584 REPORT OF TUE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



reduced in favor of those less able to endure the dangers of trans- 

 portation, and consequently less likely to be extensively grown at ex- 

 treme Southern points. At present truck farming is pursued along the 

 whole Atlantic coast down to Key West and around that of the Gulf 

 to Mobile and Galveston, reaching even beyond the confines of the 

 United States to i:^ew Providence and the Bermudas. The same cir- 

 cumstances prevail in Europe. Formerly England and some of tbc 

 continental countries merely went beyond their own boundaries fcr a 

 supply of early fruit and vegetables; then France and Spain became 

 the sources of* supply, but now Algiers, beyond the Mediterranean, is 

 the most southern, and therefore most profitable truck-farming locality. 

 A few fruit and vegetables may occasionally have been sent North from 

 Georgia, but the first crop, exclusively for the purpose of shipment to 

 Northern markets, was one of watermelons grown by E. B. Barstow, of 

 Wilmington Island, Chatham County, in 1852. 



In the preceding summer a party embarked on board the packet Isaac 

 Mead (Captain Brown) for New York, and for their use during the 

 ])assage he placed on board about fifty fine melons. Only a few having 

 been consumed, the captain, to whom they were presented, sold the bal- 

 ance at such high prices, that Mr. Barstow conceived the idea of making 

 tlio venture. Notwithstanding many drawbacks, it resulted so satis- 

 factorily that other sea island cotton planters of neighboring islands, 

 notably Col. W. E. Pritchard, of Skidusay, and Judge E. T. Gibson, of 

 Whitmarsh, became tempted to do likewise. These, and a few others 

 on a smaller scale, continued to plant melons for shipment. When the 

 war commenced W. E. Pritchard had GO acres in melons. None were 

 grown in Southern Georgia along the line of the Savannah, Florida and 

 Western Eailroad until 187G, when George E. McEee, near Valdosta, 

 and W. E. Tally, at Ousley Station, Lowndes County, became the pio- 

 neers of an industry in that section, which has reached such enormous 

 proportions as to tax the carrying capacity of the transportation com- 

 panies to the utmost. 



Truck farming, or the growing at the South exclusively for the North- 

 ern markets, as a distinct business, of all or a selection of such fruit and 

 vegetables as would be likely to arrive at destination in good condition 

 and meet with a ready sale after having endured the dangers and vicis- 

 situdes of transportation to market, was commenced at Norfolk, Va., by 

 some -Jersey men about 1858, near Charleston and Savannah about 1856, 

 but not i]i Florida until 1870, and five years later still at Mobile. With- 

 out the results of the civil war between the States it never could have 

 reached its present proportions. While in point of fact it was carried 

 on to some extent before the war, emancipation may be considere<' 

 really the birth of truck farming on an extensive scale. It was not u 

 industry that could have recommended itself to rice planters, and the- 

 were the only agriculturists owning large forces of slaves in the vici' 

 ity of the large Atlantic coast cities, nor would any of them have for 

 moment entertained the proposal of hiring their hands to truck farmo! 

 I was the largest slave-owner previous to the war engaged in the bus 

 ness in the neighborhood of Savannah, and, unless I had availed mysrl 

 of house-servants and mechanics, at no time could I have commanded 

 a larger labor force than twenty-six adults, male and female. Now sev- 

 eral of the larger truck farmers there employ hands during the picking 

 season .by the hundred. 



In 1870 J. E. Young had 150 acres in strawberries near Norfolk, an<l 

 he required in the neighborhood of 1,000 hands to i)ick the berries. 

 The daily yield of berries near Norfolk la estimated at betwoen 4,(i(m» 



