Roseburg review. [volume] (Roseburg, Or.) 1885-1920, 1886-05-07
NO.. s..
TRUCK FARMING.

All the Work Is Conducted Systemau-
cally.
Having followed truck farming for
twenty years would say to an inquirer
that the first question to be settled is
that of location. It is folly to begin re-
mote from market, on bad roads, and
where it win be difficult to get manure,
or to command extra help in an emer-
gency. The village should be large
enough to furnish customers. and q
large part of its inhabitants should be
engaged in manufacturing, attending
schools, or in such other callings as will
occupy their time and make it necessary
for them to buy all they consume. Two
villages of equal inhabitants may differ
greatly in the quantity of vegetables re-
quired, as one may be somewhat scat
tered and large proportion of the fam-
lilies have gardens or soutlots, on which
to raise their own supplies, and the other
may be more compact with q much
larger proportion Of consumers.
Your profits will depend largely on
the manure supply, and you should as
certain before locating whether you can
get all you require and at q reasonable
cost. A very successful market-garden-
er from Central Indiana visited me
lately; he is gardening thirty-six acres
and has out one hundred thousand eel
cry plants this year. In answer to my
question as to the cost of manure he
told me he got all he could use for the
hauling and the stablemen were very
glad to have him take it a. ny. Now if
one can locate near a town where ma
nure can be had at that rate, and there
are maryland the distance to his farm
is such that he can make six or eight
trips a day, he has wonderful advan-
tage over the man who must pay for
manure and can only draw three or four
loads day. ALI my gardening was
done two miles from town, and have
always been obliged to pay from fifty
cents to one dollar a load for manure
and could never get all l wanted at that
price.
Had I settled near any one Of several
larger towns within fifty miles of where
now live, could have had an unlim-
tied supply of manure for nothing, and
it would have been worth thousands OF
dollars to me. It is wiser to pay 800
an acre for good land for gardening ad.
| joining village rather than half that
for equally good land two miles further
away. I use the term good in speaking
of the land, and good farming land is
not always good for gardening. A
| garden should be on soil naturally OF
artifcially well drained. The soil should
be warm and easily worked, and yet not
shallow and gravelly so as to dry out
quickly, and should not be subject te
overflow. Garden crops cost too much
for any one to willingly take the risk o.
losing them by inundation, and ye
many farmers unwisely locate on bottom
land subject to overflow because sucl
lands are rich and easily worked. Hun
dreds of acres of bottom land along tn
Ohio River and its tributaries are sub
merged and the crops utterly ruine'
every few years.
A common mistake of beginners is
attempt to cultivate too much land, Q
to plant too largely of some crop wlzic
requires experience and skill to manag
profitably, when they lack both. tn
motto of the novice should always bt
$50 Slow Begin with little of you
best land and with q few crops whic
you know how to manage, and begin {
once to experiment with others. d
everything in a thorough manner, hay
men ard teams enough to do your wor
at tha.right time and do it well. MI
Root, of Illinois, q most successful gal
dener and seed-grower, told me he foun
it paid him to keep one horse at wor
constantly through the growing seaso
on each four acres, and Mr.. Henderso
estimates that on the high-priced Ian
gardened in the vicinity of New Yor
City there is an average annual expend
ture OF three hundred dollars per acl
for hand labor and thirty-five dollar
for horse labor. This last estimate
where three crops are raised on the Ian
in single season. Near my village
a gardener who works but four acres
land and who tells me that his sail
average one thousand dollars year.
Poultry-keeping or dairying, or bot
can be carried on in connection wit
, truck farming to good advantage, if yc
have sufficient land. There should
an acre or SO of land fenced in so tn
the fowls can be shut up when tn,
= would damage the garden. A poultl
fence need not be expensive. find th
\ with Dashboard one foot wide Cor eve
six inches if the board is put eight inch
above the ground and fill made) al
common lath above, fence can be ma
that will turn fowls If one wing
clipped, and this fence will cost less th;
a common board fence. The poult
manure will half pay the keeping of t
fowls if ali be saved and properly use
and the fowls will be benefit to t
= garden by destroying insects. They C
be let out late in the afternoon and W
not be likely to damage the garden.
you accustom them to your voice th
can be called into the yard at any til
On if you forget to shut them up at mig
* If one has land enough to keep sey,
de al COWS and can establish a milk ror
| he will find dairying profitable in &C
a nection with gardening, but would 9
wise that the COWS be fed in the stal
and not pastured at all. Have lot
turn them in for an hour or two ca
y day for exercise, and feed them all th
< !. will eat and largely of bran and
:. meal. Arrange the stable with a n
10 nuYe ditch made water-tight and keeI
supply of bedding to absorb all
liquid, and you will on this system
high feeding make large quantity
ry. excellent manure If you can not s
ed the milk, make first-class butter and {
is. gage it to customers at price that W
ct pay. All the waste of the garden "
at help feed the cows and much food c
IRE be raised for them on the waste spots
od Waldo r. Brotofs, in N. Y. Tribune.
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