22S ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



TRUCK FARMING: THE MAN, THE BUSINESS AND THE 



CROP 



C. C. HULSART, Matawan, N. J. 



I have often wondered why Mr. Martin placed me on this program. 

 The only deduction I can make is that he had to have some one to 

 fill in the period ; but even then I cannot understand why he should 

 select a Jerseyman who is located between the two great States of 

 New York and Pennsylvania. It reminds me of a little story I 

 heard of a teacher who asked a boj^ to define the word "sardine." 

 The boy said: "Sardine is the meat between two pieces of stale bread 

 which is called a sandwich"; and that is what New Jersey is — the 

 meat between two pieces of stale bread. If it were not for New 

 Jersey, the outside world would pretty near starve to death. I would 

 not give thirty cents for the man who would not stick up for home. 



I began farming thirty years ago down in Jersey where they can 

 only farm one side of the ground ; here in Pennsylvania you can 

 farm both sides of your soil. Truck farming means good business 

 ability as well as good crops. Most people think that any one can grow 

 truck crops. In my section of the country I have seen a good many 

 of them try it. About twenty years ago most everybody got the 

 asparagus fever, and they all began to grow asparagus; instead of 

 starting in on a small scale, most of them put out twelve, twenty, and 

 even forty acres, and the first thing you know the potato bugs made 

 their appearance in the potato fields, and the harvest came, and no 

 one could look after the three things at once, and something had to 

 suffer, and the people went back to their old style of farming. 



The man who wants to go into truck farming must go into it on 

 a small scale, and must handle on four or five or six acres the equiva- 

 lent of the crops grown on forty acres in general farming. He 

 wants to understand all the requirements of the crop he wants to 

 grow, and their profits. In fact. I don't know of anything that re- 

 quires a greater general knowledge both of crops, and of what are 

 the market requirements for them, than truck farming. Several things 

 are required of truck crops when they get to market; the first one of 

 them is probably palatability ; again, they must please the eye. Un- 

 less they are pleasing to the eye, the buyer will not be attracted to 

 them, and after he has bought them for their pleasing appearance, 

 unless they please the taste as well, he will have no market for them. 



The first thing to find out is, whether your soil is adapted to the 

 kind of crop you wish to grow, or not. In my section of country, 

 there is a creek dividing the town; on the north side, the soil is a 

 heavy clay loam; on the south side, it is a light clay loam, running 

 partly to sandy. Now out of this has grown what is almost a trag- 

 edy. Men on the north side are trying to compete with men on the 

 south side. The men on the north side grow large quantities, but 

 it comes in a week or two later than the same thing grown by the 

 men on the south side, and earliness is a prime requisite in market 

 gardening. I can only compare truck farming to running for a train. 



