The sea coast echo. [volume] (Bay Saint Louis, Miss.) 1892-current, 1912-02-17

More tlan L fdcIOfloS-Iu
teresting Facts and Figures.
With the advantages given by seasons
two to four weeks earlier than any other
section of the South, this Gulf Coast
presents the best opportunities for
truck growers that could be DESIRED
and lust why the industry has not re-
ceived the attention it deserves is 70
our mind inexplicable. Any variety OF
fruit or vegetable that can be produced
elsewhere can be grown to pertection
here, and that there are good profits IN
the business is demonstrated by cor
respondent of The McComb Enterprise.
In a recent communication he writes as
follows:
"When truck farming is considered
as a competitive industry, it has no
rival, and, as labor seeks employment,
the trucking business offers more in
ducements than all others. Why take,
for instance, a strawberry crop Of fifty
acres: one acre will yield $50 bushels,
or 1900 quarts. The price paid Tor
picking is 21S cents per quart, or Sl2O
per acre. The sum paid for gathering
fifty acres would be $4,000. This one
crop gives employment for one month
to the little children of the city, and
goes into various avenues of trade. A
,1en-year old boy can pick fifty quarts
in a day, making $1.25 per day. Again,
take the bean crop of so acres; one acre
will produce $50 bushels, the price for
picking is % cents per bushel, Or $50
per acre. The cost of picking fifty acres
would be Sl,500, and a good hand can
pick ten bushels per day. The same
may be said of fifty acres in garden
peas. These three crops are generally
marketed in the month of April. Thus
we see during the dryest time of the
wear 50 900 are turned loose among the
very ones that need it most. Can any
factory beat this? Then comes tie
month of May, when work in the tomato
crop of fifty acres-pruning, stalking
and tving-must be done in hurry,
requiring about the same amount OF Ia
Dor and money, Then comes the busy
month of June, in which tomatoes must
be marketed. One acre of tomatoes
produces 260 bushels; the price for
picking is about cents per bushel, or
$50 per acre. The hands at the packing
shed get y cents per crate for packing;
one bushel makes three crates, and cost
of packing one bushel is ~ cents; cost
of packing is t215c per bushel; gather
ing one acre costs S3l. So we see by
the time the crop is placed at the depot
for shipment, crates all made here and
all labor done, we have about $500
more to scatter among the little folks OF
the town. Now just name one industry
that will scatter more chink with this
class of labor, and we will give it up.
Now would you think that 200 acres was
a big thing? The time is coming when
one man will have this acreage to ship
from.
"This is an age of competition. Ii a
stranger doubts this, just let him look
at the last issue of your paper contain :
ing two full pages of advertising for two
merchants. They are wide awake and
know good thing when they see it.
So if we give plenty of werk for all in
dustrious labor, competing in prices fol-
it, we find contentment as the ruling
element of the town. None can appre-
ciate these facts fully unless they could
be at shipping point during the busy
season and see the checks passing
around through the crowds making these
long winsome smiles on merchants
faces. All this money, coming in al
the time it does, serves to stimulate
trade and give fresh, new, vigorous
impetus to city that no other industry
can take away. Everything in the pas
teaches us that when city exports
more than she imports she is growing
richer. This is true of every city II
the Union. Still there are some marrow
little fellows who don't believe this
even when they pray they are like th'
fellow that thought he had a monopol!
of ali blessings. He said: sOh Lord
have mercy on me and my wife, my sol
John and his wife, US four and no more.
This is selnshness to finish. Poo
creature, you could draw his significa ne
In bowl of cold sunshine.
'aThere is practically no limit to tn
prohts TO be gained IN South Missis
sippi ia growing for market lambs, cat
tie, turkeys, caickana. vegetables an
su.sll fruit.