196 TRUCK-FARMING AT THE SOUTH. 



a chief article of food for a longer time than any other 

 vegetable. It is somewhat strange, that the family 

 which embraces the deadly nightshade, and other very 

 poisonous plants, should also have among its members 

 this most useful vegetable, besides a few others that are 

 mentioned in this book. 



Of all the crops of the truck-farmer, the potato is the 

 one which is always salable at more or less remunerative 

 prices; its general use among all classes and nativities of 

 the population, precluding a glut in the market. 



Owing to the prevalence of drouth at the North dur- 

 ing the summer of 1881, the staple crops of potatoes and 

 cabbages having been failures, the winter stock was so 

 nearly exhausted, that extensive importations were made 

 from Europe; and when our Southern crops came into 

 market, they enjoyed an unprecedented demand and high 

 prices. My own small crop sold at from six to seven 

 dollars for No. 1, averaging six dollars and sixty cents 

 per barrel, and " culls" from three dollars to four dol- 

 lars and fifty cents, averaging three dollars and forty-five 

 cents per barrel. 



Those farmers who planted largely and had good crops 

 of these vegetables made a "hit" in their operations. It 

 is likely that others, induced by this success, will plant 

 potatoes and cabbages more heavily than usual, and re- 

 duce the acreage of other valuable products. I embrace 

 this occasion to advise truck-farmers, that they will 

 probably thrive better in the course of time, by confin- 

 ing themselves to their usual areas of each crop, and by 

 not allowing themselves to be influenced by periodical 

 successes with any one vegetable. 



VARIETIES. 



A variety of potatoes to be cultivated by the Southern 

 truck-farmer should be productive in our climate of large 

 and even-sized tuber?, growing close together in the hill, 



