Almost every farm has a choice spot for a garden, some favored location where the soil is warm and mellow, and where, perhaps, shelter is afforded by hill or woodland. Such a spot, especially if it can be artificially irrigated, is capable of great things in the way of growing truck.

The place of all others, if it can be had, is a rich meadow bank, on ground low enough for gravity irrigation and yet high enough to be out of the way of floods. Such a location is by no means rare. There are countless acres fulfilling these conditions, and every acre thus situated is capable of yielding in vegetables twenty-fold its value as pasturage.

Such a meadow needs a few lines of underdrains and an irrigating ditch along the highest feasible level. Deep plowing of low land will rarely bring up the sub-soil, and, after a good coat of lime, the application of manure may be carried to almost any extent, with good results assured in advance.

If a meadow is not available, the farm gardener will do the next best thing, whatever that may be, in choosing a place for vegetables, trusting the rainfall and depending on manure and good tillage for satisfactory crops.

As to Growing.—The one point to be emphasized about the production of truck for market is that quick growth is necessary for quality, and, hence, for profits. Good soil, good cultivation and sufficient moisture are the essentials for rapid growth.

As to Marketing.—A point of prime importance for all [Pg 25]
[Pg 26] producers to remember is that price is largely a matter of taste and fancy. If the consumer can be attracted by the good appearance of vegetables or fruit, a sale is certain to be made. It will pay handsomely to keep at home all medium or second-quality stuff, offering nothing but the best for sale.

In the great wholesale and retail markets of Philadelphia, New York and Boston good stuff always moves quickly at fair prices, while poor stuff begs for buyers at rates yielding no profit to anybody. The wholesaler is frequently blamed for failure to obtain good prices when the fault is really with the producer, and is chargeable to poor stuff or poor packing.

There is a good business opening everywhere for truckers who will ship only first-class stuff in new packages. Such produce reaches what is known as the fancy trade, and there is more than a living in it for enterprising growers.

Truckers who rush their stuff to market in an unwashed, unsorted condition, in old or unclean baskets or boxes, may make expenses out of the business, but they will never do much more. There is a premium on quality and appearance.