Peninsula Enterprise, July 25, 1891
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reprinted from Cape Charles Headlight.Tourists and sportsmen -- Other recreation - Baseball
There will be a match game of baseball between the Birds Nest team and Cape Charles [City] team on Saturday, 25th, (to-day,) for a purse of $100. They will play at Cape Charles, on the Chesapeake Agricultural Fair Grounds. Special train will run from Tasley down.
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Fields -- Crops - Corn
The heavy rains of this week, it is stated, have damaged considerably the corn crop of the county.
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Infrastructure -- Public : Camp meetings
A campmeeting will be held by the colored people near Deep Creek, on the road leading from Leemont to Onancock, commencing July 25th.
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Infrastructure -- Commercial - Real estate
Mr. John Cropper, who recently purchased Bowman's Folly [plantation], the old home of his grandfather, Gen'l John Cropper, near Accomac C.H., is at present giving his personal supervision to repairs to the premises.
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Tourists and sportsmen -- Other recreation - Boat racing
A race will come off at Red Hill's near Horntown on the opening day, Wednesday, July 19th, for a purse of $50, between skiffs Winnie Davis, owned by Capt. Thos. Davis, and Amanda, owned by the Horntown Club. Each of the boats are 20 feet long and speedy. Other races also are expected on same day and on every Wednesday, thereafter, during the season, there will be boat, tub, foot, pig and sack races.
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Sea -- Shellfish - Oystering : SeasideSea -- Shellfish - Oystering : Packing
Belle Haven.
A new oyster house is being built at Willis' Wharf, and another is expected to go up soon, making three in all at that place.
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Infrastructure -- Commercial - Residential developmentProfessionals -- Realtors and developersInfrastructure -- Public : Camp meetingsTransportation -- Railroad - Personal injury
Keller.
A building boom is expected here soon. The lots laid off by Mr. B. W. Mears and offered for sale, are in demand -- several already having been disposed of.
The plank roof of tabernacle at camp ground near here is being shingled this week. The grounds have already been fitted up. Great interest in the meeting are being manifested on every hand, and good results are hoped for.
Alice, a colored woman, in employ of Mr. H. F. Kilmon, near KellerMental illness took a quarter of a point of Paris Green last week, and still lives. Some of the domestic duties incident to her situation worried her, and to them the rash act is attributed.
James Ward, a clever young man, had a narrow escape from an appalling death at this place, on Friday of last week. In attempting to cross the track of an approaching train he fell, and while in that position, with the brakes reversed, he lay until the engine was in a foot or so of him, when he managed to back off the track, his hat being taken by the cow catcher almost from his head. So surely did everyone present feel that he would be ground to atoms, every one turned away from the sickening scene expected.
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Moral -- Property crime
Marsh Market.
William Holden, colored, attempted to break into store of Jas. A. Hall & Co., on Sunday morning, 19th inst. He had climbed up to window and cut the slat of shutter, when discovered by two colored women and a white boy. When interrogated by them as to his intentions, he leaped down and escaped. All efforts to capture him since have been in vain, and on Monday morning he left for parts unknown.
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Transportation -- Water - FreightInfrastructure -- Commercial - Commercial constructionTransportation -- Water - Boat buildingTransportation -- Water - Channel and harbor dredgingInfrastructure -- Public : Churches
Onancock.
Coal was unloaded here from schooners of Mr. W. D. Lewis and of Powell & Waples, this week, at $4.60 per ton of 2240 pounds.
The Baptist parsonage, a large and commodious building, is nearing completion -- the storehouse of F. A. West, is ready for occupancy -- and many other evidences of improvement can be noted by the most casual observer in many sections of the town.
Capt. Thomas Johnson returned this week from a trip to New York, whither he went to contract for the building of a sloop for the oyster business. The energy of the captain, at fourscore years, is a lesson for the young men of the county, which could be accepted by them with profit.
The mud machine and other appliances for opening the bar at Onancock creek have arrived, and work on same will be begun at once. The contractor gets 19 cents per cubic foot for the job and is expected to remove about 1000 cubic yards of mud daily. An appropriation was made by Congress of $6,000 for the purpose.
