TRANSPORTATION OF TRUCK CROPS 91 



apparent among truck growers than among market gardeners. There 

 are those who make a special feature of some one crop like straw- 

 berries, asparagus, tomatoes, cabbage, kale, etc., giving little at- 

 tention to other crops. While this specialization is productive of 

 large returns, it is apt to be overdone and is open to greater dis- 

 aster than the more rational method of a more or less fixed crop 

 rotation. Single-crop regions, which are the final result of extreme 

 specialization, are sooner or later overtaken by disaster. It is safe 

 to say, however, that the dangers of specialization are less in truck 

 farming than in grain growing, because of the more intimate 

 relation of the truck farmer to market conditions and the greater 

 care necessary to maintain maximum crops. 



Cooperative shipment. The saving which results from shipping 

 in carload lots serves to encourage extensive operations in regions 

 remote from the market. Such a saving is much greater in long- 

 distance shipments than in local shipments ; in fact, many of the 

 prosperous trucking communities now existing could not thrive 

 if the producers were obliged to ship independently and by local 

 freight or express. Cooperative production and shipment in regions 

 possessing the advantages of soil and climate which allow them 

 to command the markets for a limited period each year, enable 

 small producers to market their crops profitably. The satisfactory 

 results secured by growers in remote regions, who take advantage 

 of this method of shipment, are often used as an argument to 

 induce those within a short distance of the market, who use 

 local facilities, to ship in car lots. The small grower located in 

 a region remote from market is obliged to cooperate with others of 

 his kind in self-defense. Carload shipment from such regions is 

 the grower's only means of existence. The result is cooperation 

 among small growers, or extensive production by individuals or 

 corporations. The cooperative shipping arrangements carried out 

 by the winter truck growers of southwest Texas are a notable 

 example of the good results to be obtained from such a combi- 

 nation. The extensive production of individual growers at various 

 points along the Atlantic coast, notably Charleston, Norfolk, and 

 Wilmington, is another proof of the advantages of carload ship- 

 ments. The corporation operating in cabbage and potatoes at 

 Meggett, South Carolina, attests the advantages of extensive 



