The age-herald., 1899-07-23

etable crops in the mountain sections. The favorite spot, however, that catches the truckers eye is Jones valley, in which the heart of Birmingham rests. Here the truck patches can be seen dotted up and down this valley, some even extending into the city limits.
 In this valley all kinds of vegetables and fruits are grown to perfect success. Pota- toes yams, cabbage, beans, tomatoes, rad ish. lettuce, squash, watermelons, canta- loupesy caulihower, celery, turnips, beets, carrots, grapes, peaches, pears, plums, ap- ples, etc. The soil of Jones valley, with a rational mode of fertilizing, will pro- duce in paying quantities any kinds of fruits or vegetables.
 The physical makeup of the soil in the Birmingham district is, in most instances, a sandy top soil of few inches, and under meath a sticky red clay subsol. This land, if handled properly, can be made very fer tile and alluvial with only small outlay of money.
 The cheapest and most practical way to bring about this condition is sowing the land with COW peas and blowing them un- der when they have attained their growth. A number of other forage plants both summer and winter, are plowed under, rendering the soil more nitrogenious and alluvial and bring about the required re- suit without large expenditure for com mercial fertilizers.
 One of the notable advantages the Bir- mingham truckers have is the large local consumption in the surrounding mineral district. They are rarely forced to ship stuff away from this market, even during their best season, and a large part of the time they are not able to supply more than half the demand from local source.
 During this time hundreds of tons of produce of every kind are shipped in here to meet this deficiency that should be sup piled by the local truckers.
 The reason for this enormous demand is the fast development of the iron and steel industries that naturally follow such condition, and further Jefferson county has more common and skilled labor employed than any five counties in the state.
 This class of people do not have the time nor often the opportunity to trouble with home garden. Consequently have to buy their vegetable from the local truckers.
 The industry of truck farming has been largely promoted by the seed merchants of Birmingham who. fully alive to their own interest, have persuaded many a grower of cotton and corn to abandon their old pur- suits and engage in something that has proven great source of revenue to them. No more profitable investment can be made by one today if he understands tilling the soil than to engage in truck farming. I nave one truck farmer in mind who has al- ready sold this season one hundred and siNty-five dollars worth of cantaloupes off a four-acre patch. The crop is now about exhausted and the ground will be available for fall crop of cabbage or potatoes, which will be the third crop gotten off the piece of land this year, the first crop being turnips. The seed merchants are to be con- graduated in pointing out the way by which many a cotton-poor farmer has be- come independent by diversification of crops and freeing themselves of the foolish idea that nothing brings ready money ex- cept cotton.