To transfer a folder full of many small files it is quicker to do the following, rather than zip/tar and scp.

tar czf – folder/ | ssh joebloggs@otherserver.com tar xzf – -C ~/

Or Peter Benie’s version:
tar -cf – dir | ssh andromeda tar -xf-

From:
http://www.thingy-ma-jig.co.uk/blog/03-09-2008/using-tar-and-ssh-improve-scp-speeds

http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/howto-use-tar-command-through-network-over-ssh-session/