462 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



VEGETABLES. 



THE TRUCK FARM. 



Hints to Beginners. — Abner Wilson, of Lenawee county, Michigan, in an 

 excellent essay upon market gardening, makes the following preliminary 

 points: 



In engaging in the business of market gardening, the first thing to take into 

 consideration is the market to be supplied, and if that is already being supplied 

 you should see if it cannot be furnished with a better article and at lower 

 prices. Those towns and cities where manufacturing is carried on are the best 

 markets. The next thing is shipping facilities for our surplus, but as there is 

 always more of such stuff shipped to the larger places, we must see that a low 

 rate of freight is obtained to compensate for the lower prices we will have to 

 take. If no market is already established we must create a demand. The 

 next thing is soil and location. 



Here let me say, if you are three or four miles from your market you had 

 better move nearer or not engage in the business. The nearer you can get to 

 your market the better, even if you have to pay a higher rent or price per acre 

 for your land, as the transportation is what takes up your time. That is, if it 

 takes all the forenoon to go to market, deliver your load, and get back, all the 

 profits are gone, as the gardener himself must be the salesman as well as fore- 

 man in the garden. 



The best soil for a general line of truck is a heavy, sandy loam with a strong 

 subsoil. It should be light enough so it will not bake after a rain. Muck land 

 well drained is good for most vegetables but not as early for early vegetables nor 

 as sure in all seasons as upland. If your soil is heavy it is more suitable for 

 small fruits than for vegetables. 



The size of the garden should be regulated by the market to be supplied, 

 and the capital of the gardener, but I have found that the fewer the acres the 

 better the results. Other things being equal, I should say for a man and boy 

 and two horses, eight acres are enough. Lay out your garden with a rod pole, 

 so that the rows will come out even, and have your drives and walks at right 

 angles. 



Of course you must have manure, and a compost heap is indispensable. It 

 should have been added to from time to time, by drawing from town every- 

 thing you could buy, and if you do a good job many are glad to give away 

 manure. You can add muck, night-soil, slaughter-house refuse, feathers and 

 blood from poultry slaughter houses, as well as all you can make from your 

 own stock. Some works on gardening advocate seventy-five tons to the acre, 

 but that would not pay in any market which I am accpiainted with as far west 

 as Ohio. I think, on land in good heart, from fifteen to twenty-five loads to the 

 acre, plowed in, and two to five hundred pounds of superphosphate, with four 



