The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1875-04-10
what the Accommodates arc Doing.

~
APRIL Z AND s. 1876.
Cutfec is catching oysters and the white
peoplc arc raising sweet potatoes. Cuflec is
making himself scarcer all the time, and
those that remain are not thrifty; but they
know their place. and that is something.
The white people are Admirable. They work
bravely and successfully. The great idea
now Is trucking. They are willing to take
their place in the line Of earliness. Charles
ton, :. c., leads off, Norfolk next, then the
Eastern Shore. then Delaware, then jersey.
! The soil cauuot be exceled for many garden
| crops. Much of it Is fertile, and it responds
| TO manure quickly. The chief crop now is
sweet potatoes because it pays best. Would
YOU believe ii!-hccomac sweet potatoes 20
| West in vast quantities by way Of Baltimore.
The Chic,go children cry for them. From
June to Christmas three lines OF sweet pota.
| toes flow out OF Accomac - one takes the
Chesapeake 10 B sltimore, another takes raj!
! from Cris6eld 10 Philadelphis, aud another
takes the ocean to New York and Boston.
! Now the people are gcttir 6 ready to plant.
| The traveller sees near almost every house
| from Onancock to Drummondtown. aud on
! to the sea long hot. beds, under whose glass
the young potato vines are fourshng. The
| hot. bed sash are made by laying together in
! pairs narrow strips Of pine board, and slip.
| ping the edges Of the pines OF glass be-
! ;wecn--a rough way, but one that answers.
| whilst the plants are growing the men are
hauling out and p!oughing under the COM
post, which they make in vast quantities
during the winter. This compost Is the
most noticeable feature in the operation, and
! it testtieS to the skill and industry
OF the farmers. In the early winter they
collect in vast quantities what they
| call the "pine-shat' ers y namely, the fallen
needles orspires, together with the miScelll-
ueous vegetable trash, which are gathered
| 10y raklng The pine forests which abound
everywhere. This is spread two or three
icet deep over the cattle-yarO, and with II
are mixed humus, or woods earth, swamp
muck, coarse heritage, and whatever Other
dccayng matter can be had. On this heavy
mat the live stock spend the winter aud ty
this time the farmer has from 800 TO 1000
cart loads CT this manure, all Of which is
spread on The sweet-potao ground as thick
as it practicable for the plough to manage.
The soil Is filed az full as it can bold Of this
hllf.decayed stuff. which makes The best pos.
>ible bed for the sweet potato, whilst II Woul0
not suit web Tor anything else.
suggested that a big strawstack might
llStb III NC HA'PoS'siNo 'N'
instantly rejected. STRAW is too long and
100 cold. Breeds the cut. worm. Pine shat
tiers are short and warm; makes the young
sweet potatoes fIirly frolic in their beds"
A hundred barrels 10 the acre is fair crop.
Prices run from one to five dollars. Barrels
cost twenty-five cents. Transportation 10
boat small matter. Roads bard and dry.
No breeder and breaks wanted. l saw
wagon gears consisting, besides bride and
rens, Of collar, names, and trace chains,
nothing more. Imagine what big loads they
haul, Oh ye hll-country farmers.
But the main thing about Accomac sweet
potatoes that gives them their widespread
popularity is ther flavor. Tue Acc'mackers
say that up-country sweet potatoes are not
fit to eat, and whilst the western farmers
can raise large potatoes they have not the
sweetness oil the Eastern Shore potatoes. Sc
in wheat, in tobacco, in oysters. and in sweet
potatoes, Virginia has peculiar advantages
W.