TRUCK CROPS 275 



peculiar wasting disease that is sometimes observed 

 when the leaves gradually grow smaller and smaller 

 and finally dwindle away entirely. These other 

 troubles are, however, all insignificant as compared 

 with the bud rot. 



Truck Crops 



The name of truck farming has come to be applied 

 to the growing of the different garden vegetables on 

 an extensive scale for distant shipment. This is a 

 business of great magnitude in many parts of the 

 South, and since the American occupation it is 

 coming to be of considerable importance in Cuba. 

 Vegetables also are shipped North in a limited way 

 from certain parts of Mexico. 



A great variety of soils are successfully employed 

 for trucking, but light, sandy loams are usually pre- 

 ferred, and most of the great trucking centers are on 

 lands of this character. Alluvial and muck soils are 

 also suitable for most of the truck crops. Other 

 things being equal, of course, naturally rich soils are 

 to be preferred to poor ones, but a suitable mechanical 

 texture seems to be more important than chemical 

 composition and many of the most extensive trucking 

 districts are located on what are naturally very poor 

 lands. Such soils, of course, require heavy manuring 

 or the free use of chemical fertilizers combined with 

 leguminous restorative crops. In fact, a proper un- 

 derstanding of the use of fertilizers is one of the first 

 requisites for a successful truck farmer. 



Of even greater importance than the proper selec- 

 tion of soils and fertilizers is the question of trans- 



