Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1908-12-29
GOOD PROFIT IN TRUCKING
Provided Man Knows the Busi-
ness and Has Big Market
Within Easy Distance.
BY W. NJ. KELLY, NEW YORK.

BY W. N. KELLY, NEW YORK.
The first important essential in Sc
lecting farm for market gardening or
truck farming is that of land.
The practical gardener does not look
so much to fertility as he does to
drainage location and the possibilities
of improvement
Given q soil that is reasonably fer
tile and plenty of manure, labor and
intelligence, and he can soon improve
it and make it an ideal garden soil.
Every time a load is hauled to mar
ket the team brings back a load of ma
nure from the city
Horse manure is better adapted for
garden crops than other manures, as
its mechanical effect upon the soil loos-
ems it and makes it better adapted for
small and tender crops.
At all times of the year when the
teams are not employed on the farm
they are kept busy hauling manure
from the city to the compost heaps
that are to be used the following year
on the land.
The most skillful gardeners are using
such plant foods as nitrate OF soda'
sulphate of ammonia or some other
chemical food to make the plants grow
faster or mature earlier.
Great skill must be exercised in using
these chemical plant foods and the
conditions must be right when they are
applied.
When manure furnishes the fertility
on the garden or truck patch the care
and handling are important items Tor
the gardener to look after.
The most practical method is to haul
in heaps convenient to where it is to
be used and pile in fat heaps and well
tramped down, SO that it will not burn
or fire fang, and so that it will be well
wet down every time it rains.
Some gardeners haul water and wet
down the manure heaps when there is
danger of them fire fanging or burn
ing.
Market gardeners apply all the way
from 20 to 100 loads of manure to the
acre, according to kinds of crops that
are to be grown and to the condition
of the soil. Many find it profitable to
keep a few hogs to work over the
coarse manure and get it in condition
to spread evenly.
The market gardener should be close
to the city markets and keep we'll post
ed on the market conditions from day
to day and be ready to take advan-
tage of the favorable market condi-
tons.
The truck farmer should be in some
community where large amount OF
truck is grown and where buyers are
attracted by the quality and quantity
produced.
1t seldom pays man to so into
country and go into the truck farming
business unless he has enough of his
own crops so that he may ship in car
load lots to the city dealers.
The man who has charge of the prod
uce must be an expert, for in market
Ing produce much depends upon the
manner in which it is put up and the
condition that it is in when it reaches
the buyers.
The most important secret of success
in marketing produce might be told in
a few words: Cater to the demands
: of the market; produce just such veg
etables as the demands of the market
call for and offer them at just the
times that the people want them.
The more favorable the combination
of these conditions the more certain
you will be Of success
Start in on small scale and try to
go into the business heavily and COM
pete with the experts who have an es-
tablished trade.
Don't try to educate peoples indi-
vidual tastes, but plan your crops so
that they will meet the demands of the
most critical buyers.
In packing your vegetables strive to
have uniform quality in all packages
and punches. Have all of the vegeta-
bles in one package as near alike as
careful selection can make them.
Have everything clean and attractive
and well graded. Careful sorting and
packing are just as necessary as skill
full growing.
Retail dealers like to do business
with men who can be depended upon
to keep their engagements and supply
them with the right kind of vegetables
regardless of the weather and other
conditions.
1t is not the purpose of this article
to explain what some skilled gardener
has accomplished in growing some
special crop, for it would read too
much like fiction.
However, these great yields are not
made by amateurs or city farmers who
have had no previous experience in
the business.
Among the special crops that are
adapted for the truck farmer to grow
may be mentioned cabbages, celery
onions, melons, asparagus, tomatoes
early potatoes, caulifower, turnips, Gu
cumbers and SO on.
Gardening, and truck farming as
business require unceasing attention
and plenty Of hard work and more
or less exposure to the vicissitudes of
the weather.