The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-09-10

annually, each head wrapped in a sep
 arate piece of tissue paper, as becomes its delicacy as a bloom.
 England got the start of other coun- l tries in the production of the cauli- flower, and the seed of the English variety has been until recently far and away the most popular all over Europe
 and in this country, too. for the neces- | sary annual planting. But history again denies us any information as to l the early progress of the caulifiower in the United States. The cabbage, its un- couth, plebeian cousin, came into early prominence on the stage; the caulifiow- | CT has, however, until of late years, re- i mained modestly in the background. its cultivation in this country at first amounted to little: a few farmers here
 and there produced for the markets, but 1 there was no general production.
 Even now there are cities, big cities, 1 in the Middle West and South, where the cauliflower is practically unknown. l And though in the neighborhood of many large cities, such as Chicago, Boston and San Francisco, there are ex- | tensive truck farms on which cauli- flower Is grown for home consumption, | there are but two distinct "caulifiower | districts" in tEe whole United States ! where the vegetable Is extensively grown and shipped to distant markets. These, curfously enough, are more than 2,4o0 miles apart. one. along the rich soiled borders of Puget Sound, near the Pacific, and the other in the low-lying farm country in the nOrtheasterly DOT
 tion of Long Island, within view of the
 blue waters of the Atlantic. In the Puget Sound district the cau- | lifiower has hourished since the rail-
 roads have opened up the territory and
 developed its advantages as a truck | garden district. Carloads of caulifower
 are now shipped daily to points along
 the Pacific coast and towns to the east ward. Still more remarkable, though, | is the caulthower- growing district on
 northeastern Long Island-a strip of country four miles wide and about thir- 1 ty miles long, extending from the little | dip in the land called Batting Hollow | to where the hustling little town of ] Greenport lies between Long Island | Sound and the waters of its own deep harbor. ... .-...-- ..-~. :-~- This is probably the busiest and most | prosperous truck-farming area in the country. An evidence of it's prosperity | Is the fact that 1t has two savings
 hanks with accounts of from $2o0, ,O0O
 to half a million. The farmers are not | at all like the unprosperous. struggling | agriculturists of the old type. They
 are up-to-date persons who make a
 business of farming and find 1t a good l business. Some of them ride about
 the smooth Long Island roads In their own automobiles. They have a pri
 vate telephone system with 325 sub
 scribers and a capitalization of $2OO,- | 900. One can drive through the district
 from end to end without finding a sin | gle farm that has been allowed to run
 down and go to seed. ~ Last year the cauliflower crop iu this ! k4-n ( O
 rels, and this year, according 70 the best
 estimates, 1t may come close to 19O 900
 barrels, or. in round figures, 5,7O0, 900 1 heads. A barrel holds from 25 to 40
 heads, according to whether the cauli- | flower Is cut long" or short" the length, of course. referring to the
 leaves. The object of allowing the | serves the flower. The farmer receivs
 from $1 to $1.25 barrel for the long | cut" and 50 cents more for the short
 cut" though at certain times In the sea
 son the short cut" brings as much as
 $3 barrel
 The Long Island caulihower Is ship ped now as far west as Minneapolis and as far south as New Orleans, and for the past few years the market has been
 steadily growing. The metropolis. with
 its millions of hungry mouths always
 crying to the country for more food to | devour, is only about seventy miles
 away from this section by the Long Isl-
 and Railroad, and affords an easy mar
 ket for all garden crops. The city de-
 mands about 5000 barrels a day, in sea son, or about 160.000 heads. The hotels alone are great consumers; a single ho- l tel, the Astor. requires 120 heads a day
 It was about thirty years ago that l one of the farmers in the district began
 to cultivate caulifower. He found q
 ready market for 1t in the city, though 1 at that time fG was little known as an | edible. The other farmers observed
 that unusual prosperity was smiling on their neighbor. and soon they JCgan | to plant oaulihower. until at the pres ent time there are about 800, acres of
 blue-leaved fields every year. This
 acreage would be greatly increased
 were 1t not for the fact that caull- flower absorbs all the resources of the
 soil and cannot, as a rule, be grown
 with success in the same field In sue
 cessive years.
 A few years ago most of the farmers
 formed themselves Into a Caulifiower | Association. By doing so they found
 that they could ship their product in
 carload lots and make corresponding
 saving in freight charges. Now they load the cars themselves and their agents in New York see to the unload | ing, and all the railroad has to do Is
 haul them, The Association also pur-
 chases farm supplies for its members in
 bulk, thereby making a great saving One illustration of the advantage of
 the Association Is in the matter of seed Caulihower seed Is not produced In
 this country, save at Puget Sound. and
 the Long Island farmers have paid as much as $s an ounce for 1t. The Asso-
 citation imports the seed from Ehrfurt Germany, and has succeeded in reduc- inE the price. in 0 few years, from $s2
 te sac a pound An aunea W1 nxe-