Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1890-05-25
THE EASTERN SHORE.
THE PENINSULA ONE VAST sWEET-Po-
TATo PATCH.
Millions Of Bushels Raised I'e''
Culture aud sale-rhe Peninsuia
FARMERS Life.


II the planters Of the Virginia peninsula
| do not grow rich, hand over nst, say !; =
not for lack of opportunity. particular.,y
since railroad has been buIit there 10
carry their produce TO New YORK CITY.
AZ first sight the country Is not especial
| ly attractive to a stranger making MS nrst
visit. The soil is generally white ana
sandy: it looks as If the hrstsgoou WIN
storm that came along would dow IL over
| into the next county. Inc loiesI i aLo
| chiefly Of pine, and, TO judge by tne Ioohs
| of the fields adjoining the pine woods, the
| tendency of that KIND of tree TO spread Is
| likely TO keep the grubbing-hoe a-swlng-
| ing The fences would not restrain an
able calf. while the houses are not OF the
sort to be found in the Mohawk Saley.
| The other farm buildings are less Valuable
than the houses.
Nevertheless. there are certain evidences
| that the land produces something. Around
| the railway stations there are heaps OF
| broken barrels and crates. and factories
| for the making OF such vegetable packages
are found at intervals along the rOaa. IN
| every field there IS group OF derKles at
work, and so much planting as IS done III
dicates a harvest later.
| The one crop that takes precedence OF
all Others on the Virginia Peninsula -
| the sweet potato. Like the peach-orchard
| in Southern Delaware the sweet-potato
patch rules the Peninsula. The centre or
| the patch is at Onancock, on the Chesa-
peake bay, opposite the little station from
which this letter is dated. Everybody
plants sweet potatoes, and on the prouuct
and price of that crop depend the welfare
of two counties.
HOW HE BEGINS.
The sweet-potato crop requires some
| little attention the year round, but the
work is never heavy and is brisk only
| during the planting and harvest seasons.
The planter begins TO prepare Tor the next
years crop in midsummer by cutting
eight-inch sprouts from the growing vines.
These he burles in pretty poor coil some
where handy TO the house and leaves them
there, keeping the weeds away from them,
however, until they have produced O crop
OF tingerlings. or little potatoes the size OF
mans finger. These he gathers and
stores away in shed or barn by burying
them in what he calls pine shat, the long.
wiry leaves Taked up in the pine woods.
There the little potatoes lie until March.
Then the planter rakes them out and puts
them in bed.
This bed ia much like those used by the
farmers uptown in New York city for early
vegetables. The soil is dug out of hill
side the hills are very low IN this county,
that slopes TO the south until wide trench
foot deep is made. Into this he shovels
barnyard manure and packs it down until
il il eight inches deep. Then he covers
the manure with two inches of black mould
brought from the woods. If the weather
is cold he may wet the bed with boiling
wator. On the mould he lays the finger
lngs so that they are about half an inch
apart all over the bed, and then covers
them with two inches more of the black
mould Then around the trench he builds
shallow box with window-glass cover,
Just as hot-beds are arranged around New
York Though the wind may be cold, the
sun is warm, and the temperature III the
bed rises. The little potatoes sprout right
speedily, and the farmer must needs hump
himselfto prepare the fields by the time
the plants are ready.
LIKE A PICNIC.
The fields are worked as if for a garden,
plouched and thoroughly pulverized, but
the soil is so friabe that the work of pre-
pairing it would seem picnic to,a man
used to breaking sod on western prairie.
Having gotten the soil fine enolgh 1t is
turned up in ridges eighteen inches apart
from crest to crest. Then the farmer
walks it of" Setting up o stake eigh-
teen inches from the end of a ridge the
farmer goes TO Won side the field" Then
with his eyes firmly fixed on the stake, he
walks backward toward it, stepping on
the crest of each ridge AZ he goes. Let IT
be said that the typical Brother Jonathan
tail, lank, round-shouldered, and thin
faced-lives on the Virginia Peninsula,
and when, with chin out and arms SWING
inc and legs VIBRATING. he walks of the
sweet-potato patch, the spectacle Is one
likely to be remembered 10y the stranger.
Behind the boss, who walks OF the patch.
come the hands TO plant. First, there Is a
man or woman or big boy with "A llttle
scOop-shaped trowel. This hand straddles
the ridge. and, jobbing the trowel into the
soft earth between the footmarks, draws IT
back toward himself three or four inches.
forming a little trench. Right alongside
Is boy or a girl with basketful of shoots
from the little potatoes in the hotbeds.
The vOungster hands a shoot TO the man,
who drops it into the little trench he has
made and goes OF TO repeat the operation
midway between the next two footmarks.
Behind this par comes hand with
bucket Of water and Il cup. Each plant
and little trench Is moistened with cup
of water. Last of all comes one who,
straddling the ridge, stoops down and with
his hands draws the earth up over the
plant. but does not pat 1t down:
Farmers say that one gang of hands can
plant tive-acrc patCh IN Gay. As tne
plants grow the weeds are kept down by
ploughing the field both ways, the young
folks about the place following the plough
10 SEQ that no spreading vines are lett
covered by the soil
In July the harvest begins, and IT is a
golden harvest worth gathering. short
crop is fifty barrels TO the acre, and good
one 100 barrels. while exceptional land and
exceptional seasons produce such crops as
may not be told OF without exciting IN
credulity. A northern farmer would pay
for mis- farm ont of every crop and live
well.
HEAVY SHIPMENTS.
At Onancock alone 200, 600 barrels We're
sold last season, while the shipments from
oven the least favored villages were num-
bered by the thousand. Every day two
trains Of freight-cars roll up over the Cape
Charles route. They stop at every station,
and grow with the stops until at last the
locomotives can handle no more. Then
away they 90, and Just before daylight the
next morning roll into the Pennsylvania $
ward at Jersey City. Between the tracks
in this yard there is scarcely standing
room, because of the trucks gathered there,
while driver lies asleep on every truck.
With the arrival OF the truck trains the
ward wakes up, the teams begin 10 move,
the drivers 10 veil and swear, and though
there before had seemed no room for men
the trucks go up and down till the right
cars are found and the right barrels taken
on the trucks, when away they go to the
ferry.
Nor does this railroad take all the sweet
potatoes to market. From Patchogue,
from Sayville. from Northport, from Hunt
ington, and from about every other little
Long Island port. and from Jersey as well,
q fleet of little light-draught sloops and
schooners come down TO the bays and IN
lets that mark the much-indented shores
of this peninsula. They bring cash and
check books as a rule, and buying their
cargoes outright sail away for the me-
trOpOlls.
PROFITABLE CROP.
Not only is the crop profitable; it is
pleasing to the Peninsula farmer from the
growing OF the plant to the serving OF the
well-cooked product on the table. Along
in September, when the crop has been
pretty well gathered, the young, Of the
opossum has reached maturity and grown
fat. Let him who will dance beneath the
full September moon. but the Peninsula
young man goes 'possum-huntlng, ana
with inyariable success. Next day for din-
ner that 'possum is served in the wide iron
nan in which IL WAS baked. and lying I'M