professor at the Virginia Mechanical and Agricultural College in Blacksburg Magruder travelled throughout the state to educate farmers.

Albert Holliday lived at Eastham on the Stony Point Road. When his vineyards were attacked by anthracnose, mildew and rot in 1886, Holliday participated in a three-year experiment with the U.S.D.A., observing the effect of various fungicides on these different pests.

Trained in New Jersey as a medical doctor, Dr. Charles E. Hedges (shown here at his home at the end of Park Street) moved to Charlottesville in 1883, retiring from medicine and pursuing horticulture, as his health required he spend more time in the fresh air. Trained in inspecting human pathogens under a microscope, Dr. Hedges was reportedly the first horticulturalist in the Eastern U.S. to observe plant pathogens that had threatened to spread and destroy the local fruit industry. He was the type of skilled observer and consistent note-taker upon whom U.S.D.A. agents relied to assist in their projects.