4 GARDEN FARMING 



beginning to the close of the growing season he must have a suc- 

 cession of crops so adjusted to one another that there shall be a 

 continuous supply to meet the demands of the market at a time 

 when there is no destructive competition from localities possessing 

 an advantage over his own. His crops must not be so early as to 

 come in competition with the growers south of him, nor yet so 

 late as to come in competition with those north of him, who have 

 the advantage of cheaper transportation. With the Southern 

 grower there is less risk in early crops than in late ones, for as 

 soon as the grower situated closest to the center of consumption 

 has a product which meets the demands of the market, his more 

 distant competitor is placed at a disadvantage. 



Then, too, the acreage of the crops should be adjusted to the 

 labor supply. For best results in market gardening and truck work 

 it is necessary to keep a fixed corps of well-trained assistants or 

 laborers who can carry out the details in cultivating, harvesting, 

 and marketing a particular crop. If it becomes necessary to depend 

 upon transient labor, there is always the danger that the required 

 amount of labor cannot be obtained just at the time it is needed ; 

 but with a sufficient number of men of experience, and with an 

 acreage properly proportioned among the various crops, the grower 

 will be able to keep his labor force profitably employed and their 

 number nearly constant, and thus be able to meet the demands of 

 the market at the proper time. Such a plan carries with it a 

 balance between the labor and the acreage of crops, together with 

 a rotation or succession of crops. 



Rotation of crops. In all farming operations it is necessary to 

 practice as wide a rotation of crops as possible. Any crop, if grown 

 on the same soil continuously, deprives it of certain elements of 

 plant food which, sooner or later, render it incapable of produc- 

 ing that crop at a profit. Soil which has for many years grown 

 a single crop, such, for instance, as clover, becomes unfit for the 

 production of that crop, and the farmers say the soil is "clover 

 sick." With market-garden crops like results follow, and there 

 are in addition plant diseases and insect enemies which become 

 more troublesome each year that a crop is grown upon the same 

 area. A rotation therefore tends to adjust the crop to the soil 

 best fitted for its production, to maintain fertility, and, to a limited 



