Truck-farming at the South. A guide to the raising of vegetables for northern markets

Front matter

m-w vv

TRUCK-FARMING

AT THE

Preface

This work is written in the hope that it may be useful to my fellow farmers who are engaged in growing vegetables for the Northern markets. The instructions given, and facts presented, are mainly such as are not to be found in the few works extant on Southern gardening, and are those resulting from a long experience. When I commenced to produce vegetables for shipment, about twenty-six years ago, there were few or none following the pursuit as an exclusive business on a large scale. The consignments at that time consisted mainly of the mere surplus crops of the local market gardeners. The business has gradually developed to astonishing proportions, principally in the vicinity of the larger seaport cities of the South. One of the results has been that land within three miles of Savannah, for instance, has risen in value one hundred and fifty per cent, within the last twelve years. While the crops of the whole area tributary to Savannah, were by no means satisfactory during the past season, the aggregate quantity of produce was large. The following statement shows the produce forwarded to the Northern markets direct from the port of Savannah by the steamships alone.

EXPORTS (BY STEAMERS) OF VEGETABLES (AND ORANGES FROM FLORIDA), FOR THE SEASON ENDING AUGUST 31st, 1882.

New York . . .

Baltimore . .

Philadelphia.

Boston

VEGETABLES.

Crates. Barrels.

105,789

50,787

24,472

4,133

185,130

27,572

12,696

7,956

48,854

ORANGES.

Boxes. Barrels.

69,379

2,723

13,033

9,837

94,972

2,519 907 445 174

4,045

TOTAL OP PACKAGES.

333,001

The season's shipment of melons to New York aggregated 175,000. (5)

6 PEE FACE.

Of course, failures will occur in this, as in every other pursuit; but where favorable conditions of soil, situation, etc., exist, sober, economical, industrious, and intelligent farmers who attend closely to their business, can make this a most profitable branch of agriculture. As an instance of successful truck-farming, I may cite a case within my knowledge. Among the prosperous gardeners near Savannah, are three brothers, plain farmers from Effingham County, Georgia. They were without any special advantages as educated horticulturists, but under favorable contingencies, and possessing in themselves the above named desirable characteristics, they commenced to farm on their own account seven years ago. They had a borrowed capital of one thousand dollars wherewith to operate their first small crop, and make a payment on account of their purchase of land. They were not only able to pay for the land in full, from the proceeds of their crops, but have acquired in the aggregate two hundred and seventy-five acres, making at various intervals cash payments ranging from one thousand five hundred dollars to nine thousand one hundred dollars. Besides this, they have expended various amounts in buildings, and other improvements, and have cash on hand and a bank account. One of the brothers has also invested in railroad stock, and the elder of them has lately purchased a house and lot in town, for four thousand five hundred dollars, while there is not a mortgage, or lien, of any kind, on any of the property of the brothers.

TRUCK.FARMING AT THE SOUTH.

OHAPTEE I.

LABOR,

Owing to the perishable nature of the products, the areas at the South devoted to truck-farming must remain confined to certain limits. These will be near the larger cities and along the routes of railroads, by which products can be safely and expeditiously dispatched to market. Although truck-farming can employ but a comparatively small proportion of the labor of the South, it must be followed according to the same principles and system that govern general agriculture.

The negro must be accepted as the only practical solution of the labor question, and, notwithstanding his instability, he is the best for many reasons. It would be impolitic, even were it possible, to trust to more intelligent and energetic laborers from abroad, and mix the two races as field laborers. No dependence could be placed upon retaining the foreign help, as his greater energy and a" praiseworthy desire for self -elevation would soon prompt the emigrant, or white laborer, to change his status and better his condition.

Accepting the negro as the God-given instrument for the development of the agricultural resources of the South, while profiting by his general wastefulness and improvidence for his own good and our own, it should be the constant aim of every employer, who has the welfare of southern agriculture at heart, to elevate the laborer. The employer can, by strict justice, fairness and even kindness, render him satisfied with his lot, to the end, that, instead of being an irritating element of the body politic, he may become a contented and useful member thereof. Exceptional instances of self-elevation and independence should be correctly appreciated and encouraged as a spur to others.

