SOILS OF EASTERN VIRGINIA. 3 



CLIMATE. 



The Norfolk trucking district constitutes the most northern area 

 where it is the common practice to produce vegetable crops through- 

 out the year for shipment to more northern markets. Ability to fol- 

 low this practice is dependent upon local climatic conditions to a con- 

 siderable degree. The district lies at a low elevation contiguous to 

 large areas of tidewater and approximately in latitude 36° 30' to 

 latitude 37° north. 



According to the records of the United States Weather Bureau for 

 the Norfolk station, the region has an annual mean precipitation 

 of 49.29 inches, well distributed throughout the year, and the mean 

 annual temperature is 59.2° F. There is an average annual snowfall 

 of 9.4 inches, which occurs almost entirely in December, January, 

 and February. The average date of the first killing frost in the fall 

 is November 12 and of the last in spring March 27. Although kill- 

 ing frosts have occurred as early as October 15 and as late as April 26, 

 in general a frost-free season of about 230 days would seem to be in- 

 dicated. The winter conditions of temperature are such also that 

 certain classes of vegetables, notably spinach, kale, and cabbage, may 

 be grown throughout that season. 



PRODUCTION, TRANSPORTATION, AND MARKETS. 



Shipments of truck crops grown in this district are made to all the 

 larger northern and northeastern cities. The district is served by 

 several trunk lines of railroads and by half a dozen lines of steam- 

 boats which carry truck crops to Washington, Baltimore, Philadel- 

 phia, New York, Boston, and other northern cities. Locally the 

 produce is collected for shipment by power boats, owned and operated 

 by the different farmers or by others, by local steam and electric 

 railroads, and to some extent through wagon haul to the shipping 

 point. (See PL II, figs. 1 and 2.) 



Two truck growers' associations manage the shipments of the 

 greater part of the produce, and the figures for the total amounts of 

 shipments for a series of years have been compiled by Prof. T. C. 

 Johnson, director of the Virginia Truck Experiment Station. Table I 

 shows the amount of these shipments from 1909 to 1914, inclusive. 

 The figures are given for the trucking year, which terminates with 

 August 31. 