The Baptist Church of our town was dedicated according to announcement, last Sunday, and in the opinion of the large crowd in attendance on the occasion is not only the handsomest in appearance but is provided with the most comfortable accommodations of any church on the Shore. It is elegantly furnished. The dedicatory sermon of Dr. Goodwin, was a very fine one and entirely satisfactory to the audience -- the mass meeting in the afternoon was fully up to public expectation. The sum of $100.57 was raised to pay debt on church building.
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Tourists and sportsmen -- Other recreation - Resorts
Wachapreague.
Fish are being caught at sea off our inlet in great abundance and of the finest quality.
Our beach is now a popular resort. Parties from neighboring towns daily pass through our town en route thereto.
Run Over by Cars and Killed.
Transportation -- Railroad - Personal injuryMoral -- Alcohol
Daniel Eichelberger, colored, was run over by cars and killed last Saturday, at a point between Exmore and Mappsburg station. He was one of an excursion party on that day bound to Salisbury, Md., and persisted despite the warning of the conductor in standing on the platform. While in that position the coupling of the car was broken and he was tossed headlong between the wheels, the cars passing over and inflicting wounds from which he died in about three hours thereafter. At an inquest held over him in the afternoon by Mr. Thos. W. Blackstone, acting coroner, the jury rendered the verdict that death was due to his own carelessness and the carelessness was due, we are advised, to an over indulgence in whiskey on the occasion.
A Card.
Transportation -- Railroad - Rates and faresTransportation -- Railroad - Regulation
From some unknown cause it has been recently rumored that I signed a petition to the Inter State Commerce Commission -- stating that freight charges by the N.Y.P.& N.R.R., were reasonable and satisfactory to our Peninsula farmers. I take this method of stating that the rumor is utterly false and without foundation. I was among the first to sign a petition to the contrary.
J.E. Mapp.
Freight Rates of N.Y., P. & N. R. R.
Transportation -- Railroad - Rates and faresTransportation -- Railroad - RegulationFields -- Crops - Sweet potatoes : Prices
Mr. EDITOR -- Sometime since I was appointed by the County Alliance and Pungoteague Grange to inquire into and ascertain as far as possible what action the Inter-State Commerce Commission had taken in reference to the application to the farmers of Delaware, Eastern Shore of Maryland and Virginia, for a reduction of the freight rates on the N.Y. P. & N. and Penna R.R., in accordance with sec. 4 of "The act to regulate commerce" which went into effect April, 1887, and amended March, 1889. With your permission I will report through ENTERPRISE, as briefly as possible, all the information I have been able to obtain relative to the matter, also some statistics which may be of interest, suggested by a paragraph in the decision rendered by the Commission -- to the end that the public as well as the Alliance may be informed in the matter.
The Commission in rendering its decision says "The rates charged upon the freight in question are very considerably higher than the rates charged upon other lines of road in other parts of the country upon like traffic for very much longer distances, as is shown in the statement of facts * * * * The reduction which the Commission have determined ought to be made, growing out of the inherent unreasonableness of the present rate is as follows: On peaches and berries from all stations on main lines twenty per cent. On potatoes on main line from all stations twenty-five per cent. Even with this reduction the rates on some of these commodities will still be much higher than the Norfolk rates, where low rates exist on account of water competition at that point. The evidence indicates quite conclusively that the present difference between the Norfolk and Peninsula rates is operating very injuriously to the Peninsula farmers * * * * But the evidence while it has demonstrated this fact and further that the Peninsula rates are excessive independent of their relation to the Norfolk rates has failed to show the circumstances attending the traffic from their respective localities sufficiently to enable the Commission to determine with satisfaction to itself what the relative rates ought to be." The railroad applied for a rehearing, and in the meantime seeking to show to the Commission that the rates charged by the road were reasonable and just "everything considered" secured affidavits signed as follows: John Brittingham, E. Evans, J. T. Lilliston, Geo. T. Marshall, H. C. White, Sr., W. H. Parker, Samuel Kellam, John E. Bell, John E. Lewis, Accomac county; L. S. Nottingham and R. S. Coston, Northampton county. Certificates signed by the following were also filed: Wm. McK. Taylor, S. T. Jones, W. M. Henry, A. J. Parks, W. S. Byrd, Ed. Wright, Jr., H. R. Bennett. Up to July the 14th, the Commission had not taken action upon the application for rehearing.
