152 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
a crop of velvet beans during the sum¬ 
mer time. This crop will protect the 
soil from the hot rays of the summer 
sun, and it will also equalize the mois¬ 
ture during the heavy summer showers, 
also putting the soil in a condition when 
the aftermath of the velvet bean crop 
is plowed under, to give us a spring 
crop of far larger dimensions than we 
would get in any other way. This 
method should be followed where cu¬ 
cumbers, lettuce, and all of the spring 
or summer crops are produced. Sweet 
potatoes are also a good soil scavenger, 
and should be used in a rotation of the 
earlier spring vegetables. 
The Florida vegetable grower ridi¬ 
cules the idea of going in to produce 
these crops that yield such small re¬ 
turns compared with the vegetable 
crops that he depends upon. But, 
should he study the matter thoroughly, 
he would find that unless he preserves 
the santitary soil condition necessary 
to the crops, and also preserves the soil 
fertility, his soil will be unable to pro¬ 
duce as large crops as it should. 
SPECIALIZATION 
There is also a tendency on the part 
of the vegetable growers to confine 
themselves too much to one or two 
specialties. This, in itself, is not to be 
desired, not only from; the producing 
standpoint but also' from the general 
marketing standpoint. The idea among 
growers in sections where carload lots 
are the rule, is to grow just one or two 
crops, and ship in carload lots. This to a 
certain extent, is desirable, but prices 
received generally are not as satisfac¬ 
tory as if they were mixed cars with 
well-selected materials. The mixed 
cars could be sent to the smaller mar¬ 
kets, where the prices on the whole 
would be better than where the carload 
lots were sent to distributing points 
and reshipped, thus causing a day or 
two of lost time before the product 
gets on the consumer’s table. 
Some of our growers handle but one 
crop, and the result, in seventy-five per 
cent of the cases, is disaster. Take the 
history of agriculture the world over, 
and you will find wherever one section 
or one community gives itself entirely 
over to a specialty, every now and again 
it spells disaster for everyone con¬ 
cerned. This sFould be avoided as 
much as possible. 
UNIFORMITY IN PRODUCTS 
Another mistake that our growers 
make is a lack of uniformity in their 
products, the lack of proper standard¬ 
izing, both in type and quality. Those 
that have the privilege of visiting the 
different packing houses and shipping 
platforms during the shipping season 
must be struck with the great differ¬ 
ence in appearance and the differences 
in the quality of the materials shipped. 
HONESTY IN PACKING AND GRADING 
In going over the state of Florida 
during the shipping seasons of the dif¬ 
ferent products, we are often struck 
with the difference that prevails at cer¬ 
tain shipping points in the honesty in 
grading and packing. It is not within 
