G04 REPOKT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



After having succeeded in producing a good crop it is as important to 

 market it with judgment. An article may command a much better price 

 at one T)hice thau at another. This difiereuce even ai)plies to varieties 

 of the same vegetable. It is therefore advisable to learn the peculiari- 

 ties of each market. While the red variety of the sweet potato some- 

 times brings a fair price in Boston it will hardly pay to ship any other 

 variety than the yellow Delaware, or Nansemond, toKew York. There 

 is little difference between the two in Boston, while in Kew York the 

 white onion sells better than the red. While of all the Eastern markets 

 ISTew York, not only in consequence of its own large population and of 

 that of adjacent important cities, but also in consequence of its being a 

 center of more general distribution into the interior, will always receive 

 the bulk of the truck crops, shipments to other markets often bring bet- 

 ter returns. Thus Boston and Baltimore are better markets for choice 

 tomatoes than New York or Philadelphia; Boston better for melons 

 than any other, while Baltimore is the poorest for either cauliflower or 

 waf'^rmelons. 



Nearly all the truck grown along the Atlantic coast convenient to 

 ports having adequate steamship communications with the North is 

 marketed by sea in the Eastern cities, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New 

 York, and Boston ; a small portion of the Norfolk crop only going to 

 Providence by sea, to Washington by the Potomac Kiver, and to the in- 

 terior by the Cheasapeako and Ohio Railroad. 



As points of ]iroduction become more distant from the ports, con- 

 signments are divided, a portion coming to them from Florida and the 

 counties of Clinch, Lowndes, Brooks, and Thomas, in Georgia, on the 

 line of the Savannah, Florida and Western Eailroad to be forwarded 

 eastward, while the other part, together with the productions of the 

 southwestern counties, is sent vrestward by the various diverging rail- 

 roads. A part of the Florida crop goes by sea from Jacksonville to 

 New York, the only steamsbip connection direct. The Mobile truck 

 farmers are confined to the Western markets, principally of Nashville, 

 Louisville, Indianapolis, Saint Louis, Cincinnati, and Chicago, where 

 their shipments come, very much to their detriment and to the future 

 prospects of Mobile truck farming, into competition with the earlier 

 Florida crops. A very small part is there shipped by river boats to 

 supply local interior trade. This interior domestic trade, as in Georgia 

 and South Carolina with cabbage and melons, is generally limited to a 

 few articles. 



Norfolk enjoys the best transportation facilities : 



(1) The Old Dominion Steamship Company dispatches a steamer 

 daily to New York, Fridays excepted, making the run in from twenty- 

 two to twenty-eight hours, and it occurs perhaps half a dozen times in 

 the season that two steamers depart the same day, even then leaving 

 freight on the wharves. 



(2) TLe Boston Line, tri-weckly to Boston. 



(3) The Clyde Line, tri-weekly to Philadelphia. 



(4) The Baltimore Steam Packet Company, daily to Baltimore. 



(5) The Potomac Steamboat Company and the People's Line, tri- 

 weekly to Washington. 



(o) The Providence Lino. 



(7) New York, Philadelphia and Norfolk Railroad. 



(8) Cbesa])eake and Ohio Railroad to the West. 



At Charleston the steamships of the Baltimore Line were withdrawn 

 during the season of lS84-'85. 

 At present the Clyde Lino has one ship, and the Adger Line two steam- 



