34 BULLETIN 393^ U. S, DEPARTMENT OF AGEICULTUEE. 



in the northeastern comer of the county, and considering it as the 

 center of a traffic area, bounded by a circle with a radius of approxi- 

 mately 3 miles and a total area of approximately 28 miles, the 

 portion of the area in Dinwiddle County, comprising one-fourth of 

 the total, would be about 7 square miles. After the roads v/ere 

 improved it was practicable to conduct dairy and truck industries 

 for a distance of 6 or 7 miles from Petersburg, and thus the radius 

 was lengthened to 7 miles and that portion of the traffic area located 

 in Dinwiddle Comity was increased to a total of 38.4 square miles, 

 or an increase over the original traffic area of 31.4 square miles. 



In arriving at the total tonnage hauled on the improved roads, it 

 was ascertained that about 232,000 bushels of peanuts are produced 

 annually in the county, and about 70 per cent of the crop is hauled 

 to Petersburg by wagon, an average distance of about 10 miles. 

 There are also produced in the county about 3,368,000 pounds of 

 tobacco a year, of which about 80 per cent is hauled to Petersburg 

 by wagon,^an average distance of about 15 miles. These two crops 

 require considerable fertihzer, which is hauled from Petersburg to 

 the farm. As an indication of the volume of traffic it may be men- 

 tioned that the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad at Petersburg handled 

 outgoing shipments in 1911 amounting to 25,364 tons, and it is esti- 

 mated that this railroad carried about one-third of the incoming and 

 outgoing shipments at Petersburg. Not more than one-haK of the 

 incoming and outgoing shipments at tliis point, however, pass over 

 the improved roads of Dinwiddle County, as the other half origin-ates 

 in or is consigned to Petersburg and to the adjacent counties of Ches- 

 terfield and Prince George. It is estimated that in addition to the 

 traffic centering at Petersburg, about 60,000 tons of miscellaneous 

 and forest products are hauled to way stations over the improved 

 roads for an average distance of about 5 miles. 



In order to obtain further data on which to estimate the total 

 annual traffic passing over the bond-built roads to the market or 

 shipping point at Petersburg, four traffic censuses were taken on 

 the Halifax and Cox Poads, covering a period of one year. Practi- 

 cally aU the hauhng from Dinwiddle Comity to Petersburg concen- 

 trates on these two roads within 2 miles from town. The census 

 on the Cox Road was obtained about If miles from Petersburg and 

 on the Halifax road about 1 mile from Petersbiu-g. The census 

 periods included a week in March, a week in July, two weeks in 

 December, 1914, and a week in April, 1915. The weekly census 

 included Sundays, and the two weeks' census excluded Sundays. 

 Table 13 is based on the results of these censuses. 



