Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1891-04-09


within the last few years, except the lit
tie which used to be possible by canal.
1t Is the modern railroad that has rem
dered possible the truck farm, and this
partly accounts for the fact of its neglect
in previous census compilations. Not
that there was no truck farming In 1880,
but the volume OF IL was vastly less than
now.
It 10 estimated that upwards of $780,
900, 900 Is invested in the industry in the
United States, the annual production
being three-quarters Of this amount, or
$40, 500, 900, realized from 534, 440 acres
Of land. In the work are engaged 215,-
765 men, 1904 women, and 14,074 chill
dren, who are aided by IS, sos horses and
mules, and use nearly 50, 900, 600 worth of
agricultural implements. The industry
is carried on In nearly all the States, but
the principal districts are narrow belt
on the South Atlantic coast and along
the Mississippi Valley. The more fertile
soils are chosen; labor and the railroads
do the rest. The big cities are the best
customers of the truck farmer, the wants
OF the people in the smaller centers of
population being to large extent sup
piled from the immediate neighborhood,
and they take less per capita of that
grown in other climates than their own.
What they do take of the latter is mostly
obtained from the dealer in the city, and
in this respect Chicago drives a tremend-
ously large business in catering to the
truck wants of the people over an i'm
portant part of the United States. In
reality the trade embraces much greater
variety and takes far wider range than
appears to have been included in the CEN
tly uff
vegetables, unless the melons be supposed
to belong TO some other category. The
merchants Of Chicago draw hither the
fruits of Georgia, Florida, the West
India Islands, and Central America, the
peaches and berries of Illinois and
Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, and Missouri,
apples, grapes, and pears from New
York State, strawberries from Balti-
more, oranges, lemons, grapes, peaches,
and pears from California, and cranber-
ries from the marshes of Wisconsin.
And the range of their distributive work
Is almost equally wide. They send
Northern produce to the Southern States
and vice versa, and the extent of their
trade with the Southwest may be inferred
from the estimate made few years ago
that the railroad strike in that section,
by cutting off trade beyond ST. Louis,
reduced for a time the shipping business
of South Water street by nearly one
Few people have correct idea of the
effect this business has on transportation.
In the season for most Of the fruits
special trains run each day from the
producing districts TO this city, the
peaches and strawberries load down the
boats which ply regularly between Chi
cago and the ports on the opposite shore
of Lake Michigan, and hundreds of per-
sons are employed here in the work OF
receiving besides thousands who find en-
ployment in handling the material at
other points while it is being collected
and distributed after having been raised
by an army of workers. And, as previ-
ously stated, all this is of modern origin.
The vast increase to human comfort per-
mitted by the enjoyment of the products
of other areas than those which sur
round the consumer, and the concomitant
benefit to the many who in this direction
minister to the supply Of what may be
called necessary luxuries TO their fellow
creatures, is the outgrowth of the pres
ent generation, which, by making rail-
road transportation far-reaching, speedy,
and cheap, has permitted the inter-
change of commodities on scale that
would never have been dreamed of by
the people of fifty years ago.-Chicdgo
Intcr-Ocedn.