NORFOLK TRUCKING 



9 



TRUCKING IN EASTERN VIRGINIA. 



T. C. Johnson, Norfolk, Virginia. 



It is with peculiar pleasure I come this morning to meet 

 you who are in the same line of work as many of my neigh- 

 bors in Virginia. As your Chairman said, the business of 

 growing vegetables for home use is not limited to any par- 

 ticular locality, but it is scattered over the entire country. 

 But vegetable growing on a commercial scale is centralized 

 at particular points. Among the reasons for so centralizing 

 the work are accessibility to markets, transportation facili- 

 ties, climatic conditions and soil adaptation. In the extreme 

 South these centers were developed largely on account of 

 favorable climate, responsive soils and transportation facili- 

 ties. Further North the development depends upon other 

 factors. 



The Norfolk, Virginia, trucking industry is possibly one of 

 the oldest in the country. It started in a small way about 

 1840. The truckers at that time limited their work mostly 

 to the production of early potatoes, sweet potatoes, water- 

 melons and cabbage. Gradually the work was extended to 

 include peas, beans and cucumbers. Little progress was 

 made from 1850 to 1870, but the work developed very rapid- 

 ly from 1870 to the present time. This later development 

 was stimulated very largely by the splendid transportation 

 facilities offered in that region. The Eastern Shore coun- 

 ties date their principal advance from the opening of the 

 New York, Philadelphia and Norfolk Railroad, and the form- 

 ing of the Eastern Shore of Virginia Produce Exchange. 

 During the year 1913, two Truckers' Cooperative Associa- 

 tions, one at Onley, Virginia, and the other at Norfolk, 

 handled over seven million of packages of produce valued at 

 about ten million dollars. Over five million dollars worth 

 of produce was sold by parties outside of these Associations, 

 making a total of about fifteen million dollars of market gar- 

 den products shipped during the yeaE 



The exploiting age in this region has long since passed, 

 and the farmers are now working on a business basis. The 

 list of vegetables now grown includes potatoes, sweet pota- 



