Eastern Shore Herald, March 29, 1912
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Infrastructure -- Commercial - Real estateInfrastructure -- Commercial - Commercial constructionInfrastructure -- Commercial - Drugstores
Accomac C. H.
Mr. Wm. P. Bell is building an annex to his drug store, and when completed will install an up-to-date soda fountain, &c.
Mr. Luke Phillips has purchased the house and lot from Mr. Edward Milliner at present occupied by Mr. Joseph Oliver. The price paid $1,525.
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Infrastructure -- Commercial - Residential constructionTransportation -- Railroad - Construction
Cape Charles City.
The Cape Charles branch of the New York, Philadelphia & Norfolk Railway is now running its trains to the point of the peninsula. The schedule went into effect this week, opening up the lower section of the peninsula for the speedy shipment of trucks to the northern and western markets.
Several fine houses are nearing completion, which adds considerably to our town.
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Infrastructure -- Public - Government : Postal serviceInfrastructure -- Commercial - Commercial construction
Exmore.
Exmore is to have a postoffice savings bank. It will be opened on April 12.
Exmore will have another store in the near future. A building is being erected to be occupied by Mr. John Winder of Read's Wharf.
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Tourists and sportsmen -- Other recreation - Baseball
Nassawadox.
The Shepp's End School and the Franktown School boys crossed bats Saturday at the Franktown School grounds. Result: 4 to 19 in favor of the latter.
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Sea -- Finfish - Methods : Pound-net
Wachapreague.
Wachapreague Fish Pound Co., are putting down their nets.
More Potatoes and less Cabbage to be Grown This Year
Fields -- Crops - White potatoes : AcreageFields -- Crops - Cabbage
The Spring season has opened up here in real earnest after the longest and severest Winter of many years. A very few Irish potatoes were planted the last few days in February, but it was not till last week that the bulk of the truckers of the Eastern Shore succeeded in getting any large portion of their prospective crop in the ground. When it was not frozen, it was always too wet to work. In the latter three days of last week many farmers planted and by this time the larger portion of the crop is in the ground. The truckers of both Northampton and Accomack Counties are about three weeks behind hand. Since last Saturday the weather has been all that could be desired and the farmers have taken full advantage of it.
From this point South to the cape both potatoes and cabbage have been planted to the full extent, but North of here they have not yet gotten through. With good weather the crops will catch up in spite of the backward beginning. The cabbage planted last December looks very badly, but will likely come out all right. It is said that during the bad weather some of the truckers in the lower part of this county were so desperately anxious to plant potatoes that they went at it in the water with gum boots on.
Larger crops of potatoes are planted in the lower section than ever. Elsewhere on the Eastern Shore the area is about the same as last year. Everybody is busy this nice bright weather and the truckers are in better humor than in the Winter.
The cabbage crop will not be as large as last year, owing to the fact that the truckers could not get them planted.
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Fields -- Canneries
The Herald has for many years advocated the establishment of canneries in this section, because it is the natural habitat of most of the commodities which make up the bulk of the stock of canned goods. Millions of peaches and pears rot in the orchards here, yet every grocery store in the counties has a stock of these the year round. The Eastern Shore ships millions of crates of nice strawberries yet nobody ever cans any of them here. The tomato grows here luxuriantly and to perfection and thousands of crates of the luscious product are shipped every year and millions of the same stock are brought back and bought back by the merchants and grocers. There is in fact nothing in the grocery store that equals in cost and bulk this one line of canned goods. Millions of barrels of both Irish and sweet potatoes are grown here every year and thousands of barrels of culls of both kinds rot on the ground, and thousands of barrels of good stock are lost each year by partially rotting in the barrels; yet nobody, except in two or three localities, ever dare to put up any of these very necessary products. They rest contented to import all their canned stock and starch. The average Eastern Shore man is a good trucker and shows enterprise, but in this one instance they seem to lapse most pitifully from the line of true economy.
The Times-Dispatch, in last Sunday's issue, has a very timely article on the subject of the home canneries, saying that with little factories in the homes the children of the family could make up all these surplus products into salable articles and stock the local markets at a big profit. It also states that this is being done in Halifax and in Pittsylvania for some time and the idea is now spreading. It says:
"Canning outfits can be had, from the little ones to use on a cooking stove, making twelve cans at a time, to the big $600 ones to use as a neighborhood shops where hundreds of dozens are packed of the same grade and brand.
"It is easy to operate a cannery and there is good money in it if the owner will stay right by it and do the brain work and part of the hand work. The more hired labor the less the profits."
It also quotes from the Manufacturer's Record on the subject as follows:
"Some progress has already been made toward systematized methods of handling vegetables and fruits shipped to markets in the North and West, tending to reduce to the minimum the possible wastes and consequent loss to the growers, either in inability to get their goods to market or in getting them there in too great quantities beyond the legitimate demand. Some advance has been made in equipping the South with canneries for products of agriculture and the fisheries, and wherever such plants have been established and conducted on a proper basis, not only the producers, but the community as a whole, have been benefited. But in both particulars there is still much to be done, and, in the case of the small canning outfit for the home, hardly a beginning has been made, although the advantages are manifold and far-reaching.
"In the first place, just as the establishment of a large cannery encourages an expansion in the growing in the neighborhood of fruits and vegetables to be handled by it, so the farmer who has his own little canning outfit primarily to utilize for home consumption the surplus of products of his money crops will be inclined to can a greater quantity to become itself a source of profit. In the second place, the resultant must inevitably be the production of a greater quantity of foodstuffs marketed fresh or in canned form, and that would be influential, not only in rendering the farmers more independent, but in solving the pressing problem of the cost of living for nonproducers."
The Herald would like to urge upon the people of this County the importance of this idea to them and the seriousness indeed of the error in not using all the waste and the vast field of profit it unfolds. Many of you raise chickens and carry the eggs to the grocery.
Why not have this additional side line of produce to fill in during the winter season? Here is a grand opportunity for many a dollar of profit [illegible] put on the ground under your [illegible].