TWENTIETH-CENTURY HORTICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES. 59 



which was the natural and legitimate source of supply for a few months 

 in each year for the local market, has become a field industry for supplying 

 distant places ; climate has replaced fuel ; transportation facilities have 

 brought the market nearer the producer ; with the result that, instead of vege- 

 tables of the class above mentioned being luxuries for those whose income 

 was above the average, winter vegetables have become a common article in 

 every shop and market place in America. They are no longer luxuries, 

 they are regarded as necessities, and the price is within the reach of the 

 artisan. This is perhaps one of the most important and one of the most 

 remarkable changes which have taken place in American horticultural 

 conditions in the last decade ; for it is not more than this period since 

 transportation facilities have been so perfected as to enable truck growers 

 to engage in this business in a large way. At the present time the 

 trucking business along the Atlantic seaboard, from the southernmost part 

 of Florida to the northern limits of our coast line, has become differ- 

 entiated into well-developed and well-marked trucking zones. Each zone 

 or section can command the northern markets for a definite period of 

 time each year. The crops grown are either general market-garden crops, 

 which are adapted to transportation, or they are special crops. Some 

 growers confine their efforts to tomatoes, others to potatoes, others to 

 cucumbers, others to lettuces, while others engaging in the business in 

 a very extensive way carry a full line or list of the standard crops. In 

 this way the production of vegetables for the supply of the American 

 markets has come to be a work of growing special rather than general 

 crops. A man may be a specialist in cucumbers, potatoes, roses, or 

 carnations without knowing very much of anything regarding the pro- 

 duction of other crops. This is true also of the great agricultural 

 developments of the country. Certain regions become noted for the 

 production of a single crop. It goes without explanation that industries 

 of this character are rather dangerous to the economic welfare of the 

 country as a whole. A greater diversity in the character of the crops 

 grown in any particular region places the region upon a much safer basis 

 than when the welfare of the people is dependent entirely upon a single 

 crop. This is one of the dangers towards which the rapid development of 

 American horticulture is carrying us. The fact that large returns are 

 frequently secured from growing extensive acreages of a single crop has 

 induced people to become somewhat reckless in the planning of their 

 work. They have come to rely upon a single crop and believe it to be the 

 only factor worthy of consideration in their business. This danger, which 

 has been brought to our notice so forcibly in the great wheat belts and 

 is now being so emphatically brought home to the residents of the cotton 

 belt of the United States, is certain to come sooner or later to the 

 horticultural regions which have developed upon the single -crop idea 

 such as that above described. It is evident, however, that long-distance 

 trucking or market gardening must necessarily be very much specialised 

 and restricted in order to make it profitable. Many crops which find 

 sale in the markets naturally sell at so small a margin of profit that a 

 slight fluctuation in price is sufficient to throw the grower at a long dis- 

 tance from the market heavily into debt when large consignments are 

 made. If the market falls so as to cause a product to be sold at or 



