610 



REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



The steamship companies at Savannah have established two different 

 rates of freight. Those shippers who sign contracts with the companies 

 not to sue for damage to produce, unless due to culpable and proven 

 negligence, are favored with a lower rate, as below : 



The freight on a barrel of potatoes from New York to Savannah, how- 

 ever, is only 30 cents, so that the favored shippers are charged 20 c6nts 

 more on each barrel of potatoes from Savannah to Kew York, «&c., than 

 the Northern farmer pays for the same transportation back. The aggre- 

 gate number of barrels (51,005) paid, therefore, $10,213 more than the same 

 number would h^ve to pay from the North to Savannah. Tliis discrim- 

 ination may well be considered a drawback to truck farming. 



The industry demands most excellent judgment and foresight, audit 

 is an error to suppose that any one competent to till the soil can jump 

 into truck farming and make a success of the venture. I have in mind 

 three men, A, B, and C, who operated nearly in sight of each other's 

 farms. A commenced a few years ago, about the same time as 13, with 

 a borrowed capital of $1,000, on rented laud adjoining that owned by 

 the latter. A and two brothers now possess in fee-simple, besides other 

 property, 275 acres of this laud, the best for truck farming in Chatham 

 County, a' part of which they rent out at $25 per acre per annum, and 

 10 acres of which, with a river frontage, they lately sold for ^,000. B, 

 in consequence of non-success, has sold his place to C, the most com- 

 petent of the three, who had until recently been managing a larger 

 place on shares. At another center of truck farming one man, a handi- 

 craftsman, commenced truck farming with a single very inferior draft- 

 animal, a steer. He now owns and supervises live farms, having bought 

 out others not so successful as himself, one of them also having been a 

 truck farmer. 



AMOUNT OF TRUCK SHIPPED. 



It has been impossible to procure correct and complete statistics of 

 the amount of truck shipped during the last two crop seasons. Below 

 will be found partial statistics from only a few points of shipment. The 

 tables do not include any shipments from Wilmington or New Beriie, 

 N. C, from i)oints on the coast to Charleston, from Port Eoyal, S. C, or 

 from Jacksonville by sea direct. They are also exclusive of a part ol 

 the Florida consignments by land, and those from South and South- 

 west Georgia, from New Orleans, and from Galveston. 



CHARLESTON. 



The following table exhibits the shipments of strawberries, vegeta- 

 bles, and melons by rail and by steamer during the past three years : 



