The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1890-07-17

large quantity that by paying cash
with the order he gets Il fair per cel!t
off the so. The amount purchased
was spread over 100 acres oI potatoes,
80 acres Of kale, 81 acres Of spinach, -
acres of cabbages, and 80 acres OF straw
berries. Just to show what he could
do he gave little extra attention Ia
one four-acre bed Of spinach, ahd in
consequence gathered and sold LII"
barrels from the one patch, making the
neat sum of $500 an acre. That, So far
as learned by the reporter, WAS the
largest profit made by any farmer. from
similar extent of landlabout Norfolk.
The chief advantages which }lr. Bal
entine finds in this vicinity Is Il loc;s-
ton for a farm are its convenience to
the markets Of New York and Boston,
the abundance of good cheap labor,
and the kindly climate. Spinach cut
on Monday morning is on the market
Tuesday night in good condition. 1t is
shipped either by the Old Dominion
line Of steamers, the Boston line, or
the Cape Charles route of the Penn
sylvania Railroad, q road not long
since built down the length Of the Nir-
giDia peninsula for the express purpnSc
of catching the truck trade Of the
Chesapeake Bay country. Nale, c;sb-
bages, and spinach are carried for Il
cents a barrel. Strawberries are car
ried for l cent a basket. Mr.. Ballen-
tine, who has been on Long Island to
look at the competing truck farms
there, says he gets his crops to market
at a much less expense than Suffolk
County farmers do, and that he can,
in fact, compete III that respect with
farms lying so near to Brooklyn hat
they are worth $1,000 an acre. Be-
cause of low freights the farmers about
Norfolk ship thousands Of barrels and
crates of string beans, peas, radisheS,
tomatoes, sweet potatoes, and, in fact,
all sorts Of vegetables and berries 10
New York with immense profit.
The laborers are all negroes, and Mr..
Ballentine praises them highly. The
men work for $3.50 month or =!
cents day. The women, who ale
about as good field hands as the men,
get 80 cents day. They board thpl.-
selves as these prices. The hands hired
by the month have neat, whitewashcd
cottages furnished them. Mr.. Ballen-
tine keeps about fifteen hands employ
ed by the month. The rest come from
the city and work by the day. He
employs two white men as foremen or
superintendents, and they have great
houses, to use the Virginia term, to
live in. The negroes have to be looked
after constantly, but gang Of negroes
at Is cents day, with white fore
man, are much cheaper laborcrs, Mr..
Ballentine says, than the same NUM-
Der of white men 1T New York prices,
for farm help.
AS to the climate, it need only be
noted that this is the sunny South,
and that the sun is tempered by the
sea and the bay. The climate is such
that if the wild western boomers could
only get hold of it the vocabulary as
laid down in modern dictionaries would
be insufficient to sound its praise.
The crops of this region are all
brought to the piers in Norfolk, for
even those bound North by the rail
road must cross the bay in 4 steamer
Mr.. Ballentine carries his to the piers
in market wagons, but hundreds OF
farmers on the western shore OF
the bay use sloops Of about the size
of the oyster sloops of New York
harbor. When the great steamers lie
on one side of the pier and fleet OF
little sloops on the other, the scene is
one Of intense animation, and the
sounds are beyond description. The
pier shed becomes a bedlam, peopled
with scurry black imps, and resound.
ing with such cries and yells and
shouts and songs and laughter as can
be heard nowhere else. Barrels and
crates are tossed up from the sloops by
tue negro crews, grabbed by the Negro
roustabouts, and carried on the run
across the pier and tossed through ports
in the black sides of the ship to negro
deck hands in waiting, who instantly
disappear in what seems a yawnine
cavern. BY o'clock the ship is loaded
often crammed so full of the stuff
that only the spaces reserved for work.
ing the machinery remain empty be-
tween decks
With that the darkies on the NOS
quito fleet rush for the halliards and
get on jib and mainsail and cast off the
lines that hold them to the pier, AND
away they go, 10y the score, in such 1
race down the river as would stir the
soul of the most ennued spectator. NJ
more enthusiastic or capable sailors O
sloops than these darkics can be found
and with their swecthearts perchcd on
the little cabins to urge them on, tn,
negro pilots send their little yacht:
driving down or beating up to wind
ward, with q relish for victory laC
4 disregard for the rights of competition
that are stunning to behold.
Leaving Norfolk after an cXanlinn
ton of the truck farmers the Northern
agriculturist should go to Durham o
to Oxford, North Carolina, and look Il
the tobacco plantations. 1t is in In,
regions roundabout those towns tha