GARDEN FARMING 



PART I 

 CHAPTER I 



VEGETABLE GARDENING, OR OLERICULTURE 



Olericulture defined. The idea of a garden is more intimately 

 associated with the cultivation of vegetables than with that of fruits 

 or flowers ; the term " horticulture " is therefore more strictly appli- 

 cable to vegetable gardening than to either fruit culture, floricul- 

 ture, or landscape gardening. Nowadays, however, the term 

 "horticulture" is expanded to include not only the cultivation of 

 the garden under the heading of olericulture, but also fruit culture 

 or pomology, floriculture, and landscape gardening. 



Market gardening versus truck farming. The general subject of 

 olericulture may be divided into two great divisions, namely, market 

 gardening and truck farming. Ordinarily no distinction is made 

 between these two lines of endeavor, but modern practice has 

 brought about a sharp distinction between them. Encyclopedic 

 and dictionary definitions recognize no difference in them, but 

 market gardening may be defined as that branch of olericulture 

 which has for its object the production of large quantities of a 

 great variety of the standard vegetables and small fruits , to sup- 

 ply the demands of a local market. Truck farming is more re- 

 stricted in its scope, is usually more extensive, and has chiefly to 

 do with a few standard crops which yield large returns per acre 

 and which can be shipped to distant markets. Truck farming has 

 for its object the production of a few crops in large quantities for 

 more or less remote markets. Among the truck crops may be 

 mentioned kale, cabbage, spinach, potatoes, sweet potatoes, egg- 

 plants, cucumbers, lettuce, radishes, beets, and, to a limited extent, 



