15 



rapid growth, we prefer to make the sprayings not over ten 

 days apart, and to make four or five sprayings a season. 



Mr. Howard. I would like to ask Professor Johnson what 

 support he has received from the truck farmers? How do they 

 take to these experiments? 



Professor Johnson. Our truck farmers in eastern Virginia, 

 to use a slang expression, decided some eight or nine years 

 ago that they were up against a hard proposition, so to show 

 their faith in the work they got together and bought a farm 

 and then went down in their pockets. In addition to buying 

 that farm, they paid out $7,500 in cash for buildings on the 

 farm, and then they turned around and leased that to the 

 State for ten years without rent and renewable at the option 

 of the State. In other words, they turned it over to the State 

 and asked the State to come in and run that work. The State 

 took up the proposition and has made the appropriations and 

 has continued the work. Now, every time that our experiment 

 station wants anything from our Legislature the first thing we 

 do is to go to the truck farmers and get a good committee from 

 them, and then we go to the Legislature and we usually get 

 some money. The value of that property that the truck 

 farmers have put into the work is to-day $25,000; that is, if 

 the State should vacate the property the- farmers could sell 

 out for $25,000 or $30,000, but they are perfectly willing to let 

 it go on, and in addition make frequent contributions for cer- 

 tain improvements or investments. 



Question. I would like to ask, what are the features of the 

 organization? 



Professor Johnson. There are two organizations in eastern 

 Virginia that are back of it. The one that fathered the move- 

 ment was the Southern Produce Company. It is a co-operative 

 trucking organization at Norfolk. The other organization is 

 the Eastern Shore of Virginia Produce Exchange. As I under- 

 stand it, the Southern Produce Company did not ask the East- 

 ern Shore Produce Exchange to help at the time the project 

 was started, but after that the Eastern Shore Produce Exchange 

 came in, so that those two organizations are behind the work, 

 and the work is supported by them. The Southern Produce 

 Company is an organization in eastern Virginia of 400 members. 



