16 
BULLETIN 848, U. S. DEPAKTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
An early crop usually commands a good price, and the land on which 
it is grown may be used for growing another crop the same season. 
Hotbeds are sometimes profitably utilized for growing lettuce very 
early in the spring and very late in the fall. 
MARKETING THE PRODUCE. 
Marketing the produce is really a part of the regular farm opera- 
tions on these farms. The work on the farm is so arranged as to 
allow the required number of men and horses to deliver the vege- 
tables and fruits regularly to the open market in Washington. A 
short discussion of this subject thus seems warranted in connection 
with the study of the management of these farms. 
Fig. 7. — Potatoes buried in pit covered with straw and earth. The potatoes were buried 
in October, and the picture was taken the following May. 
Most of the vegetables and fruits raised are of perishable nature 
and must be marketed when harvested. Irish potatoes are some- 
times stored to be held for a better price or a more convenient time 
of marketing. They are put in cellars or buried in pits. (See fig. 7.) 
The produce of all the farms visited was sold on the Washington 
market. A very few farmers hire their produce hauled and pay a 
definite commission for hauling and selling. The common practice 
for the farmer is to do the hauling himself with his farm horses and 
wagons. The men on the larger farms are beginning to use motor 
trucks. The average haul to the market for all farms is 9 miles, and 
the average number of trips to market for all farmers was about 75 
a year, the number of trips varying with the quantity and variety of 
produce grown. 
The farmers sell by wholesale, retail, or commission. The city 
of Washington has a wholesale market which opens at 3 o'clock every 
