Okolona messenger. (Okolona, Miss.) 1900-current, 1909-02-03
FARMING In
THE SOUTH
GOOD PROFIT IN TRUCKING.
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The first important essential in Sc
lecting a farm for market gardening
or for truck farming is that OF land.
The practical gardener does not
look SO much to fertility as he does
TO drainage. location and the posi-
bilities Of improvement.
Given soil that is reasonably fer
tile and plenty of manure, labor and
intelligence, and he can soon improve
1t and make it an ideal garden spot.
Every time load is hauled to mar
ket the team brings back load OF
manure from the city.
Horse manure is better adapted for
garden crops than other manures, as
its mechanical effect upon the soil
loosens it and makes it better adapt
ed 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
on the land.
The most skillful gardeners are
using such plant foods as nitrate OF
soda, su.2hate 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.
F,,r ha f0rtfI.
ity on the garden or truck patch the
care and handling are important
items for the gardner to look after.
The most practical method is to
haul in heaps convenient to where 1t
! is to be used and pile in fiat heaps
and well tramped down, SO that 1t
will be well wet down every time
| it rains.
Some gardeners haul water and wet
the manure heaps down when there
is danger of them fire fanging or
burning.
Market gardeners apply all the way
/ from 20 to 100 loads of manure to
the acre, according to kinds of crops
| ludJ al Z W UO 6lOWA dAu W tuO COh0A-
ton of the SOIL. Many find it profit
able to keep a few hogs to work over
the coarse manure and get it in con-
dition to spread evenly.
The market gardener should be
close to the city markets and keep
well posted on the market conditions
from day to day, and be ready to
take advantage of the favorable mar
ket conditions.
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 a man to go into a
country and go into the truck farm
| ing business unless he has enough
Of his own crops SO that he may
ship in carload lots to the city deal
ers.
The man who has charge of the
produce must be an expert, for in
marketing produce much depends
upon the manner in which 1t is sput
up and the condition that 1t is In
when 1t reaches the buyers.
The most important secret of sue
cess in marketing produce might be
told In a few words: Cater to the
demands of the market; produce just
such vegetables as the demands of
the market call for and offer them at
Just the times that the people want
them.
TIL more favorable the combination
of these conditions the more certain
you will be of success.
Start in on a small scale and try to
fill a want already existing, rather
than go into the business heavily and
compete with the experts who have
an established 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 pack
ages and punches. Have all of the
vegetables in one. package as near
alike as careful selection can make
them.
Have everything clean and attrac-
tive and well graded. Careful sorting
and packing are just as necessary as
skillful growing.
Retail dealers like to do business
with men who can be depended upon
to keep their engagements and sup
ply them with the right kind of vege-
tables 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 1t would read too
much like fiction.
However, these great yields are not
made by amateurs or city farmers
who have had no experience previous
~ in the business.
Among the sDecial crOna that ara