The death of slavery was, so to speak, the birth of truck-farming on an extensive scale in the South- Atlantic and Gulf States; indeed it would otherwise have been impossible. I was probably the largest slave-owner, engaged in vegetable culture, in this section; but of forty-five grown negroes, twenty-six only were available as field laborers, the others being mechanics, house-servants, etc. ; and at no time could I have controlled more than that number of hands, and few, or none, could have been hired. At the present time there are in the vicinity of Savannah many truck-farmers who employ one hundred to two hundred laborers during the picking season.

Ex-Governor Hammond's prediction : that the negro, in case of emancipation would "seek the towns, and rapidly accumulate in groups upon their outskirts," has certainly been verified. It is the better class of this population, those who are willing to do some work, which supplies the truck-farmer with sufficient labor during the pressing season of gathering his crops. The table below gives the usual average rate of wages, without board, paid by truck-farmers in the vicinity of Savannah.

For men

For women.

5» ^ "»

5"~

•~5"

$1.00 feseS lie.

He.

le. lc.

Three baskets fill four crates. When boys and girls are hired the pay is at half rate per day.

LABOR. 9

A few of the most efficient and trustworthy hands, who are particularly useful during the marketing season, and receive an increased pay, are selected to care for stock. Some farmers pay selected hands five cents per basket and one cent per crate additional for packing cucumbers and tomatoes; while others use the gang of day laborers for the purpose, depending upon their personal supervision to prevent injudicious gathering. For cutting hay with scythes, men are allowed one-third the cured hay, to be bought (at option of the hand or not, as may be agreed upon), by the employer at four dollars per rack-load of about eight hundred pounds.

The hours of labor are from sunrise to sunset, with variable allowances for meals during the different seasons of the year.

During the shipping season there is no fixed time for breaking off work; but extra pay is generally allowed in case of much night work.

If the hands are made to bestir themselves properly during their work, it is not unreasonable they should expect that the employer will not delay, or hesitate, in delivering compensation. Apart from considerations of justice, it is considered his policy to pay promptly after breaking off work on Saturday and before the stores are closed. Hands of the better order, and these are to be encouraged, may be depended upon to present themselves on Monday morning, whether in funds or not; but by far the greater majority will require time on Monday to get rid of their money, if they have had no opportunity of so doing Saturday evening and night, and will be absent at roll-call.

According to the report .of the Agricultural Department of 1879, the latest authority at command, the average rate of wages paid, without board, in the interior of Georgia, was ten dollars and seventy-three cents per month.

CHAPTEK II.

SOIL AND ITS PREPARATION. .

The requisites the truck-farmer must have in view in selecting a location, are cheap, safe, and expeditious transportation of produce to market, convenience for procuring manure, a soil adapted to the crops he wishes to grow, and sanitary surroundings. Other conditions being the same, water carriage is preferable to that by wagon. If in the selection of the land, one is confined to a single soil, he should select one consisting of a mixture of organic and inorganic matter; a light, deep, sandy loam, with plenty of humus, or vegetable matter. Experience has shown that, without this, crops will not yield as well in proportion to the quantity of manure applied. Locations in the immediate vicinity of the larger coast cities, offering the best facilities in the way of transportation and manure, are in the possession of market gardeners, and such lands are generally highly fertile. The truck-farmer requiring a larger area is compelled to locate several miles beyond the cor]3orate limits, on the line of a railroad, or on the banks of a navigable stream. The farm will often be one, the fertility of which has been shipped off to Europe, or the North, in the shape of cotton, by some planter, whose measure of success was gauged by the rapidity with which he could exhaust his soil. The renovation of the land will be the first desideratum. To that end, and the consequent production of remunerative crops, the plowing under of green manures, the application of fertilizers, proper preparation, careful tillage, and deep plowing, will be necessary. With every additional inch of depth in plowing in the first eighteen inches of the surface, the farmer gains six million two hundred and seventy-two thousand six hundred and forty cubic inches per acre of available soil, with its mineral ingredients, and constantly increasing capacity of gathering, retaining, and supplying plant food. The conditions of quality of soil and climate being the same, the productiveness of soils must be in proportion to its mass. Sir J. B. Lawes found five thousand seven hundred pounds of nitrogen per acre in the first nine inches of his soil. The Eussian black lands, which are held to be the richest in the world, have, according to Prof. Schmidt, within three feet of the surface, from forty thousand to forty-four thousand pounds of nitrogen. Several analyses of Boussingault showed from twenty-five thousand to thirty-two thousand pounds per acre beneath the surface, and a soil analyzed by Prof. Voalcker, in 1868, showed eight thousand four hundred and twenty-five pounds per acre. The practice of deep plowing will depend upon circumstances; a good, though shallow mould, or other soil, resting upon a sticky, clay subsoil, would not be benefited by being at once broken up deeply, bringing large, hard lumps of unfertile clay to the surface, and deteriorating the physical quality of the top-soil.

