No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 577 



applied several inches deep every year, making the soil a great 

 storehouse of plant food and a reservoir of water ready for the 

 crop at all times. The owner of this farm told me that his crops 

 never suffered for want of water. No commercial fertilizer is used 

 on this farm. 



Market gardeners following this extensive system intercrop to a 

 great extent. For example, the first sowing in the spring of the 

 year may be lettuce with rows from ten to fourteen inches apart. 

 After the lettuce is cultivated for the last time a row of beets is 

 drilled between the rows of lettuce. The lettuce is soon harvested 

 and then the ground is given over to the beets and after this crop 

 has received its last cultivation, some other crop as carrots or tur- 

 nips is drilled between the rows. By this sj'stem of cropping it is 

 possible to remove from four to six crops during the season and, 

 with proper management, such cropping is very profitable. 



Another line of gardening Vv'hich is popular in many sections is 

 the growing of special crops on a large scale. Examples of this line 

 ol gardening is the production of early cabbage in the Norfolk and 

 South Carolina districts and other sections of the South; lettuce 

 and celery growing in Florida; Danish Ballhead cabbage in New 

 York; tomatoes for shipment of canneries in Maryland, Delaware 

 and many other states; onions in Ohio, Michigan, Massachusetts 

 and other states where the crop is grown extensively; celery in the 

 Kalamazoo district; peas in New York; cauliflower on Long Island; 

 and asparagus in New Jersey. There is less worry, perhaps, with 

 this kind of vegetable farming than any other line. The grower 

 attempts to thoroughly master every detail connected with the 

 crop and a few years of experience enables him to select the 

 market which pays the best price. A common practice is for the 

 product to be sold at the railroad siding when there is often the 

 keenest com.petition of city buyers. Examples of this may be found 

 in Caroline county, Md. A great many general farmers would find 

 this method of cropping profitable. Some men are using land for 

 potatoes when, perhaps, early or late cabbage or tomatoes would 

 be more profitable and the cost of production, perhaps, little greater. 

 With a special line of cropping, rotation should be followed, plant- 

 ing when possible on clover sods. Without rotation, the planting of 

 these crops on a largo scale is likely to prove disastrous because of 

 increasing trouble with diseases and insects. 



Many growers in all sections of the East find that special crop- 

 ping on a small scale pays the largest profits. For examples, dairy- 

 men whose soils have been built up to a high state of fertility often 

 find that some gardening is very profitable. It may be a few acres 

 of cabbage, cauliflower, onions or other crops which thrive and do 

 their best because of the very rich soil in which they have been 

 jdautod. I have seen a number of farms where a few acres of 

 special crops have made unusually large profits. Some of these 

 men possess more than usual skill and by confining their efforts to 

 one or two crops they become thoroughly informed concerning every 

 detail. 



A rural mail carrier in Pennsylvania makes large profits from a 

 very small acreage of Danish Ballhead cabbage. He fertilizes lib- 



37—7—1908. 



