The Florida star. (Titusville, Fla.) 1880-1917, 1900-04-06
SUCCESSFUL TRUCKING.
Many Valuable Hints Given BY an Ex-
perienced Truck Grower.

Perienced Truck Grower.
The address made by S. II. Gaitskill,
before the Farmers Institute, at Lake
City, was delivered extemporaneously.
By request, he has written out the sub
stance of his remarks, as follows:
/ shall use the experience of this sec
ton as a whole. l think truck-growing
Is and must be the small farmers bust
ness. To be really successful supervision
must be close, and of an interested ma
ture, and this is one business where ten
acres is enough. Men with small acre
ages, giving this close attention from pre-
pairing the land to putting the finished
product on the car, usually make some
money every year, and good money some
years. But when men attempt to truck
fifty acres and more, there have been
losses, as a rule, for quite a number of
years.
First-They cannot prepare their land
before planting as they should. Having
so much to do they rush over and have
poor seedbed, when half, or nearly half,
of the cultivation for any crop should be
put on the land before it is planted.
Some years ago, before the east coast
and south Florida were trucking so ex-
tensively, our section made good money,
and some OF our large choppers made
money. For two or three years just past,
they have felt that their failures were
caused by stress of weather, but without
this cold to injnre the crops there would
have been such immense quantities grown
that prices would have been too low for a
profit.
Taken in a small way, with close at
tention, truck growing will pay. The
shining successes of the past two years
have been with few acres tile drained
and irrigated. | have in mind Doctor
Porter, of Gainesville. With two acres i'm
cucumbers, he shipped nearly. if not
quite, 800 boxes Per acre, and only a
small percentage sold below s. per box.
lie was getting $3.50 per basket, when
other growers, without irrigation, were
not making expenses. The reason for this
was Doctor Porter had extra fine cucum-
hers, and it was so dry that the average
grower had very poor product. But tile
draining and irrigation cost some money.
The one great trouble is Over-crorping,
and not sufficient attention given to quail
ity of products We want to say that We
had lots of acres, and shipped thousands
Of packages; the result is the cratemaker,
the railroad and the commission mer-
chant all come between the grower and
his profit, even after the crop has ma
tured, To say nothing growing expenses.
There have been very few Instances
where fine product, nicely handled,
failed to make the grower money.
Ground we'll prepared before planting,
we'll fortified and cultivated, the crop
closely cullrd, leaving the culls at home
pnt up properly in neat packages, one
year with another, will prove profitable
To the grower, and the reverse will bring
Il loss. Too many truckers are in the
business tO get rich. and they want To get
rich on one or two crops. very much
doubt if two men can be- found in anv
section Of Florida that expect to grow
truck for five years. They hear of case
Of extraordinary success in some one crop,
and every fellow goes into that crop, full
the next season. Some Canta-
lnupe growers made good money last year
Now, think of the acreage planted i'm can
taloupes this spring IOu will hardly
find man growing truck, expecting To-
make il life business, and they do not
get to know one crop we'll before they
quit that and try another, and the result
is failure, rs it seems that everyone
wants the same crop that year.
III tuck-growing is undertaken for
business, a. it is in Delaware, New Jer-
sey and Maryland, and the business
handed down from father To son, the son
taking the experience of the father and
railing science Ia lis aid, which can east
~ be done now, getting all necessary aid
and information from slate experiment
stations ANA farmers institutes, then
truck growing will become a safe and
profitable business.
HreNard County Treasures Statement.