DRAINAGE.

Drainage, more especially underdrainage, renders a clay subsoil, when moved by the plow, more susceptible to pulverization, and in such case a thorough drainage would have to precede deep plowing. Underdrainage prevents the drowning out of crops after heavy rainfalls. It increases the fertility and pulverization of the soil by admitting air. It keeps the ground moister in a dry season. It prevents the washing away of the soil and its fertilizing materials. It permits the farmer to work his land sooner after heavy rain, and earlier in the spring, and it prevents the land from becoming sour in wet seasons. The total absence of water would be destructive to vegetation, for it is itself necessary to plant life; but undrained land is not merely wet, it becomes water-logged, and through absence of air, the plants are drowned out. When, however, water passes through, and away from the land, air takes its place, and also passes through the drains, and finds its way into the overlying soil, increasing its fertility and pulverizing it. The reason why drained land gains heat, and the temperature of water-logged land decreases, is the lack of heat-conducting power in water, or the fact that air can not be transmitted downwards through water. When land is saturated with water, the heat is expended in evaporating the moisture, instead of warming the land, and during this evaporation the temperature is reduced. Undrained land becomes sour in wet weather, and the formation of substances injurious to vegetation is encouraged. The absorbing power of soil is so great that ammonia and other fertilizing agents of water and air are arrested in their passage through it, thus enriching the soil; while the water on undrained land washes over the surface, carrying off into the water courses the fertility that might be saved. In undrained land, the passage of moisture, encouraged by evaporation from the surface, is upwards, whereas in drained land, the current is downwards to the level of the drains, supplying the roots with aerated moisture in condition to be taken up by them. An excess of water in the soil produces such a saturated state of the atmosphere, as to prevent a healthy perspiratory action of the leaves of plants growing upon it, and growth is retarded.

PREPARING THE SOIL.

Efficient drainage being provided, the land should be broken up and pulverized as deeply as possible. A mass of sticky clay will absorb a slight amount of moisture, but when it is reduced to a powdered condition, its absorbing power will be very much increased. One hundred grains of fine clay left for twelve hours in contact with a solution of caustic potash, the latter not filtered through it, absorbed one thousand and fifty grains of potash.

Soils have the power of separating ammonia, and other bases from their solutions, and of separating alkaline bases from the acids with which they were combined.

Soils possessing the greatest amount of capillary porosity, most friable and mellow, or, in other words, such as are in the best agricultural condition, will condense the greatest amount of fertilizing material; and the more they are pulverized, the better will they resist the leaching action of water. Soil in an improper physical condition may hold fertilizing materials in sufficient quantities for a full crop. It will, however, yield only a small percentage to the vegetation upon it, until it is made friable, and so becomes conducive to growth. Carbonic acid is one of the chief agents in this process; and in order that this acid may be formed, the carbonaceous matter in the soil must be brought in direct contact with the atmosphere. As long as the soil is in a compact condition, or is saturated with water, carbonic acid is not formed. During the recent severe drouths it has been observed that crops growing on deeply-plowed land have suffered the least, for the reason that the greater the mass of fine soil, the greater must have been the amount of moisture absorbed. Heat is evolved during the decomposition of vegetable matter; and the darker the soil is from decomposing vegetable matter, the warmer will it become. The warmth of light-colored sands is attributable to their conductive power. Half the crop depends sometimes upon the previous preparation of the land. Owing to the absence of a covering of snow and of successive freezings and thawings, fall plowing, so useful at

14 TRUCK-FAEMIKG AT THE SOUTH.

the North, is destructive of. fertility at the South and is not advisable.

