654 



TRUCK-GROWING 



TRUCK-GROWING 



Factors determining trucking regions. 



Considerations of soil and climate largely deter- 

 mine the general location of truck-growing areas 

 for given crops. Of these, the climate is the more 

 important except in the case of a few crops 

 requiring special soil conditions for their proper 

 development. 



In nearly every state in the Union 

 there are regions well adapted in soil 

 and climate to the production of some 

 vegetable crop or crops. However, by 

 no means all localities adapted to the 

 production of certain crops have be- 

 come commercial centers for those 

 crops. The exact location of truck- 

 growing areas within a region adapted 

 to the production of the crops is deter- 

 mined by transportation facilities and 

 the inclinations of the inhabitants. New 

 shipping points are continually being 

 developed by reason of the extension of 

 railroad lines to new regions, and the 

 enterprise of a few progressive men in 

 each locality. 



It is only at points where a sufficient 

 number of men are growing the same 

 crop or crops that are marketed at the 

 same season to enable shipments to be 

 made in car-lots, that good shipping facilities and 

 desirable freight rates can be secured. In the 

 case of some crops, such as watermelons or late 

 cabbage, the individual grower can ship in car- 

 lots; but with many crops, such as asparagus, 

 green peas, muskmelons or tomatoes, an individaal 

 grower would usually be able to furnish only a 

 small fraction of a car in any single shipment. In 

 order, therefore, to develop a new shipping point, 

 it is necessary that the men who wish to enter the 

 trucking business induce a sufficient number of 

 other men to grow the same crops to secure ade- 

 quate shipping facilities. 



Marketing the produet. 



Usually, the growers at a given shipping point 

 are organized into a local association whose 

 manager attends to the icing and loading of cars 

 and other matters of business connected with the 

 association. The methods employed by some of the 

 most successful associations enable the individual 

 grower to consign his products to any firm he may 

 choose in the city to which the car is consigned, 



number of growers wish to patronize those markets. 

 The products of the individual grower are sold on 

 their own merits by the party he chooses. 



Truck crops grown at a distance from market 

 are almost invariably handled by commission men 

 located in the large cities, and the bulk of the 



Fie. 883. Hotbeds for starting truck crops. 



the directors of the association usually determining 

 at the beginning of the season what markets will 

 be employed, though at any time during the season 

 cars may be loaded for other markets, if a sufficient 



Fig. 884. View on market-garden farm at Irondequoit, N. Y. 



products will necessarily continue to be handled 

 through the large cities as distributing points, 

 rather than consigned to small towns at a distance 

 from the point of production. 



Trucking in relation to farm management. 



As an adjunct to general farming, truck-grow- 

 ing is becoming an important factor in the agri- 

 culture of many localities ; and it is on that basis 

 that It is destined to hold a permanent place among 

 the activities of rural people rather than as a 

 system of single cropping partaking of the na- 

 ture of bonanza farming, except possibly in the 

 case of a few special crops demanding peculiar- 

 ities of soil not favorable to the production of 

 general farm crops. Specialization in its closest 

 sense is a frequent outgrowth of good trucking 

 soil and climate coupled v\{ith good transportation 

 facilities. 



In general, truck crops demand heavy manuring 

 and very thorough tillage. If a paying truck crop 

 is to be grown, it is usually necessary so to enrich 

 and work the soil that it will be richer in plant- 

 food and in better condition for the production of 

 subsequent crops after the truck crop has been 

 grown, than it was before preparations were made 

 for growing the truck crop. So well recognized is this 

 fact by land owners in certain regions that they 

 will allow a tenant the use of a piece of land for 

 a full season without the payment of rent, pro- 

 vided the area is to be planted to certain truck 

 crops. 



A system of rotation which includes a truck 

 crop every three or four years will usually result 

 in increasing rather than diminishing the produc- 

 tive capacity of the soil. In a sandy region where 

 watermelons thrive and winter wheat is the staple. 



