Worcester Democrat and the ledger-enterprise. (Pocomoke City, Md.) 1921-1953, 1924-12-27

e y . {.
more men in that naked country than
! have done for the murder Of my
father!" 4S.s IS
AS is the case with the Eastern
Shore of Maryland counties, the two
counties on the Eastern Shore of Vir-
ginia are almost entirely rural, and
are famous for their agricultural
products.
The whole section is fiat, no part of
il being more than so feet above the
sea level. This condition, coupled
with the fact that the soil is fertile
and easily worked, makes these coun-
ties peculiarly suitable for truck
farming on large scale.
Indeed, conditions are SO favorable
that Accomack and Northampton are
two Of the richest counties, from an
agricultural standpoint in the United
States. According to G. w. Koiner,
the Virginia Commissioner of Agri-
culture, these two Eastern Shore coun-
ties in recent year had the highest
crop value per acre Of farm land in
the entire country. In 1928, the value
per acre for all crops was $69.S2 in
Accomac and $71.95 in. Northampton.
The big crop is potatoes both white
and sweet. They are raised on every
farm, in some cases almost exclusive
ly. Ride through that section in po-
tato shipping time and you will see
more potatoes than you would think
could be grown anywhere. Barrels of
them in fields, barrels of them on
trucks on the way to the railroad or
wharf, barrels of them filling whole
train Of railroad cars, barrels of them
being loaded onto sailing vessels.
Why, during the digging season the
very air is heavy with the scent of
newly dug potatoes.
The United States is a pretty big
place, as you'll probably admit, yet 2
per cent of all the Irish potatoes
grown within it's borders and per
cent of all the sweet potatoes are
shipped from these two little Virginia
counties wedged in between the At
lantic Ocean and the Chesapeake Bay.
If you consider early potatoes only,
nearly 40 per cent of the crop for the
whole country is produced on the Eas-
tern Shore of Virginia.
Carload shipments of potatoes in
recent years from Virginia have ex-
ceeded similar shipments from such
potato-raising states as New York,
New Jersey and Michigan. The potato
crop in Virginia ranks next to tobac-
co as money crop, and in a recent
year exceeded $16,000,0OO.
In 1923, Accomac had 1880 acres
in white potatoes, with production
of 5,177,500 bushels, while North
ampton had $4,000 acres, with pro-
duction of 100000 bushels. In the
same year Accomack had 10000 acres
in sweet potatoes, with a production
of $780,, 500 bushels, while Northamp-
ton had 4,700 acres, with a production
Of 65S,00O bushels.
These figures may not mean much
to you when considered merely as
figures. To the average man, 1,OO0,-
600 means pretty much the same as
1000. But consider them this way:
during 1923 there were enough pota-
toes, both white and sweet, raised on
the Eastern Shore of Virginia to give
one bushel to every man, woman and
child in New York City, Philadelphia,
Baltimore, Washington, Boston, st.
Louis, Buffalo, Cleveland, Jersey City,
Richmond, Norfolk, Charleston, Cum
berland, Roanoke and Falls Church.
II you think the writer is spoofing
you, just get copy of the census
report and add up the population fig
ures for yourself, and then compare
your figures with the figures for Vir-
ginia's big potato crop. r f
At thevtime this article was pre-
pared the statistics for the 1924 crop
were not all in, but already the ship
,,nents of white notatoes were the