38 THE ALABAMA OIM'ORTUNITY. 



At the end of the drive we hmched at Frederic's road house. 

 Succulent spring vegetables were on the bill of fare and Fred- 

 eric, proud of his ability as a gardner, exhibited the fine pota- 

 toes, cabbage and other things that he had grown in the fall, 

 upon the same land upon which he raised and gathered veg- 

 etables in the early months of the year. Tomatoes and tur- 

 nips grow on the same land twice in the same year. 



THE climate's advantages. 



That drive showed why Mobile County is one of the best 

 truck gardening counties in the United States, one of the very 

 best. It emphasized the fact that two crops of vegetables could 

 be grown in Mobile County. It explained why truck farming 

 in Mobile County had gone forward with strides and bounds. 

 It showed wh}- the railroads were fostering the industry in 

 every possible way and spending great sums in building it 

 up and inducing other people to enter into it. The afternoon 

 was explanation of why the gulf coast of Alabama is now the 

 garden of the State. 



It is the climate. 



The soil is good, very good. But there is much better soil 

 even for raising vegetables in some other portions of Ala- 

 bama. Still this soil is peculiarly adapted to that purpose. 



S. H. Comstock, a truck gardener and a produce merchant 

 put it this way: "There is something about the soil around 

 Mobile which just seems to suit vegetables." 



Still tliere is as good soil and perhaps better soil in other 

 portions of the State, but the other portions of the State may 

 not possibly raise two crops of vegetables in one year. The 

 climate makes this possible around Mobile. The truck farmer 

 here is enthusiastic about the climate. It is a many-sided cli- 

 mate full of goods points. 



"You see," you are told, "the climate here is even and well 

 tempered. It is horizontal, very near the same throughout the 

 year. There are no sharp contrasts in it. The vegetables are 

 •not s-rorcled in the summer as they are further north in the 

 State. The sun never gets hot enough for that. The heat 

 is tempered by the sea breezes and even in hot, dry weather 

 the vegetables preserve their greenness and virility. The win- 

 ters are short and inconsequential. We have no real cold 

 weather." 



