The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-01-26
CROPS HURT BY RAIN.
TRUCK FARMERS SET BACK By TIE
WET WEATHER.

Potato Acreage to Be Planted-The
Strawberry Outlook - Vegetable
Growers Seeking New Markets for
Their Crops-The Fast Vegetable
Freight Service to the North-Gen-
eral Crop Prospects.
The weather this week has been unfavor-
able to the truck farmers. They wanted
rain, but they did not want so much Of it.
1t has had tendency to retard rather than
stimulate the growth Of such vegetables as
have been planted, and it has also stopped
the truck gardeners from preparing the
ground for planting next month. The
ground is too wet TO cultivate, and farmers
must wait until it dries out.
Thus far very little planting has been
done. Beyond few peas, lettuce and rad
dishes no opsn planting has been attempted.
There is more hotbed and cold gardening
this season than last, the gardeners recog-
izng the fact that it is the very earliest of
the early vegetables which bring the best
prices.
There have been a few potatoes planted,
but not many. 1t is considered a risky
effort, to plant much earlier than the third
or last week in February Dealers here,
however have been supplying Florida truck
farmers with seed potatoes for a month or
more aud the Florida early potato crop is
pretty generally planted. New Bermuda
potatoes are already coming into the New
York markets rather early at this season of
the year.
BIG POTATO CROP.
The early potato crop here last year was
good, aud farmers who shipped early,
although the Uubers had attained only
medium growth, Jared we'll, getting all the
way from s. to $40 per barrel, as to grade.
The late crop was not 80 good.
There was an increased acreage of early
potatoes last spring over the previous
spring, and more potatoes will be planted IN
this section this season than last. If the
weather is favorable and the crop a good
one, the planters can well afford TO shorten
the crop of other vegetables, such as peas
and beans, which became a drug on the
market north last spring.
The Atlantic Coast Line, which inau-
gurated a fast vegetable freight service, ex
poets to put vegetable trains on during the
shipping season this year, gathering up
vegetables along the line from Savannah to
Charleston and beyond us it did last year.
Vegetables Were placed in the northern
market in better condition by quick freight
by rail than by steamer, and Of course met
with prompt sales and at better margins.
The truck crop was so large last Sc son that
the New York market was glutted, and no
small part Of the southern shipments had to
be du rped at sea. This it is sought to OBJ
viate this year by opening up other interior
markets in the mining and manufacturing
cities of the north where southern vegeta-
bles have never been introduced, or at least
not to any considerable amount
NEW MARKETS FOR VEGETABLES.
1t has been suggested that this viii not
be difficult to bring about, as the rates viii
be made pcOp0rtiOaate TO all the cities of
the north and northeast, and shippers should
begin to correspond with dealers in the
manufacturing and mining cities of New
York, Pennsy lvania and Massachusetts,, so
that they will not have to depend wholly o.
New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and
Boston, as they had to do last year.
There will be comparatively few, if any,
Strawberries for shipment from this section
that is Of home grown ferries. Growers
have not yet been able to recognize the
capabilities Of the strawberry, and give it
but little room. There were more straw
berry plants put out last fall than ever, and
when farmers learn, as they soon will, that
the soil is peculiarly adapted to the berry.
and that it is the most profitable crop they
can grow Savannah will rival Charleston
in the shipment Of homegrown berries.
The experiment on Hutchinson's Island
uld have proved most profitable one,
but the unprecedented freshet last fall
backed up the water on the plants and
damaged them incidentally, as 1t also in
1icted great damage on the promising fields
of asparagus which had been planted for
the northern markets.
RenOrtS from Florida indicate that the
strawberry crop will be even larger than
last year, and the greater part Of the crop
comes here in refrigerator cars for reship-
meat in refrigerator compartments of the
Ocean Steamship Company's vessels.
TOO EARLY To FORECAST THE CROP.
1t is too early to forecast the local track
crop, as a great many things may intervene
to change the estimate. late spring is
anticipated, as thus far it has been an open
winter north, and very little cold weather
south. Only a few frosts in the latter art
Of November and in December occurred. If
the cold weather is to come later it ma
materially affect the truck gardener He
can only begin to see his way clear after the
middle or latter part Of February.
'Our springs are coming a little later
every year said one Of the Oldest garden
ers in this section the other day. I'VE
used to plant our peas the latter part of
November, and beans in December. Now
we can't plant peas in December, much less
BEANS
After the danger from cold weather has
passed, then the danger of too much wet
weather, or of drought, Is TO be encoun-
tered, and especially the drought. A
planter, in discussing dry weather in con
nection with vegetable gardening, the other
day, remarked that until system of igri-
CATION, bysinklug artesi9n wells, Is adopted,
truck raising viii necessarily be precarlous
at best, and some of the farmers are Sc
r.ousiy thinking Of putting down arteslan
wells, ard connecting them with a system
Of uydrants ana hose So that dry weather
will not shorten their crops.
when truck farming Is reduced to a
science. 1t will pay better than any other
avocation,' said a wise gardener, and it
will be reduced 10 a science when a farmer
supplies the water so necessary to plant
life, instead of sitting down aid wringing
his hands and watching n promising crop
wither and die, after al bis expense and
labor, because tue clouds do not gather and
rain down upon it. A proper system Of
tilng will save it from wet weather and an
Intelligent plan Of watering it will save it
in time Of drought
Lung Troubles and Wasting