TRUCK AND FRUIT GROWING IN COAST PINE BELT. 1385 
thering the growth of the principal crops named, besides other root 
crops of minor importance, such as radishes and turnips, and also kales, 
peas, beans, cucumbers, etc. The plants easily recover from the injuries 
inflicted by light frosts, particularly when these happen in cloudy 
weather and when the return of the sunshine is gradual. The warmth of 
the sun raises the temperature of the soil and gives a new impetus to 
growth in compensation for the check it has received, Sudden changes, 
however, to temperature below the freezing point, succeeded imme- 
diately by sunny weather, not infrequently prove disastrous to the 
crops. Cabbage plants are constantly transferred from the cold frames 
to the field from October to December, and the crop is marketed from 
December to May. Irish potatoes are generally planted from the 
beginning of January to the latter part of February, and yield the 
firsterops in April. Peas are sown in January and early in February; 
beans, squashes, and sweet corn about the first of March, when toma- 
toes, cucumbers, and melons, which have started under glass, are 
transferred to the open. Large quantities of these vegetables reach 
the northern markets from April to the beginning of summer. 
After these various crops have been harvested, chiefly gramineous 
plant formations take the place of those mentioned above. Field corn 
is frequently planted after the removal of the first crops of cabbage 
and Irish potatoes; crops of Italian or golden millet also frequently 
take their place; cowpeas are planted for fodder, but most frequently 
for the purpose of fertilizing the fields by plowing under. Far the 
largest part of the cultivated fields, however, is left to a luxuriant 
growth of weedy grasses, chiefly crab grass (Syntherisma (Panicum) 
sanguinale), bull grass (aspalun hoscianum), yard grasses (/7eusine 
indica, Leptochloa mucronata, Paspalum dilatatum), and the so-called 
Mexican clover (Richardia scabra), which furnish abundant, spontane- 
ous crops of nutritious hay, and also pasturage to the close of the season. 
In fact, it may be said that forage crops of various kinds can be grown 
in succession throughout the year. Oats and rye furnish green pas- 
ture through the winter; vetch (Ver sativa), cowpeas, and bur clover 
(Medicago maculata) will yield crops for soiling in the earliest days of 
spring. Oats cut in the milky stage are cured for dry feed in May and 
June. Cowpeas, millets, various kinds of sorghum, known as durrha 
or kafir corn, millo maize, and pearl millet; cattail millet, Hungarian 
grass, and the so-called Johnson grass (Sorghum halepense) furnish 
ereen forage and hay crops throughout the summer; to which, near 
the coast, can be added the Guatemala grass or teosinte (/uchlaena 
mevicana), the genuine Guinea grass (2an icum jumentorum), and Para 
grass (Panicum molle). 
The cultivation of the orange on our coast is wholly confined to the 
sheltered coves on the shores of the large bays and of the Gulf. The 
loquat tree, or Japanese medlar (Eviobotrya japonica), has produced 