I will give some figures showing the cost of growing an acre of potatoes in order to come as near as possible at the actual cost of raising a barrel and placing it at the station for delivery which will, I think, be surprising to those who have not given the matter their careful consideration:
| It will take 196 loads of manure to cover the ground, allowing 1 load to the check 15 feet square. Estimating the cost of this at 25 cents per load | $49.00 |
| Eight bushels of seed at 75 cts. per bushel | 6.00 |
| Interest on cost of frames, breakage of glass, cost of pit, decay, etc. | 1.60 |
| Rent for 1 acre of potato land | 5.00 |
| Total expense exclusive of labor and team | $61.00 |
| One man and horse preparing ground, spreading manure, ploughing, dragging, etc., 4 days at $1.50 per day | $6.00 |
| One man 4 days in checking ground, drawing and putting out sprouts, etc., at 75 cts. per day | 8.00 |
| Expense of manure and dirt for bedding 8 bushels and attention to bed | 2.00 |
| Cultivating 1 acre (8,000 sprouts) | 5.00 |
| Digging and barreling (allowing 80 barrels to acre at 12 cents per barrel) | 9.60 |
| Delivering 80 barrels at station at 10 cents per barrel | 8.00 |
| Total expense, bedding manuring, cultivating and delivering at station | $95.20 |
| Allowing 80 barrels to acre, a large average yield, (as I can show from records of three or four good farmers, kept continuously for past 15 years), the cost of raising and delivering a barrel of potatoes at the station will be at the lowest estimate | $1.19 |
After a careful inspection of records of three farmers, one of whom always secures the highest market price, I will show what has been about the average net returns per barrel for potatoes for six years, 1884-1889 inclusive:
| 1884 | per barrel | $1.77 1/3 |
| 1885 | " | 1.33 3/5 |
| 1886 | " | .84 2/5 |
| 1887 | " | 1.61 |
| 1888 | " | 1.49 3/5 |
| 1889 | " | 166 3/5 |
It will be observed that this average is taken from a season's sales including both the early and late, and the average per acre will be much less than 80 barrels, upon which the above estimate of the cost of raising a barrel of potatoes was made. While average price was over $1 per barrel, the net proceeds of these potatoes were not $80 to the acre or 1 cent per sprout. So it will be seen that the cost of raising these was largely over my estimate $1.19 per barrel.
The question naturally arises how is it possible for a man to make a living at raising sweet potatoes much less any money?
Only those farmers who work themselves from day break 'till dark and whose wives and children work as many hours are enabled to save money. The day of "Gentleman farming" has passed away. All of the profits consist in the good management and labor of the farmer, his wife and children. It is undoubtedly a fact that the farmers of the Eastern Shore work harder than any farmers in Virginia. Prof. Brent in his pamphlet on the Eastern Shore, says that there was shipped from Accomac in 1890, 800,000 barrels of potatoes. Estimating that one-half as many are shipped from Northampton, and that one-fourth of the whole amount are transported by water, the railroad transports 900,000 barrels of potatoes alone. The excess of freight charged on these over the Norfolk rates being 13 cents per barrel amounts to $117,000. Add to this the excess on berries, apples, kale, &c., we have an amount not less than $125,000 which the Inter State Commerce Commission by its decision declared to be "excessive." It is then strange that after a canvass of the Peninsula by the railroad officials only eighteen gentlemen were found, some of whom are not farmers, who considered the present rates "reasonable and just."
The net proceeds realized from potatoes per barrel is not so much now as before we had the railroad, as I can show from the records above referred to.
| The average in 1884, (being the highest) per barrel | $1.77 1/3 |
| The average in 1886, (lowest) per barrel | .84 2/5 |
| In 1878, average per barrel before railroad | 1.73 |
| In 1879, average per barrel before railroad | 1.72 |
| In 1880, average per barrel before railroad | 2.00 |
| In 1881, average per barrel before railroad | 2.32 |
Which proves conclusively I think, that the railroad has not had a tendency to cause farmers to realize a larger price per barrel if it has to plant a larger acreage.
Respectfully, B. T. GUNTER, JR.