CULTIVATION".

The land having been properly prepared by plow- -1 ing, and sufficiently manured, and the crop planted with regard to the capacity of the soil, the most important matter to the farmer is, thorough culture, or keeping the earth fine and mellow among the plants. Stirring the soil can scarcely be repeated too often during the earlier periods of growth, or until there is danger of injury to the roots or to the tops of growing plants by the cultivator. The ground may be too wet, but never too dry, for stirring; because the more frequently it is broken up, fined and aerated, the more moisture will the soil absorb from the atmosphere. This is an operation that should be performed after every rain, sufficient to cause incrustation or baking, which would prevent a free admission of air into the soil. The most obvious benefit of stirring the soil is, the destruction of weeds; for no crop can become remunerative, if crowded by weeds which deprive it of air, light, moisture, and even a part of the fertility of the soil. A war of extermination should be waged against weeds, although at times they become a necessary evil to the farmer who only cultivates the soil between the rows. Breaking the lumps gives free scope to the finer roots to secure all the available nutriment within the extent of their ramifications, as these finer roots are not capable of penetrating large clods, and thus may be debarred from reaching a large part of the food contained in the soil. Thorough and frequent culture of the soil admits air to the rootlets of the growing plant; it increases the capillary attraction of the soil, by which its humidity is rendered more uniform; by presenting a larger number of points of radia-

MANURES, THEIR KI^DS ATO USES. 15

tion, the deposit of dew, so. beneficial in dry weather, is augmented; the temperature of the soil is increased bj the freer admission of warm rain and air, and by the chemical processes thereby facilitated; and finally the fertility of the soil is augmented through the ammonia, nitric acid, etc., which are introduced with the air. The plow, horse-hoe, and cultivator are to be used, whenever available; but the hand-hoe must always be relied on for the finer and more careful work, when, particularly in the later stages of the crop, only superficial stirring is advisable. When plants are grown in a crowded state, darkness and want of air elongate the stems and leaves, at the expense of the roots and of a general healthy condition. The operations of thinning and hand-weeding are performed in connection with hoeing, to admit a free circulation of air around the remaining plants, and the sun is permitted to have an immediate influence upon each, developing the desired form, bulk, and other qualities.

CHAPTER III.

MANURES, THEIR KINDS AND USES.

Almost any soil may be so altered in its character by judicious and plentiful manuring, as to be made fertile enough to produce good and remunerative crops. Manure is the most indispensable factor for success in marketgardening, and must be applied in much larger quantities than in any other branch of agriculture. The gardener should never be restricted by a short supply to an inadequate application of manure, as the superior quality and quantity of his crops will generally justify an apparently lavish use. Knowledge of his soil, the peculiar requisites

16 TEUCK-FAEMING AT THE SOUTH.

of his crops, a judicious rotation, and his general experience will teach him, where and when he may economize with profit. He must not, however, gorge his land with manure, without rest or rotation, but seek to make it just rich enough to produce the most profitable crops. Should too much manure be applied, which, however, is rarely the case in vegetable culture, there will be loss of the most costly manurial ingredientnitrogen. Location, or want of facilities and means, frequently confines the gardener to forced limits. Those who are neither conveniently located for the purchase of stable manure, nor own sufficient stock to secure from their droppings a sufficiency of barn-yard manure, must have recourse to manurial agents to be named hereafter. Astonishing results are frequently seen in gardens near large cities, from the readiness such localities offer for procuring the best manures.

Agriculture being the foundation of the prosperity of every people, and successful agriculture being impossible in the present condition of the earth's surface without fertilizers, it has properly been said, that "manure, even more than money, forms an integral part of a nation's wealth."

When civilized nations properly appreciate the value of all manurial substances (as they will when their territory becomes as densely populated as China), none of these, as at present, will be allowed to go to waste, and the productiveness of the earth, and with it the wealth of nations, will be enormously increased. Progress in this direction is being made. Scientific men have pointed out the sanitary and economical necessity of dealing properly with excrementitious manurial substances. If, during the past century, the night-soil of many of our cities had been incorporated in the surface soil of the surrounding country, instead of being buried under the houses of their citizens, what would be the fertility of the soil, and what the probable benefit to the sanitary condition of the cities?

