MARKET-GARDENING 227 



developed by Agricultural Colleges and Experiment 

 Stations, particularly in the South, and by these means 

 are enabled to add materially to the productiveness of 

 the soil. So the business has grown from gardens sur- 

 rounding cities to territories covering many States, fur- 

 nishing the railroads with a high-class traffic and a crop 

 of quick sale for the farmer. 



While at the present time the States south of the 

 Ohio River and east of the Mississippi River supply a 

 large proportion of the produce of this nature, it is 

 only in comparatively recent years that this has been 

 the case, for the reason that the development of that 

 part of the country in the matter of transportation 

 facilities has come since the close of the Civil War. In 

 fact, at the time of the Civil War truck-farming was 

 only in its infancy in Illinois. The building of the 

 Illinois Central Railroad opened up a region in Southern 

 Illinois particularly adapted to fruit and vegetable grow- 

 ing. In the early sixties settlers in the vicinity of Cobden 

 planted orchards, having in mind the supplying of fruit 

 to the Chicago market, where prices were high; and, while 

 waiting for the orchards to mature, they took up the 

 raising of vegetables and small fruits, such as tomatoes 

 and berries. Meeting with success, they continued the 

 business, which increased in volume each year until it 

 has developed into its present proportions. 



With the close of the war and the opening up of direct 

 North and South lines of transportation, the business had 

 gradually extended into the South until now, as stated 

 above, that section of the country has become a great 

 fruit and vegetable territory. As the demand in Northern 

 cities for fresh fruits and vegetables the entire year round 

 grew, truck-farming kept extending further South in order 

 to get the earlier crops. The extreme Southern pro- 

 ducers had of course to pay high transportation charges 



