The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-08-24

and Norfolk are the centres of the
greatest trucking" areas in America.
The season is four to six weeks earlier
at Charleston than at Norfolk, the date
of maturity of crops advancing at pro-
portionate rate over the intervening ter
ritory, except that along the North Car
DINA coast nearly up to the Virginia
line. the season is but little later than at
Charleston.
Near Charleston there are some noted
asparagus farms on a strip of land
across the Cooper river and near the
coast. Two young Frenchmen, Messrs.
Alfred and Edward GOURMET, who have
not been many years in this country, cul-
tivate 400 acres in asparagus and 100
acres in other trucks" In one year they
shipped 100000 packages of asparagus.
besides 11,000 barrels or cabbage and
thousands of baskets of beans, peas and
lettuce. In the busy season they en-
ploy over 600 hands, and there are 100
families living on the place One of the
most valuable truck farms near Charles
ton is owned by two colored men, the
Noisette Brothers.
Truck farming in North Carolina on
any large scale is an industry OF com
paratively recent growth. One of the
pioneers in it was Mr.. G.. Y. French, re-
Gently postmaster at Wilmington. Mr..
French began some years ago the
experiment of raising vegetables for
shipment at Rocky Point in Fender
county, few miles north of Whining
ton. on the Wilmington and Weldon
road, and he has done from the begin
ming a large and profitable business. On
his farm OF 700 acres he raises straw
berries, peas, beans, potatoes, beets,
radishes, melons, cucumbers and all or
binary vegetables AS an ourgrowth OF
his successful experience, and because of
peculiar and specially favorable condi-
tions of SOIL this has come to be an
important trucking centre.
From Wilmington to Goldsboro there
has been in the last few years very great
development in this business. Faison's
a station just below Goldsboro, has be-
come specially noted as place of ship
ment for strawberries. At Mount Olive
north of Faison's, Mr. James A. West
brook has been conspicuously successful
i'm growing Strawberries Fourteen years
ago Mr.. Westbrook bought small
worn-out cotton farm of seventy-three
acres, of which only forty-three acres
We're cleared. The small buildings ON
il were in decay and it was practically
without fences. With this farm and one
horse and $1,000 in money, he began
the business of truck farming, making
Strawberries his principal crop. Com
pairing his status then and now, his
seventy-three acres of exhausted cotton
fields have been transformed into a
model and highly productive vegetable
and fruit farm; he owns, besides, four
fine fruit farms in North and South Car
DINA. valuable farm in Florida, an
oyster farm ON the North Carolina coast.
a grist mill and other properties, and Il
with the earnings of his truck farm. The
net cash receipts THAT is the aggregate
proceeds of sales less freight and com
missions) in one year OF this Mount Olive
farm, of which sixty-three acres are in
cultivation, thirty acres being straw
berries, will be not less than $4,000.
The net cash returns from strawberries
alone were $4,000. The cost of cnl-
tiyating, Including fertilizers,) picking,
packing and shipping strawperrles will
approximate 500 an acre, or possibly
may at times run as high as 1925.
Estimating the cost of the berries from
this 30-acre patch at the maximum,