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: GARDEN FARMING 



cauliflower." Truck' farms' frequently have a considerable area de- 

 voted to the cultivation of strawberries. Celery and onions may 

 also be classed as truck crops, but as a rule these are made special 

 crops. Celery or onion growers devote their energies exclusively 

 to the one crop and give little or no attention to other truck crops. 

 It becomes evident, then, that truck farming, to be profitable, 

 must have at its command the markets of large cities, while market 

 gardening can frequently be made profitable in the vicinity of in- 

 land towns with a comparatively small population. In fact, truck 

 farming is a development of olericulture which has resulted from 

 the aggregation of people in great centers of population like New 

 York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Chicago. As rapidly as states 

 become manufacturing or commercial sections, just so rapidly does 

 the business of the truck farmer and market gardener develop. 

 The population changes from a producing to a consuming one. 

 The statistics of population of the New England States, com- 

 pared with those of the Southern States, show that the ratio 

 between the food-producing and the food-consuming population 

 is almost exactly the same, but in the New England States the 

 consuming population forms about 80 per cent of the total, while 

 in the Southern States the producing population forms about 

 80 per cent of the total. Yet many of our largest and most im- 

 portant truck farms are situated in the South Atlantic States. 

 The reason for this is that the climatic and soil conditions of these 

 regions, together with the labor supply which is available, render 

 the industry profitable in two respects cheapness in the cost of 

 production, and the ability to produce crops in advance of the normal 

 season farther north. For instance, in the latitude of Charleston, 

 South Carolina, the potato harvest is frequently in progress by the 

 middle of May, and farther south, in the latitude of central Florida, 

 this truck crop is harvested in the latter part of April. By taking 

 advantage of the progress of the season from southern Florida to 

 the New England States the standard vegetable crops may be pro- 

 duced in the open from midwinter to midsummer. The result is 

 that the large centers of consumption are now supplied with fresh 

 vegetables throughout the whole twelve months. Formerly this 

 was not possible except by the use of cold frames and forcing 

 houses. Although this southern extension of vegetable growing 



