The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-06-03

l tatoes and beans are being shipped i out daily from the city or Mobile. | And each day for the past month l car load of potatoes has come up froM 1 the interior of Baldwin County to Bay Minette over the recently opened BY WILL T. STEPHAN. Bay Minette and Fort Morgan Rail- road for distribution in the outer world. From half a dozen stations within Mobiles commercial -arritory daily shipments are being made 10 the big cities of the North and West of produce raised along the bay front.
 Mobile lays claim ito be the most important truck farming point :n the entire South. l was earnestly assured by a produce man who had been in the business for a quarter of century,
 that the raising and the sale of pro-
 duce brought more money into Mobile,
 in these late years than did even It's
 cotton trade. The statement was that
 the market gardens about Mobile were
 of more commercial value to the city
 than was it's cotton output. AS for the
 volume of the truck farming business
 I was assured that 1t was much larger
 than which moved in and out the city of New Orleans
 The assertion might well be consid-
 cred true. The city is engirdled with
 chain of truck farms. A mosquito
 fleet of steam and sail boats fit back and forth from the eastern shores of Mobile Bay bringing the big output of Baldwin County where the industry is going forward in great strides, but where even though its large stream of immigrants should be continuous 1t will be many years before the interest can equal that of Mobile County of to- day.
 The picturesque wharves of Mobile. and their network of railroad tracks along with the big heavy black hulled vessels taking on cargoes of lumber, the smaller vessels drawn up along the railroads and the city wnarves.
 with noisy switching freight cars roll ing back and forth, are these days of early summer scenes of hustle and &C., ttvity. The little vessels that have
 made their usual early morning trip from across the bay are hives of in- dustry with their crews, alongside the negro longshoremen lifting out the
 sacks of potatoes stacked high in the hold.
 Shipping Vegetables.
 The sacks are piled along the wharf, beans and potatoes side by side. A perspiring shipping clerk with mark ing pot in hand passes along and makes two or three rapid passes at
 each sack. With their addition of hurried black lettering, the sacks are thrown upon wide trucks and rushed to tie waiting cars. And from the Mobile wharves they are rushed to Chicago and half a score of other cit- les north of Mason and Dixon's line,
 but Chicago gets the lions share of
 the trucking output from Mobile. And in these warm days when gar
 den produce ripens so quickly for the gatherer the freight depots and the warehouses of the many produoe-deal- CTS in the city are no less busy. The products of the belt of farms about | the city are being hauled in by wagonA. | or in the more remote stations loaded upon freight cars at convenient sid ings. Not only Is Mobile a great ship ping point for produce, but it Is a great local market. It may well be this for no city has finer display of vegetables offered for sale in the mar ket stalls and the produce stores. The
 daily array of vegetables so offered for
 the Mobile housekeepers IS most tempting and the feminine head of the
 household who does not buy Vegeta-
 bles in the local market has an dncon- Querable aversion to their use upon her table. Because of the convenience of garden truck, because of its fresh
 ness and because of It's cheapness the local market for vegetables in Mobile
 Is immense. It is doubtful If any oth-
 CT Southern city uses so much. The popular love for garden truck, however, only reflects the importance
 of the industry to Mobile. although It
 at the same time gives evidence for the excellence of the output, displaying as
 1t does the peoples confidence in the merit and the tastefulness of the veg
 etables which are offered for sale. The stupendous value of the city's shipping
 interest in the produce trade Is. how ever, that which attracts most atten- tion. This great business, which has only grown up in recent years, Is as- tonishing. Some of the figures, sls ev-
 idencing the size of the trade and its
 rapid increase challenge surprise.
 Take for instance the statement that twenty-five car loads of produce go
 out of Mobile each day. or that 12.OOO
 bushels of beans will come over from the Baldwin County shore this year,
 that the same County will ship over
 the bay in Mobile 25,000 barrels of po-
 tatoes when last year just 14,000 were
 brought over. by the steamboat and
 sailing vessels. Or take the single
 item of cabbages raised in Mobile
 County, where as has before been
 pointed out. the trucking interest Is
 much greater than in Baldwin County.
 Out of Mobile County alone, one firm,
 the United Produce Company, sold and
 shipped out 5O1 cars of cabbages last year.
 AAG SCaAOns
 The trucking season in Mobile is an early one. The vegetables sent out from the city reach Chicago almost IS soon as those which are shipped from
 Florida and they beat to the market the vegetables from any other section of the South. The shipments begin on
 April and continue until June 25. The season was unusually late this year and moreover, there has been due
 to the cold weather of a very late spring a short crop that will seriously interfere with the growers of produce if 1t does not entirely wipe out the profits of a great many. For many of the market gardeners were compelled to replant portions of their crops sometimes as often as five different times.
 The value of the different varieties of vegetables shipped out from Mobile
 are in the order named, potatoes,
 beans and cabbages. The growing of
 cabbages for sale in northern markets