FORTY-THIRD ANNUAL REPORT. 23 



ESSENTIALS IN COMMERCIAL VEGETABLE GROWING. 



BY W, S. PALMER, KALKASKA, MICH. 



In considering the ''Essentials of Commercial Vegetable Growing" 

 we must deal with them for the most part nnder two quite different 

 heads; namelj'.- — whether we are growing vegetables for the general or 

 open market, or catering to a particular or special market. In the 

 former, our products must compete with other like products on the 

 open or general market; while in the latter, they are shipped direct 

 to particular customers, thereby removing them from the general com- 

 petition to which they are subjected in the former. The chances taken 

 are far greater in the former than in the latter method of marketing. 



In dealing with this subject today I prefer to speak from the stand- 

 point of the grower who caters to the special markets, for several rea- 

 sons: as this is the phase Avith which I am most familiar; the one most 

 ofteA overlooked at our horticultural meetings; and the one that is 

 destined to come to the front here in Michigan owing to the high quality 

 of our fruits and vegetables. 



Some years ago I conceived the idea that the resort towns of Northern 

 Michigan, including a portion of the Upper Peninsula, offered an ex- 

 cellent opportunity for one in the "small fruit or vegetable business" 

 to supply these markets with fresh fruits and vegetables direct from 

 the grower. I therefore gave this matter considerable thought during 

 my last two years in school where I devoted considerable time along 

 horticultural lines. Upon completing my course I began at once to 

 look about me for a good location for the growing of fruits and vege- 

 tables. The more I thought the question over the more impressed I be- 

 came that the markets which lay to the north of my own home offered, 

 that which I afterward found to be true, an excellent market for just 

 the products which I wished to grow. 



I first secured forty acres of good improved land close to a shipping 

 station with two railroads which led into the territory I wished to 

 reach. The land for the most part was well drained, free from the late 

 spring frosts, rich in decayed vegetable matter, but rather rolling. I 

 first set out twenty acres to tree fruits on the more rolling portion, 

 retaining the more leve.l portion for the growing of small fruits and 

 vegetables. I afterward jmrchased another forty acres of land more 

 level and better adapted to the growing of vegetables than the former 

 Avhere a strong quick growth is required in the early spring. 



No one can start out and grow vegetables altogether from books. We 

 must first secure the proper locations with regard not only to the sur- 

 rounding climatic conditions, lay of the land, and character of the soil 

 for our particular needs, but as to the size and character of the markets 

 within reach. Moreover we must have some liking for the business if 

 we expect to succeed in this as in another line of work. 



One has to study their soil and Avork Avith it some time in an experi- 

 mental way before he knoAvs just what soil is best adapted to each and 

 every crop under certain surrounding climatic conditions. It has been 

 my experience, where the season is short and we want a strong, quick 