Manures are either organic or inorganic, according as they may owe their composition to the animate or inanimate world, or are derived from vegetable and animal matters of all kinds, or from minerals.

Every kind of matter which, when added to the soil, promotes the growth of a plant, whether by being itself directly taken up by its roots, or by chemically altering any heretofore existing constituent of the soil, so that it may be made available, or by physically altering its texture, may be considered a manure or fertilizer. Every plant consists principally of the gaseous elements, nitrogen, oxygen, and hydrogen, and of carbon in varying proportions, and smaller quantities of alkalies, earths, silica, sulphur, and phosphorus. Chemical analysis has enabled us to learn the exact proportions of the constituents of plants, as well as the composition of soils. If chemical forces were the only forces of nature concerned in the growth of plants, then by supplying the soil with exactly the constituents in definite quantities, which chemical analysis has shown it to lack for the full maturity of any given agricultural crop, rules and formulas could be devised, so as to insure regularly the maximum yields of all crops. But the changes, not yet fully understood, constantly going on within the soil and upon its surface in contact with the atmosphere; the mutual chemical reactions of the various soils and fertilizing materials, and the vital actions of plants, with their influence upon the soil in which they grow, perhaps even upon the surrounding air, still more inexplicable and wonderful, together with the contingencies of weather, render it impossible to formulate any such rules. Exclusive of the crushing effects of glaciers and other agencies, under the gradual influence of water and the atmosphere, the surface of the rocks have become sufficiently pulverized

18 TSUCK-EAEMIKG AT THE SOUTH.

and comminuted to support lichens and other of the lowest forms of vegetation, which, by their decay increased the film of soil. These were followed, by plants of a higher organization, successive generations preparing for those which followed them. Thus organic constituents accumulated, until, in time, every arable soil contained in varying proportions every element of plant food. The variations are such, however, that a soil in its natural or original condition may be more or less deficient in one or other constituent, and therefore be better adapted for one crop than another. Finding from experience or analysis, which of the principal constituents is, absent in a soil, we may supply it by the application of a special fertilizer for the production of a particular crop.

Humus, or vegetable matter undergoing decay, which gives the dark color to fertile soils, disintegrates mineral substances, supplies large quantities of carbonic acid, ammonia, and nitrates, and is indispensable to fertility; and yet the direct absorption of humic matters into plants is by no means so well established, as not to be a mooted question between the best chemical authorities and vegetable physiologists.

Ammonia and nitric acid have been shown to be present in the air; but it is generally held that the soil must absorb these, or they must be conveyed to it in rain water, before they can be generally appropriated by plants. Yet Peters and Sachs proved, experimentally, that a bean plant grew and flourished by direct absorption of ammonia through its foliage alone; but they failed with every plant but the bean, which, like our cow pea, is a leguminous plant. Chemical analysis shows that the leguminosee are richer in nitrogenous matter than any other family of plants, and yet we know that our cow pea will grow on the poorest soil, deriving its nourishment in part from the atmosphere. Ozone, or active oxygen, is emitted by plants, and the more abundant the foliage, the greater the quantity. By the action of this ozone, the nitrogen of the air may be converted into nitric acid. Perhaps the cow pea, the clover, etc., are more active in this respect than any other plants.

These preliminary observations bring me to the first and most simple and cheapest manner of conveying fertility to the soil.

GREEN MANURING.

As soon as life is extinct, all organic substances begin to decay, and the richer these substances are in albuminoids, or such as contain nitrogen, the better are they adapted for fertilizing, and the more rapid will be the process of decay. Under like circumstances, albuminoids of animal origin will decompose more rapidly than those of vegetable origin. All green succulent plants containing saccharine and mucilaginous matters and woody fibre, ferment readily, hence the advantage of plowing in green crops, whether of natural growth, or sown for the purpose. No plant is better adapted to be used at the South for restoring fertility by green manuring than our cow pea. The analyses here given show it to be rich in albuminoids; it makes in our climate a heavier growth than clover in any part of the world, and grows on soil much too poor for a fair crop of the latter, answering thus both the demands of quality and quantity. When plants are in flower, they contain the largest quantity of soluble matter; it is, therefore, when plowed under at this season, under ordinary circumstances, that they will afford the greatest amount of soluble nutritive matter.

