The suburban citizen., 1902-01-18
GOTHAMS BIG GARDEN
IT REACHES NOW TO FLORIDA
AND THE PACIFIC.


from Florida, and on December IL
from California There are, in fact,
comparatively few green vegetables
that cannot now be had the year
round, grown in the open air, some
where within the borders Of our own
country.
"When this all-the-year.trade in green
vegetables began to assume considera-
Lle proportions, fifteen or twenty years
or so ago, green peas were the great
early vegetable luxury, but now we
have beans and squash and so on, just
the same In midwinter as in midsum-
mer, If one wants TO pay for them.
As to the cost Of these things, ii is
now only about half what 1t once was,
and The consumption Of them has enor-
mously increased
Things that were once considered
high luXuries and were consumed by
comparatively few, are now eaten by
many people. The greatly increased
demand resulted years ago in enor-
mously increased production, and that
in vastly improved facilities for trans
portation. And the methods in ship
ping have in recent years been very
greatly improved, though here there is
room for great improvement yet.
Florida is the most advanced among
the Eastern seaboard States In this
respect. She sends stuff in such con-
dition and in such packages that it
comes in good order and can all be
sold after it gets here; no waste.
There's money in this way Of doing
business. OF course there are shippers
in other States as well, that send their
stuff to market in perfect shape, but
yet Florida is on the whole now the
most advanced in the art of shipping.
"a comprehensively novel thing in
this business consists in the practice,
which has sprung up within six or
eight years, Of working the latitudes
both ways. Formerly when we had
had the last Of thing, grown at the
North, in the early autumn, we waited,
with blank SPACE intervening, for the
next of this TO come from the far
South, in the winter. But now after
finishing at the North, we begin again
at Norfolk, where the temperature
conditions still permit with crops
planted just to meet this requirement.
"These fall crops from this mid-re-
gion help us through that season I'M
til we begin to get things from the far
South, which we now get earlier than
ever, and thus the gap is closed and
there is no season in which we do not
get open-air-grown green vegetables of
some kinds.
'All this is trde Of many green fruits
as well, which we now get the year
round or in greatly extended seasons
These fruits come, it may be, from
California, or from the various States
along the Atlantic coast. On tnis sea-
board the Florida fruit is first, and
fruit ripens with the advancing sun
in one State after another, farther and
farther North until, with the summer
sun falling here, we get them from
our old-time and once virtually exclu-
sive local and nelghborlng sources Of
supply.
"These early fruits, like the early
vegetables, are now cheaper than they
once were, and for the same reasons.
and yet some of them, as for example,
January strawberries, are still beyond
slender purses. On the other hand,
some of them have now been brought
within the reach Of all; as for exam
pie, the noble peaches that in good
years we get in such splendid profus-
ion from Georgia, weeks, If not
months, before we had even begun to
dream Of peaches In the old days, and
this fine and beautiful fruit is so plen-
tiful that it Is sold for little If anything
above ordinary prices. And all this
Georgia peach business has come about
practically with half a dozen years.
Coming back to green vegetables
for just a minute, one among those not
now supplied the year around is that
decided luxury. green corn; though
the period through which this may be
had is steadily lengthenlng, and 1t ex-
tends now, in fact, from February to
frost. Corn will no doubt be- in time,
included among the vegetables to be
had the year around. The February
green corn that we get, which is not
much yet, comes from Florida.
'Then in May We begin to get corn in
some quantities, comparatively speak
ing, from North Carolina, this being
something new. Then, early in June
we begin to get South Jersey corn, and
then 1t keeps coming to us farther and
farther north till we begin to get 1t
from our own actual latitude, from
Long Island and from North Jersey,
and New York State, up the North
River, and from various regions as
far north as the State Of Baine
80, you see, counting the present
green corn season, not as from Febru-
airy to frost, for we get, as yet, but
little corn from Florida, it is practical
ly from May TO frost; six months, or
thereabouts. New York Sun.
Government Helps the fisherman.
The German Government has con-