Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1882-08-18
CAROLINA TRUCK FARMING.
Another Enthusiast Sets Forth she
Profits Thereon,
Morehead City IN. CO Correspondence Atlantic
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Morehead City (N c. Correspondence AtlantG
Constitution.
"That man" said Gen. Roberts, point
ing out a man in the crowd, sold $780,
600 worth of Irish potatoes this year,
every one of which he raised on his own
place" That sounds incredible, and get
it is true. The man alluded to was Am.
brose Lindsay, who lives on the coast
near the Carolina line. OF this enormous
crop have no doubt $4,000 was clear
money. Sol Haas told me of man at
Norfolk who cleared $35, 900 raising po-
tatoes this year, and paid off debt that
had accumulated in business and threat.
ened to ruin him. This is the best year
for potatoes ever known. The last crop
was short and poor, and there was no
stock to start the season with. The high
price of bread and meat increased the
consumption of potatoes, and the heavy
crop of this year was taken at high
figures. Potatoes that dragged at 50
barrel in New York last year brought
Sc so a barrel on the Carolina coast this
year.
have written a good deal about the
truck farming of this section, but was
not prepared to see the progress that has
been made. In the Newbern country it
has quadrupled in the past two years,
and every season sees new lands cleared.
Some of the stories of profits would be
fabulous were they not well avouched.
Mr.. Joseph Rhene, of Newbern, is an ex-
ample. 81 had OCCASION, said Mr..
Bryan, an intelligent gentleman, "to look
into his accounts five years ago, and he
was then $4,000 behind. He went to
truck farming, commencing with about
sixty acres. He is now worth $4,000
besides his farm. He has increased this
to several hundred acres, and so enriched
it that what he gave $40 an acre for
will now command 800 an acre.
He raised $50, 900 worth of potatoes
this year. The total crop of truck for
the season is worth $50. 900, and it cost
him about $4,000 to make it. His sales
for the first five days of the season were
$4,000, or $4,000 day" IF
the profits are so immense
why does not everybody go
90 in3" Nearly everybody in this sec
uon is going in. l planted about ten
acres in potatoes this year, on which l
made $3.50 an acre at an expense of $22
an acre. l shall enrich my land next
year and increase my operations. Every
season new people come in. Mr.. Dunn,
of our city, who was in the railroad ser
vice, bought sixty acres of land few
years ago and started. He has made
over $4,000, and his farm, for which he
gave almost nothing, would sell for
S., 600 easily. There is an abund-
ance OF similar land to be had
cheap, but it has to be
cleared and enriched, and is often out
of the reach of market. In spite of
everything, however, the truck business
of the Carolina coast, already enormous,
is destined to double and quadruple even
its present proportions. We grow every
thing here, and there are special farms
for tomatoes, berries, onions, etc. 1t is
not unusual for one of our growers to
shin 80 600 boxes of strawberries. The
cultivation of these small crops is a god
send to our people, who have been forced
to give up heavy operations in rice and
cotton because of labor troubles. 1t is
really a surplus above our staple crops
anyhow. For when we raise crop of
has we then pitch in and raise cotton
on the same land.