4 MARKET GARDEl!^II^G. 



cities, even when snow clad and ice bound, the fruits of 

 balmy summer. 



From such a perennial field there are now offered, 

 at all times, yegetables which at first surprised the ob- 

 servers and were only used by epicures, but which now 

 have become a necessity, not only on the table of the 

 rich and well-to-do, but of every hotel and restaurant. 



Thus, thanks especially to Florida, the general pub- 

 lic of the whole country have luxuries at their command 

 which their ancestors never even hoped to obtain, and 

 the now familiar products of Florida have brought that 

 State more j^romineutly to the notice of the Northern 

 peoj)le than has the wheat and corn of any Western 

 State made its name known, for grain products do not 

 carry with them their own identifications as do cucum- 

 bers in March, egg plants in December and January, 

 tomatoes from January to March, cauliflower in March 

 and April. 



The value of the output of winter vegetables from 

 G-eorgia and Florida, and the value of the quantity con- 

 sumed by the winter guests of the hotels, tips the scale 

 at a valuation of several millions of dollars, a large sum 

 considering that the cultivation is yet in its infancy, for 

 the production of vegetables, in Florida especially, is 

 certain to develop to an immense degree, as no competi- 

 tion can come from a more southern district. The 

 profits of the Norfolk truckers were cut by the Charles- 

 ton and Savannah market gardeners, and they, in turn, 

 by the Florida cultivators, but the Gulf is south of 

 Florida, so competition stops, or becomes merely inter- 

 state, there being no neighbors southwardly to compete 

 with earlier productions. 



Market gardening may be termed commercial gar- 

 dening, as the operator must, to a certain extent, be a 

 merchant, fully alive to the import of fluctuating prices, 

 and quick to change his point of shipment or his 

 consignee. 



