24 TRUCK FARMING 



eaten largely of meats, therefore the first few sunny days are 

 apt to bring the good housewife into the open, and the tempt- 

 ing vegetables displayed at this time of the year by the green 

 grocers have a strong tendency to induce her to invest in the vari- 

 ous Southern products, so attractively displayed. 



One thing we can always depend upon, no matter how large 

 the acreage originally planted, there are always many failures to 

 be chronicled before the season is well advanced. Excessive 

 rains, drouth, ravages of fungi and insects have a tendency not 

 only to annihilate the crop, but often cause a number of our 

 novices to discontinue the business entirely. I have often met 

 people, unfamiliar with the business, who comparatively early in 

 the season were so disheartened that they simply gave up the 

 struggle, for which they were sorry later on, as the prices usually, 

 in consequence of inclement weather or the other conditions named 

 above, advanced to an almost prohibitive figure. 



The old grower, on the other hand, being familiar with pro- 

 duction, and having in past years experienced unfavorable as well 

 as encouraging experiences, usually is persistent and keeps right 

 on persevering, and for this reason almost invariably comes out 

 at the end of the season with flying colors. I frequently have 

 known peppers, for instance, to be begging on the market, thereby 

 causing many of those easily discouraged to neglect their crops 

 to such an extent as to give them over to the weed,s, and then 

 for the market to advance to such a figure that those who had 

 been untiring and faithful in their work, realized a most hand- 

 some profit in the very years in which the largest acreage had 

 originally been planted. This is equally true of other crops. 



So familiar have we grown with the different obstacles to be 

 encountered and such sturdy control have we of the conditions 

 here found, that it is a common saying in the South that we 

 make crops here. Probably our familiarity and success with the 

 use of a well balanced fertilizer is what leads us to want to 

 monopolize all the credit of growing our crops, forgetting that 

 Nature is the most important adjunct. 



