Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1904-01-12

SpenQ all the money tney make curing
the summer for fuel to keep them
warm during the winter. Indeed, the
expense for fuel in the South
is comparatively nothing, and there is
scarcely month in the year when the
truck farmers of the South do not
have something that finds ready sale
in Northern markets at remunerative
prices.
The writer will aim to answer, brief
ly, questions that naturally arise in
the minds Of Northern vegetable
growers as to truck farming in the
South:
Question No. 1.-What territory IN
the South is best adapted to Truck FARM
inqs
Nearly all the country in West Ten
nessee, Central Mississippi aud North
ern Louisiana, adjacent to the Illinois
Central Railroad, is adapted to grow.
ing Of vegetables, but the section of
country where truck farming has been
especially successful lies between
Jackson, Mississippi and New Orleans.
Question No. 2.-What Is the cbarac-
ter of the soil IN that locality
Formerly the country above refer
red to was covered with virgin pine
forests, but the merchantable timber
was long since sawed into lumber,
some of which may have been used in
tine Northern home of the reader OF
this circular. After the lumber had
been removed, the soil was regarded
SO poor that the lands were for years,
considered as worthless!- indeed, $l.00
per acre was the average price of pine
lands in this locality, after the mer-
Understandable timber was removed.
About twenty years ago, however, this
apparently worthless soil, which was
simply sandy loan with thin clay
sub-soil, was found to be especially
adapted to vegetable growing, and as
a result thousands of carloads Of gar
den truck are annually shipped from
this territory to Northern and East
ern markets.
Question No. 3 - Wtdt is the present
/ price of such lands!
Much depends upon the nearness to
a shipping station. Within the city
limits of most of the towns between
Jackson and New Orleans, lands suit
able for gardening can be bought for
$500 per acre. The same quality Of
lands within three to five miles can
be had at $1,000 per acre, and in soAe
localities at even less. At greater
ldistance from town $500 is about the
leverage price.
| Question No. 4.-Do these lands nc.
lquire te,tiizers
Indeed they do, and the kind of fer
| tilizer that gives best permanent re-
Isultsis barryard manure. Commercial
fertilizer is used quite extensively ano
always gives good temporary results
but the vegetable growers, whose lands
are constantly becoming better and
richer, are those who keep few cowt
and other stock and care for every
pound of manure as they would for sc
much gold dust.
| Question No. 5.-What ca1ieties O
vegetables gro,cn u. the South are mos
ualuable for Shipment
Nearly every variety Of garden truck
can be'grown successfully and profit
ably in the territory under discussion
1t is in the South, however-as else
where-that some varieties are more
profitable than others. Lettuce
beans, radishes, onions, tomatoes
land cabbages are grown with profit
|Some years the markets are not al
good as others, but taking one yea
with another the net results are very
satisfactory.
| Question No. 8.-Abo,h ,chat is tn
average profit per acre ON vegetabless
| 1t is hard to answer this question
Vegetable growers average about thu
same as other farmers. Some are care
full in the preparation of the soil, ii
the sele ction Of seeds adapted to thu
soil and climate, and as result the.
always get a much larger yield thar
the man who carlessly puts in hi
crops and trusts the Lord for results
At Hammond, Ponchatoula, Roselant
and other points in Louisiana, may b.
found growers who have made from
$500 to $1,000 per acre in cultivatini
lettuce; radishes, from 800 to 800
per acre; beans, sl25 to sl75; cabbage
grown on drained swamp lands few
miles north Of New Orleans, are 81
profitable that only few years sine
one of these cabbage growers, on |
few acres of land, made enough mon
ey In one season to take his entlr
family abroad.
4 Question MOI. HoW About Shippi'l
Facilities?
New Orleans, city Of $50, 1000 In
habitants, and destined In the nea
future to become one of the larges
commercial and industrial cities In tn
United States, is within easy reach o
all the territory above described, an,
affords daily market for ever.
variety Of garden truck. Twent.
1 years ago it would have been impossi
!; BILE to handle, with profit, garden
1trAuk 10 ChivS1u Ind Uthvr Nvrths
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