Vegetables 
THE CAUSES OF FAILURE IN TRUCKING AND VEGETABLE 
GROWING IN FLORIDA 
C. H. Kennerly 
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : 
There are some failures in vegetable 
growing in Florida, that cannot be fore¬ 
seen and guarded against. The failures 
I refer to are those due to climatic con¬ 
ditions, and I will, therefore, try to deal 
with the failures that can be avoided if 
proper precautions are taken. 
First, I may mention the numerous 
failures made by new settlers, who come 
to Florida expecting to make their for¬ 
tunes in a few months. One of the reas¬ 
ons that so many of these people do not 
make a success is because of the extrava¬ 
gant promises that some of our Florida 
Colony Companies make them. They tell 
these people, who know nothing of the 
conditions in Florida, that they can come 
here with a few dollars, sow some seed 
and make from $500.00 to $1,000 per 
acre with very little work and without a 
chance of failure. When the new settler 
arrives, he finds it entirely different. He 
must build a fence around his land, then 
clear it, put down a well and get his soil 
in good condition. Besides this, he has 
to fertilize his land, buy implements and 
seed, and give the crop careful work and 
attention if he makes a success. After 
the crop is made he finds that he cannot 
. dispose of it for a profit, because he has 
not enough vegetables to load a car, and 
is located away from a trucking section, 
with few, if any, neighbors to help him 
out. He has to haul his produce to some 
distant express office and consign it to a 
commission man whom he does not know, 
and the chances are, no matter how good 
his produce is, or how well packed, he 
will not make any profit out of it. If the 
new settler who comes to Florida would 
locate in a trucking section, where the 
growers are making a specialty of the 
crops he wishes to plant, and where he 
can watch his neighbors cultivate these 
crops, and last, but not least, be able to 
sell his produce at the station after it 
is grown, he stands a good chance of suc¬ 
ceeding. 
Now that we have looked into some of 
the causes of failure of the new settlers, 
let us take a look at the experienced 
trucker, for he, too, makes a failure some 
times. When I think of this, it brings to 
my mind a lage truck farm that I visited 
in central Florida several years ago. This 
farm was well located, and the soil was 
excellent. It was in a large trucking sec- 
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