New York, Philadelphia and Norfolk Railroad

The London Times recently had a special correspondent traveling in various portions of the United States, who furnished to that journal a number of interesting articles relating to the industrial development of various regions, the manner in which it had been affected by railway operations, and similar topics. A comprehensive letter on the Chesapeake bay region concludes with the following reference to the New York, Philadelphia and Norfolk Railroad, and its effect on the region it traverses:

We reluctantly took leave of this Virginia region of balmy fertility and whole souled hospitality, and turned our faces northward. The renewal of the memories of the earliest English settlements in America, and the recalling of so many English names and of so much that had been of Anglo Saxon origin, was intensely interesting. But our footsteps must not tarry, and in the morning we boarded the great steamboat that carried the north bound train across the Chesapeake bay to Cape Charles City, to take the railway northward over the "Eastern Shore" peninsula. A brief and rapid sail over the sparkling waters brings us to the railway terminal, and the train speeds rapidly northward through Virginia, Maryland and Delaware over the line of the New York, Philadelphia and Norfolk Railroad. It passes through much forest over a level surface in a flat country, which has enabled the railway builders to lay a mathematically straight line for nearly ninety miles, said to be the longest tangent in the states. The recent construction of this line has just opened this country to a ready access to the northern markets, and has attracted market gardeners and fruit growers, who have made many new clearings. For miles the region is a perfectly level plain with new settlements appearing, and buildings going up wherever a station has been located. Quite a tendency has thus been developed to settle in this fertile southern section, which the railways have brought close to the northern cities, where good sale of produce is assured, rather than to go to the far west. The country is fast becoming a garden spot between the Atlantic ocean and the Chesapeake bay, its climate tempered by both, and its soil adapted to the wants of the gardener and fruit grower. As the train speeds northward, it runs into the peach country, renowned throughout America as the land where the "Delaware peach crop" is grown. This section extends through both Delaware and Maryland, and for miles the line is bordered by the extensive and thrifty peach orchards, and the stations are filled with the peach crates that carry the fruit to market. In the centre of this region Delmar is passed on the boundary line between the state of Delaware and Maryland, namely by taking the first syllable from each, a flourish [......] people, owing its prosperity and quick growth entirely to the railway. The sign on a pretentious building near the station tells of the prevailing business: "Fine farms for sale in the peach belt." The development of good agriculture is shown all about. The construction of this line has been a great thing for the northern dining table. It rushes the product of the Norfolk market gardens and of the peninsula truck fields and fruit orchards to the northern cities in a single night at express speed, and has almost cut out their own outlying market gardens, which are much later in production. It has provided extensive terminals at Norfolk for its trade, and vastly stimulated the raising of produce throughout the entire section which it serves, so that the aspect of the whole country along its route is being changed. This spring there were cultivated near Cape Charles a hundred acres of strawberries in a single field, which an army of pickers gathered for shipment.

The way in which a country can be revolutionized in the states by opening a new transportation route has been shown by the changed methods of this "Eastern Shore." A few years ago it was sparsely peopled by a listless community, whose primitive ways had come down from the last century. Now the farms and forests are changing to fruit and truck gardens, and the stimulus of profitable trade piles up the stations with their produce, for they are engaged in feeding populations numbering several millions, from 200 to 500 miles northward. The rapid trains for the quick delivery of this produce go as far as Boston, and in some cases to Canada. In 12 hours the fresh and tempting fruits and vegetables are delivered in New York, in 20 hours in Boston, and in 30 hours in Montreal. In the height of the spring season the "Peninsula Strawberry Express" is something wonderful to behold, train after train taking the fruits to market, with cars going to scores of northern cities and towns, for 150 cars laden with strawberries will be sent north in a single day, and 275 cars a day in the season for early vegetables. The "Peach Express" is another great train, when that fruit is carried in midsummer and autumn, and all else stands aside to put the peach trains through on a lightning schedule. The growth of the business, I am told, is so rapid that nearly six times as much stuff is being forwarded this season as last. To show the character of the traffic, I obtained from vice president Patton, of this railway, a statement of the produce gathered by his line, and delivered to its northern connections with the Pennsylvania system at Delmar in 1886, and the aggregate is enormous. There were sent north 125,000 barrels of Irish potatoes, 275,000 barrels of sweet potatoes, 50,000 boxes of green peas, 100,000 barrels of kale and cabbage, 100,000 barrels of oysters, 6,000,000 quarts of strawberries packed in 60-quart crates, 50,000 sacks of peanuts, 10,000 boxes of fish, and 12,000 baskets of peaches. I am told that this railway traffic represents about one half the produce sent north from the peninsula, and the region about Norfolk and the mouth of the Chesapeake, the various steamboat lines carrying as much more, so that an idea can be got of the enormous task the "Eastern Shore" has undertaken in aiding to feed the great northern cities. From Delmar the railway leads up thro' the "Diamond State," in a region of older agriculture in the heart of the peach country. It passes many flourishing villages, including Dover, the capital of Delaware, and New Castle, an aged town on the Delaware river, where the whipping posts and the stocks are still in active and popular operation as a method of punishment, and are a terror to evil doers. The surface of the country is throughout a level plain, well watered by many streams flowing into the Delaware river, and its thrifty farmers are accumulating wealth from their shipments of peaches and produce northward. We are ultimately brought into Pennsylvania Railroad, near the city of Wilmington, through which we passed ten days before our southern journey, and, leaving the land of orchards and market gardens, retrace the line to the Quaker City for a brief rest before starting on a western journey.