The Editor's Outlook. 



WORLD'S T^HERE is much feeling throughout 

 FAIR. 1 the country over the appointment 

 of Walter S. Maxwell, of California, as 

 chief of horticulture at the World's Fair. The 

 appointment is not confirmed as we go to press, 

 and great pressure is being brought to bear to pre- 

 vent a confirmation. We fully sympathize with 

 the general feeling. Mr. Maxwell has been appoint- 

 ed amid much opposition, much of it of a some- 

 what sectional nature, and however pleasant future 

 relations may be, if Mr. Maxwell becomes chief, 

 the horticultural interests start out under an in- 

 cubus which can never be fully overcome. There 

 are many men upon whom the whole country could 

 unite. 



The origin of the trouble lies in the absurd classi- 

 fication of Department B, proposed by Professor 

 Blake, in which the wine interests, which are no part 

 of horticulture, were made the leading features of 

 the schedule. This, besides being unfair and 

 ridiculous, was thought to be an effort cui the part 

 of California to control the horticultural exhibits, 

 and whether or no this charge is just, the subse- 

 quent behavior of our Pacific friends has not been 

 reassuring. 



But our opposition to the appointment is for the 

 reason [that it is impolitic. It widens the rupture 

 instead of closing it, and it must certainly lessen 

 the interest in the exhibition. We feel that we 

 shall be called upon to put forth effort, to over- 

 come indignation and jealousies, which we ought 

 to put mto the exhibition itself. 



We shall not lose our interest in the exposition 

 if the nomination is confirmed. We expect to put 

 all our energies into it, whoever may be chief, and 

 we hope that the exposition will be thoroughly and 

 broadly American ; but we are sorry for the pre- 

 sent crisis. 



-X- ^ -X- 



TRUCK TENSUS BULLETIN 41, by J. 

 FARMING. l> H. Hale, is an epitome of 

 statistics of the truck farms of the 

 United States. In common with all other horticul- 

 tural interests, this business has never before been 

 made the subject of government inquiry, and we 

 therefore have no figures with which to compare its 

 growth. We can only glean something of its pre- 

 sent status. But we are handicapped at the outset 



by the arbitrary and illogical definition of truck- 

 farming, which, without precedent and without any 

 stated reason, is made to include only those farms 

 from which produce is shipped by rail or water. 

 Market gardening is defined as a business " con- 

 ducted near local markets, the grower of vegetables 

 using his own team for transporting his products 

 direct to either the retailer or consumer." We are 

 not told where those thousands of growers are cata- 

 logued who deliver their products both by rail and 

 by team, or even if they are catalogued at all ; and 

 such persons supply a large part of the vegetables 

 of the country. It is certainly a new logic which 

 classifies agricultural industries by the way in which 

 their products reach the market, and the arbitrary 

 division here undertaken destroys most of the value 

 of the statistics. We have no clew whatever, even 

 after all this figuring, to the number of acres of 

 beets or cabbages or spinage, or a dozen or more 

 other crops which are grown in enormous quanti- 

 ties in the country, nor can we deduct any figures 

 to show the cost of growing them, or the profits ob- 

 tained. We have figures of certain farms or re- 

 gions only, not of crops. And we doubt if the enu- 

 merators have been able in many cases to separate 

 statistics in such manner that this new "truck 

 farming " stands by itself. We mistrust that many 

 of the figures, especially those referring to culture 

 under glass, belong to persons who chance to 

 market their truck with a horse. At any rate, it 

 appears to us to be a difficult matter to draw the 

 distinction where none exists. 



We should like to make some comparative state- 

 ments of the relative cost of crops, and profits from 

 them, in various parts of the country, in order to 

 determine if ratio of profit increases with expense 

 or intensiveness of culture : and so far as we can 

 judge, the greatest profits appear to come where the 

 greatest expense is incurred, but we are not sure 

 whether the figures for New England do not include 

 some greenhouse enterprises and are, therefore, not 

 comparable with other regions where such enter- 

 prises may have been excluded. Truck-farming, 

 according to the definition, " is carried on in faN-or- 

 ed localities at a distance from market," and yet 

 the report gives us figures from such unfavored 

 localities in New England that glass must be used 

 to grow the plants profitably. We wonder whether 



