THE ALABAMA OPPORTUNITY. 89 



It is the climate which differentiates ]^Iobile County and 

 gives it pre-eminence in truck farming. Baldwin Comity, oj 

 course, has a similar climate, but truck farming is not so well 

 developed there as in Mobile County. But it is making phe- 

 nominal strides in Baldwin County. Hundreds and hundreds 

 of people are coming into Baldwin County each year to en- 

 gage in vegetable raising. 



SOUTHERN MEN PIONEERS. 



Southern men were the pioneers' in truck farming about Mo- 

 bile. They first discovered its pregnant possibilities and they 

 were first to engage extensively in the industry. They out- 

 number now by far the Northern men who have come to the 

 coast to engage in promising industry. 



Why vegetable raising on a large scale has only been a thing 

 of recent years in this section is hard to understand. In ante- 

 bellum days the gardens about the picturesque old southern 

 homes were most fruitful and productive. And the small 

 farmer who raised a few vegetables for the Mobile market 

 found it most remunerative. But it was but little thought of 

 as an industry until recent years. The wealthy farmer or 

 planter had his plantation up the river although he might have 

 had his; home in the city. The lands lying about the city of 

 Mobile was lightly thought of. Only a part of them were tilled 

 and hundreds of acres from which fortunes are being taken 

 in the aggregate were allowed to remain in grass and woods. 



But all this is changed now. The up-State man hardly rea- 

 lizes the proportions the industry assumes until he is brought 

 face to face with some of the figures that pertain to it. 



Take for instance the figures' of the Mobile and Ohio, which 

 relate to the movement of vegetables. This road alone, dur- 

 ing the past season, hauled 1.242 car loads of farm products. 

 These are impressive figures. If the figures of the business 

 done by the other roads leading out of Mobile were at hand, 

 at they are not, perhaps a showing equally as ^ood might be 

 made by other lines from Mobile. 



There are other figures that send home the big importance 

 of truck farming in and around Mobile. There is for instance, 

 the conservative estimate placed upon the value of the vege- 

 table crops about Mobile. At the mimimum cost it is figured 

 that this crop is worth $500,000. 



