Like many other Fairfax County farmers, Fountain Beattie found that he was better off to abandon diversified farming in favor 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.]