MARKET-GARDENING WITH KITCHEN VEGETABLES. 



The greatest development of late years in North Carolina has been 

 in the production of early vegetables for the Northern markets in the 

 eastern coastal plain, and in the production of late vegetable crops in 

 the mountain section for the Southern coast markets. Both these two 

 distinct lines of vegetable culture are growing, and the growers are 

 intensifying their work and getting greater returns per acre than 

 ever. Both the soil and climate of the coast plain are well adapted 

 to the production of early vegetables, and with the adoption of frames 

 protected with cloth or glass, and sometimes with steam-heating 

 pipes, the production of crops in winter and early spring is carried 

 on with great success, and large areas are now irrigated by means of 

 pipes running overhead high enough to work teams under. With 

 rapid transportation to the Northern cities by rail and water, the 

 business of supplying early vegetables to the growing Northern cities 

 is certain to increase beyond its present large proportions. The lead- 

 ing crops grown by the eastern market-gardeners are as follows : 



IKISH POTATOES. 



The Irish potato is one of the leading truck crops grown for the 

 early market, and also as a second crop for the winter market and 

 for seed. From the city of New Bern alone over 100,000 barrels of 

 early Irish potatoes are shipped annually, and the crop in other sec- 

 tions is a very large one. One grower in Hyde County plants 600 

 barrels for the early crop, and from these he grows a second crop 

 sufficient for his next year's supply of seed potatoes and many bar- 

 rels to sell. The early potato crop is planted in February and goes 

 to market in June. This gives time to grow a crop of pea- vine and 

 crab-grass hay on the land and then have it ready to plant the second 

 crop of potatoes from seed of the first crop in August. This second 

 crop is dug in December and makes the best seed for the following 

 spring, as the potatoes keep sound and unsprouted during the short 

 time they are out of the ground, and grow with a vigor never found 

 in the seed brought from the North. 



In some sections it is the practice to plant cotton between the rows 

 of early potatoes at the last working of the crop, and when the pota- 

 toes are dug and shipped the cultivation of the cotton is continued, 

 and the heavy fertilization of the potato crop insures a heavy crop of 

 cotton, too, and in this way, after shipping a profitable crop of pota- 

 toes, there is often a bale or more per acre of cotton grown. But, for 

 the welfare of the truck crops, it is always better to follow the early 

 crops with peas for hay. On the heavily manured soil the natural 



