14 



The Subject 



tomer in good condition ; but the vegetable well cbosen and 

 well grown and fresh from the garden is nevertheless the 

 proper standard of excellence. It is a surpassing satisfac- 

 tion when the householder may go to her own garden 

 rather than to the store for her lettuce, onions, tomatoes, 

 beets, peas, cabbage, melons, and other things good to see 

 and to eat, and to have them in generous supply. 



Yet many vegetable-growers are not directly concerned 

 with the table supply and the general home interest but 

 with the raising of produce for market. Of this range 

 there are two t3^pes — market-gardening and truck-growing. 

 The former is the growing of a wide or general range of 

 vegetables- by intensive methods near the city, so near that 

 the producer may perhaps drive to the market. The latter 

 (trucking) is the growing of a few specialties on cheaper 

 land by more extensive methods at some distance (often 

 a great distance) from the cities, depending on the long 

 haul by water or rail; of this kind is the growing of large 

 areas in spinach, watermelons, cabbage, kale, potatoes. 

 These distinctions in the business of vegetable-growing 

 were made in the Eleventh Census (Bull. 41, by J. H. 

 Hale; Census of 1890). They are now accepted by 

 American writers.* Yet even in these important com- 

 mercial practices, now bulking so large in the produce- 

 yield of the country, the relation with the plant is tlie 

 first consideration. 



Having now been introduced to our subject, we may be- 

 gin at once to grow the plants. 



*As. for example, R. L. Watts. Vegetable Gardening, copj'-righted 1912; 

 L. C. Corbett, Garden Farming, 1913; J. W. Lloyd, Productive Vegetable 

 Growing, 1914; J. G. Boyd, Vegetable Growing, 1917. 



