The Louisiana Democrat., 1891-09-30
TRUCK FARMING FACTS.
Early Cucumbers Don't Come from bel
mutla. but from Cold New England.

Early Cucumbers Don't Come from Ber.
| muda. but from Cold New England.
| "lf ! could only get a corner on the
truck farms of this country" said
marketman witha turn for statistics,
or Gould if they'd roll both their jobs
into one. What do you think the truck
farmers pulled out of us dealers here
and there about the country and carried
home with them last year? Only a lit
tie over seventX-six millions and q half!
that's all! Out of this they had to- pay
their help, of course, which cost 'em
something like s9,5oo,Oo for they hire
$4,000 men, to say nothing of the 1O,-
600 women and $4,000 boys that help
| out with the work. And their seeds
| knocked about $1,5OO,OOO more ont Of
the proceeds, and they had to put up
a trifle of SlO,OOO,OOO for fer
tilizers. But after taking all that
| out they had good round $4,000, 900
left to put away in the sock for a rainy
day. Yes; you give me a corner on the
truck farms of this country and you can
have all that Gould and Vanderbilt
make, if you want it.
Speaking about truck farming
| by the way, there arc over 500, 900 acres
of good land in, the country that don't
| do anything else but raise garden and
| field truck for market, with Il capital
invested of over 500, 900, 900, and call
on 10000 horses and mules, and about
| 100000 worth of implements to help
do the work-where do you suppose all
of those nice, bright green, plump and
| tempting cucumbers you see in the big
restaurants and the swell fruit-storc
windows in the spring, before the snow
is gone, and for which you have to put
down good so cents before you can
| get one-where do you suppose they
come from? knew you'd say Berma-
da, or some other place down south.
But you're way off. These early cucum-
| bers come from a climate about us
near like Bermuda as California
is like Minnesota. Those cucumbers
come from New England, from the cold
and storm-tossed coasts of Maine and
| Massachusetts, and even from New
Hampshire. The growers of cucumbcrs
in New England get more out of an
acre of land than the growers of any
other crop in this or any other coun
try. They think nothing of netting.
$4,000 for an acfe of cucumbers, but
they only have 272 acres that they grow
| them on. OF course you will under
stand that these cucumhers are not
grown out doors. They are the prod
ucts of the greenhouses and New Eng
land is the only truck-growing district
where the raising of cucum bers in this
way has been made successful and
| standard branch of the business. In
other parts of the country the cucum
ber crop averages a net profit of from
S26 to $3.50 an acre, the latter figure be.
ing made in Texas, Arkansas, Missouri
and Kansas; but we never get any of
their cucumbcrs here. New England
heads all other vegetable grow
ing districts in returns for all of her
truck products. the least she makes be-
ing 500 an acre on watermelons, which
is $50 more an acre than the highest
price southern watermelon growers re-
ceive for their crop. AS matter Of
fact, the southern watermelon grower
thinks he is doing .ery well if he can
get net price of $3.50 a carload for his
crop, and car will hold the yield of
three acres. New England gets nearly
SlOO more an acre for her celery crop
than the crack Michigan celery growers
get for theirs. In the matter of toma-
toes New England finds no difficulty in
selling her crop for $500 on acre, the
next highest price being paid to New
Jersey and Long Island, whose tomato
farmers get an average of S165 an acre
for their crop. But it is curious that
cold New England should lead the coun-
try on early vegetables, isn't it?"-N.
Y. Sun.