The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-06-13
CHATHAM'S BIG INDUSTRY.
Money in Catering 10 the Appetite
Of VegetaTianS.

Acres-The Crops That Pay Best
Vary From Season to Season-How
the Rotation of Crops is Managed.
Something About Truck Farming
and What 1t Requires to Success
fully Operate a Farm Like That of
Maj. Ryals'.
A glance over the work done by Mai.
/ G. NJ. Ryals on his truck farm in the
! past few years demonstrates that there
are mines of wealth in Chatham county
lands only awaiting pluck, energy and en-
terprise to develop them.
Maj Ryals' farm of 125 acres is located
| just short distance southwest of the
city, and is one of the best managed and
most carefully worked in the south. The
land is worked and planted at almost
every season Of the year, with the produce
! suitable to the season, anC by this rota-
ton of crops from season to season
the land is in condition to be used for a
certain crop at almost any time.
! 1T is a treat to go out and take look
over the place. Everything is kept in the
best of order, and the arrangement of the
farm and the care with which it is kept
make it a model that others would do well
to follow.
| GOOD PROFITS IN TRUCK FARMING.
A glance at the record of Maj. Ryals'
| place for one year will convince any one
that there are big profits in truck farm
ing, If the land is properly cared for and
! careful attention is given to the work.
| Last season the gross receipts from Maj.
| Ryals 1875 acres ran above S25, 900, about
| 20 per cent. Of which was consumed in
| expenses. This gives a net profit of some
thing like $1,000 to 5000, which is mar
| Uplpne CONSOLIDATING tho of the -
under cultivation.
| 1t is a peculiar fact that almost half the
! expenses in the operation of truck farm
| of this kind, are in transportation. Maj.
! Ryals says he pays out from 1900 to
| 200 every year for freight charges on
the truck he ships, and still none of the
railroads give him free pass. The freight
on barrels and barrel crates to north
ern points runs from 43 cents by
steamer to 6S and 90 cents by rail
| On the small crates the freight charges
range from % cent to 40 cents. AT this
rate it takes a great deal of truck to re-
quire the payment of $1,000 freight
charges, and yet it is all done by little
| over 100 acres of land.
HOW THE CROPS RUN.
Last year the cucumbers were the best
crop raised on Mai. Ryals' place. Pota-
| toes were plentiful, but sold at rather
| low prices The cucumber crop, how
ever, made up for the loss. Cabbage,
beans, tomatoes, beets and carrots sold
fairly we'll, and while no fancy prices
were received these crops all paid very
well.
This year, however, potatoes have been
| the leading crop, and up to date Mai.
Ryals has shipped 4, $50 barrels off the
sixty acres he had planted in that crop.
He has shipped nearly 900 crates of cab
bage this year, also, and about 800 to 800
crates of small crops, such as tomatoes,
beets, peas, cucumbers, carrots, and
others. In all he has taken nearly 10000
packages of truck off his place, and he
estimates that the total amount will be at
least $4,000 packages, 5000 of which are
| barrels and barrel crates, which have
already been shipped, and 5000 small
crates, many of which have also been
sent north.
Many of these shipments go by the
Ocean Steamship lines, and large quanti-
ties also go by rail, some to western and
some to eastern markets. The eastern
markets are, however, the largest con-
sumers, and majority of the shipments
of the produce which is least perishable
go by the steamships
ROTATION OF THE CROPS.
The land used for truck farming re-
quires large quantities of fertilizers and a
careful and proper rotation of the crops
The latter is accomplished largely by
changing the crops from sea-
son to season as well as
from year to year. For example, Maj
Ryals raised a crop of cabbage on
one piece of land during the early spring,
later crop of beans, and now he has corn
upon it from three to four feet high.
Later in the season it will be planted in
turnips. Thus he makes one piece of land
produce three or four crops in the same
year, starting in next year with differ
ent crop from what was planted first last
year, depending on the nature of the
plant, whether it is a tubercle or plant,
such as corn or cabbage, the substance of
which is above ground
In another place he has planted corn
where beets were raised in the early part
of the present season. This
is done largely by giving
the crops careful attention, and putting
one in the ground just as another is being
removed. This, of course, requires very
close care, so that in putting in new seed
the other crop will not be destroyed. In
the fall when the present crops, consist
ing largely of corn, potatoes and tomatoes,
have been cleared off, the fall crops will
be put in. These are mostly turnips, cab
bages and a second crop of potatoes
Thus the work of planting and harvest
ing is kept up almost the entire year, ex-
cept for short season when the heavy
tender plants.
SOMETHING ABOUT THIS FARM.
When Mai. Ryals first bought this place
, not one-half of it was fit for truck farm
ing. 1t is his ambition, he says, not to
own one inch of land which is not under
cultivation or in use. In one portion OF
the farm he has large barn used for
: storing barrels and as packing house.
Now the entire farm of 1876 acres, with
the exception of a very small portion of it,
is under cultivation, and these few acres
will be cleared up and ready for crops by
next year or the year following. The
farm is operated by just thirty three men,
three of whom are overseers,
and twenty mules. With some
of the crops Maj. Ryals alternates
hay, raising all he needs for use on
his place and large quantity to sell, be-
sides making all his forage
The truck raised this year has sold
well, and the crop as a whole has paid
handsomely, Mai. Ryals says he has re-
ceived fancy prices, however, for very
few of the products. The truck farmers
have been very fortunate this year in sell
| ing all of their produce so far made and
very good prices have been paid In one
or two cases where the railroads have
been at fault in making slow shipments
some of the producers have met with
slight losses from the decayof vegetables