The New York Times
June 1, 1861
The prostration of business at Portsmouth and Norfolk is most thorough and complete. The Navy-yard, the truck trade, and naval stores, on which the business and almost existence of the two cities is based, have ceased, and were it not for the abundance of vegetables and fish, there would be much suffering among the poor. The truck gardeners are giving away their peas and strawberries to any one who will take the trouble of gathering them. A great many of the immense pea-fields have been plowed in for the purpose of planting corn. The crop of garden truck and strawberries shipped to Baltimore, New-York and Philadelphia last year, during May and June, yielded $400,000, and the yield this year was confidently expected to amount to not less than $600,000.