I04 



THE NORFOLK TRUCKERS IN MID-U INTER. 



the pioneer of the trucking interests, his predecessors 

 having some years since abandoned the business. From 

 these beginnings the industry has grown, until it is the 

 largest interest of Norfolk and the region adjacent, and 



Fig. 2. Curled Scotch K.\le. 



has attracted the attention of the world. In i88g the 

 vegetables shipped from Norfolk were as follows : 





Quantity. 



/ 'aliie. 



Potatoes 



. . . 418,516 bb's. 



$1,046,200 CO 





• ■ • 7.46.5,306 qts. 



946,530 00 



Cabbages 



• • • 347.130 bbls. 



433.912 50 



Peas 



. . . . 185.415 boxes. 



324,476 25 







245,658 00 



Kale 





177,707 00 



Beans 



. . . 80,935 boxes. 



1 2;, 402 50 



Melons 



. . . 836,152 bbls. 



104,519 00 



Tomatoes 



. . . 92,591 boxes. 



69,443 25 



Cucumbers 



. . . 46, 2-.0 boxes. 



34,710 00 



Lettuce 



. . . 8,174 bbls. 



28,609 00 



Asparagus 



. . . 2,928 boxes. 



17,56s 00 







536,241 75 







$4,087,067 85 



Trucking, however, is not the only [interest of Nor- 

 folk, The city is rapidly developing as a manufacturing 

 center, and its importance as an entrepot is very 

 great. It is a point o£ transport of much the produce 

 of the southern states which is on its way to the north- 

 ern markets. It is one of the most thriving and prom- 

 ising of the cities of the middle south. All this thrift 

 necessarily enhances the price of land, and some of 

 the trucking farms are held at S400 or $500 per acre. 

 Land is not worth this figure for gardening ; but there 

 are large tracts of outlying lands which can be had 

 from $50, or even less, to $100 per acre. These are as 

 well adapted to trucking as any now in use, except^in 

 their remoteness from the city ; but the constantly in- 

 creasing railway facilities, and the natural water com- 

 munications with the harbor, make them accessible. 

 Much good trucking land can be secured at reasonable 

 prices within ten or twelve miles of the harbor. Nearly 

 all the present industry is confined within that limit. 

 Its largest extension is along the western branch (see 

 Fig. i) lying beyond Portsmouth. It was in this region 

 that the Jerseymen first settled. The region adjacent 

 to Cape Charles will undoubtedly soon become an im- 

 portant trucking center. Congressman William L. 



Scott has a large farm upon the cape, upon which enor- 

 mous quantities of potatoes, kale and spinage are grown. 



Thomas R. Ballentine is the largest trucker about 

 Norfolk, and one of the most successful. His place lies 

 near the city, and comprises 500 acres. Mr. Ballentine 

 began business on a small scale in 1877, two mules being 

 sufficient to perform all the work. He now keeps 

 thirty mules in constant labor. He grows five crops 

 only, — kale, spinage, potatoes, cabbage and strawber- 

 ries. This limitation of crops is determined by the 

 character of the soil and by the ease with which these 

 plants fit into a profitable rotation. Kale, spinage and 

 cabbage are winter crops. Kale is sown about the first 

 of September, in the field where it is to stand. Pick- 

 ing begins just before the holidays, and the crop is all 

 off by the first or middle of March. As soon as the kale 

 land is turned over, Mr. Ballentine plants potatoes, in 

 rows four and one-half feet apart, and in May straw- 

 berry plants are set between the rows. The potatoes 

 are dug in June, and the land is then given over en- 

 tirely to the strawberry plants, which are well cultivated 

 till the first of August. The following April and May 

 the berry crop is harvested, and in June the plants are 

 plowed under and the ground is again made ready for a 

 fall planting of kale, spinage or cabbage. Three crops 

 are, therefore, grown in two years, and one of them re- 

 quires a year in which to mature. This rotation is by 

 no means followed by all the Norfolk truckers, although 

 they all adopt one something like it. Some of them 

 prefer to pick two crops from the strawberries, and a 

 third crop is occasionally gathered. 



On the last day of i8go Mr. Ballentine was busy har- 

 vesting kale (Fig. 4). Barrels are drawn into the field, 

 and the pickers simply cut the kale close to the ground, 

 pull off the yellow leaves, and pack it promiscuously in 

 the barrel. The barrel is covered with burlaps, and 



FiG. 3. In the Spinage Field. 



sent at once to market. The pickers are paid five cents 

 a barrel, and thirty to forty barrels is a fair day's 

 labor, while the best cutters, in good kale, have reached 

 fifty and sixty barrels in eight hours. Mr. Ballentine 



