No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 593 



garden crops are grown for the Boston market. The greenhouse 

 industry is especially large near Boston. Lettuce, tomatoes and 

 cucumbers are the most important crops. Probably no city in the 

 United States grows more cucumbers than Boston. Nearly all of 

 the greenhouses are 40 feet wide, of the three-fourths span of con- 

 struction and many of them several hundred feet long. Cucumbers 

 are also grown extensively as an early summer crop in cold frames 

 as shown in the accompanying picture. 



One of the most important trucking centers of the East is Sweedes- 

 boro, N. J. Immense quantites of early tomatoes and sweet potatoes 

 are shipped from this station. At Glassboro, N. J., are located the 

 extensive orchards of Mr. Albert T. Kepp. Four hundred and fifty 

 acres are devoted to apples, pears, peaches and grapes. The apple 

 is the leading fruit in these orchards. Winesap has been most largely 

 planted. The trees are pruned very lightly until they come into 

 bearing. All of the spraying is done with gasoline engines. Ever 

 since the appearance of San Jose scale in the Eepp orchards, crude 

 oil has been used with entire success in combatting it. Practically 

 no trees have been lost from the effect of the scale or from injury 

 of the oil. The secret of success of applying oil on Mr. Kepp's trees 

 is to put it on as finely as possible. It is applied in a very fine 

 mist so that no large amount is permitted to collect in any one 

 I)lace. The spray is so exceedingly fine that two gallons of oil is 

 suflflcient to spray a tree that is twenty-five years old. Mr. Kepp 

 has his own storage house which is large enough to hold 10,000 

 barrels of fruit. The apples are i)laced in five-eighths bushel hampers 

 in the field and covered with paper and placed at once in storage. 

 As a rule the apples are in cold storage an hour or less after picking. 

 They are graded and repacked when shipped. Ordinarily the ap- 

 ples are held in storage until May or June. 



The Patapsco Neck, near Baltimore, has long been known as one 

 of the most important gardening regions in the United States. The 

 fertility is maintained by manure which is taken to the farm on 

 barges, and the use of commercial fertilizer. Cabbage and spin- 

 ach are perhaps the two most important crops grown near Baltimore, 

 although a large variety of vegetables are produced for Baltimore 

 and northern cities. 



The most important trucking district of the United States is at 

 Norfolk. A visit to this district is necessary to gain a proper con- 

 ception of the magnitude in which trucking is conducted in this 

 region. Tomatoes, spinach, beans, peas, cucumbers and many other 

 crops are grown by thousands of acres and by as intensive methods 

 as is possible in truck farming. Fertilizers have been used with the 

 greatest freedom in this community. It is not uncommon for a 

 grower to apply one and one-half tons per acre each season. Some 

 of the growers are free to admit that fertilizers have been used too 

 freely, or rather than green crops have not been grown as largely 

 as possible to keep the soil in the proper condition. The growers 

 in this region have begun to use lime because they find it is necessary 

 to reduce soil acidity. The use of lime has been the means of sweet- 

 ening the soil and rendering it more useful to possibly all the crops 

 grown in that region. The Norfolk Truck Experiment Station, of 

 which Professor T. C. Johnson is director, has been exceedingly val- 



38—7—1910 



