NEW ENGLAND MARKET GARDENERS AND THEIR 

 COMPETITORS. 



By Prof. L. C. Corbett, Washington, D. C. 



Delivered before the Society, with stereopticon illustrations, January 28, 



1911. 



It is indeed carrying coals to Newcastle to say to an audience 

 living in the environs of such a virile center as Boston that this is 

 the great commercial era of the world's history. Never before 

 has the production of the world's food supplies been so important 

 a matter as today. The great staples like corn, wheat, and rice 

 have long been important commodities in the world's markets, 

 but it is only within recent years that products of the market 

 garden and truck farming have come into the commercial horizon. 

 The reason for this is to be found in the tremendous increase in 

 our urban population. The ratio of producers to consumers has 

 changed remarkably in the past twenty years. This change has 

 created a demand which is ever increasing. It is this demand for 

 wholesome, fresh products of the field and garden which has made 

 possible our present market garden and truck farming enterprises. 

 Another important factor wmich we must not forget is the part 

 which modern transportation has contributed to both the cities and 

 to those who feed them. Without adequate transportation the 

 cities could neither be established nor fed, and without facilities for 

 the rapid movement of immense quantities of highly perishable 

 products which we now have the markets would be but meagerly 

 supplied with many of the luxuries which have come to be regarded 

 as necessities. Without rapid transportation there could be no 

 competing truck industry, and without the truck industry the cities 

 would be fed from the local gardens and greenhouses. As a result 

 of opening the doors of our markets into the gardens of the South 

 the normal season for many of our vegetables has been obliterated. 



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