CHOICE OF LOCATION.
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 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.
[Illustration: Reproduction of a Photograph taken in Dock Street
Wholesale Market, Philadelphia.]
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.