wheat field (Richmond County)
A "subsistence" farmer raises just enough food to feed the family, with none left over for commercial sale. When the Europeans arrived here, were the first Virginians subsistence farmers? Remember, Powhatan demanded a stiff tax from his subordinate tribes, collecting "surplus" corn and storing it for later redistribution.
Obviously the European colonists were engaged nearly from the beginning in market-oriented farming, raising tobacco for export rather than food for subsistence. They depended upon the resupply shipments from England and trade with the local Indians for a substantial portion of their food supply. Control over the food supply was important - and when the Potomacks at Aquia Creek sold corn to the English, Powhatan lost leverage...
The English sailed to Aquia Creek because that was the edge of Powhatan's control. Transporting the corn in their ships was relatively inexpensive. Modern transport enables us to eat vegetable from Chile in the winter, but often the vegetables are not as tasty as local crops in season. It's possible to pick a green tomato in the Central Valley of California, ship it as a rock-hard item in a crate, artificially ripen it in an ethylene-filled warehouse chamber, and sell it at the local grocery store - but it will never taste as good as a locally-grown tomato.
There's still a market for "truck farming" where crops are trucked from the farm to the city to be sold fresh, eliminating the costs and quality reduction associated with shipping and selling through a middleman such as a grocery store. However, truck farming got its name originally from the word for bartering (Middle English "trukken," based on the Old French "troquer"). When you go to a famers market now and purchase vegetable from the bed of the truck, it's the negotiation over price - not the vehicle - that is the basis for the name "truck farming."
| State | # of Farms | Avg.
Farm Size (in acres) |
Total
Land in Farm (in acres) |
Acreage
in Entire State1 |
|||
| Virginia | 49,000 | 178 | 8,700,000 | 26,091,000 | |||
| Maryland | 12,400 | 169 | 2,100,000 | 6,695,000 | |||
| N. Carolina | 57,000 | 161 | 9,200,000 | 33,708,000 | |||
| S. Carolina | 24,000 | 196 | 4,700,000 | 19,912,000 | |||
| W. Virginia | 20,500 | 176 | 3,600,000 | 15,508,000 | |||
| U.S. | 2,172,080 | 434 | 942,990,000 | 1,937,726,000 | |||