In heavy, impervious soils, especially, they should not be turned under too deeply, or else the absence of air will retard decomposition. No applications of commercial fertilizers will continuously prove beneficial without the presence, in the soil, of decaying vegetable matter, or hu-

TRUCK-FARMING AT THE SOUTH.

mus, and green manuring is the most efficacious and cheapest manner of supplying the land with large quantities of this necessary ingredient.

It should be practised by gardeners, irrespective of the supply of stable manure they may be able to command. But for those located at a distance from cities, and therefore not able to secure a sufficiency of barn-yard manure, green manuring becomes an absolute necessity.

It has been estimated that after the removal of a crop of clover and other plants, there remained in the soil, as shown in the following tables, a large amount of roots:

TABLE SHOWING THE QUANTITY OP ROOTS LEFT IN THE GROUND AFTER HARVESTING THE CROPS — ALSO THE AMOUNT OF NITROGEN AND ASH.

No.of lbs. stubble and roots (dry) per acre to a depth of 10M inches.

.ft

No. of lbs. of Ash free from Carbonic Acid, per acre.

9,678.1

8,921.6

5,264.6

5,004.3

3,331.9

3,520.9

3,476

3,222.5

3,120.1

1,991.4

136.4

191.6

65.3

1,201.6

1,919.9

Eye

1,747.8

974.6

Oats

1,444.7

Wheat

1,089.8

English peas

670.7 545.6

Barley

391.1

ANALYSIS OF THE ASH OF THE ROOTS IN THE FOREGOING TABLE.

i-s e

§3

>s

ZQ

OQ

Lucerne

Red clover

Rye

Swedish clover.

Oats

Lupine

Wheat

English peas. . . .

Serradclla

Barley

26.4

18.7

20.0

26.1

43.3

11.8

5.7

13.2

8.8

3.5

7.4

9.4

4.8

3.5

5.5

38.5

74.8

24.4

24.2

13.8

11.8

14.3

18.4

11.2

It will be seen by these two tables that the leguminous plants are especially rich in the three most important items: nitrogen, potash, and phosphoric acid.

These roots bring up from the subsoil plant food, and in decaying, tend to deepen the soil along their course. A crop of cow peas would probably have nearly as great a- weight of roots as clover, and in the neighborhood of twenty tons of tops. The latter alone would contain one hundred and sixteen pounds of nitrogen, principally obtained from the atmosphere; or as much as is contained in twelve and nine-tenths tons of barn-yard manure, and directly applied to the soil. Seven pecks to two bushels of peas would cost from two dollars to three dollars, and the barn -yard manure, if at all attainable, nineteen dollars and thirty-five cents, applied to the land at one dollar and fifty cents per ton.

ANALYSIS OF GREEN COW PEA VINES.

This and the following two analyses were made by Prof. A. E. Le Doux, chemist to the State Board of Agriculture, of North Carolina.

Water 72.87 per cent.

Albuminoids 1.85 " containing ammonia, 0.35 ; nitrogen, 0.28

Cellulose 15.27 "

Carbohydrates.. 7.86 "

ANALYSIS OF THE ASH OF COW PEA VINES.

Ash 2.00 per cent.

Magnesia 6.74

Phosphoric anid 9.58

Sulphuric acid 2.35

Silica 1.08

Chlorine 0.19

Oxide of iron a trace

Carbonic acid 19.70

By reducing the analyses to weights and measures it is found that

ONE TON OF FRESH COW PEA VINES CONTAIN

Water 1458.20 lbs.

Magnesia 2.70

Sulphuric acid 0.94 "

Silica 0.42 "

Chlorine 0.08 "

Carbonic acid 7.88 "

Albuminoids 37.00 " containing ammonia, 7.12 lbs.

Cellulose 305.40 "

Carbohydrates 156.20 "

Boussingault found that snow, which had lain for thirty-six hours on the soil of a garden, contained ten times as much ammonia as the snow of the same fall from a contiguous stone terrace immediately after falling, the mulch of snow having interrupted the ammoniacal emanations from the soil. The ammonia of the soil is constantly undergoing change, and fluctuating in quantity. This most important article of plant food, and most expensive, when applied artificially, is most abundantly absorbed by the soil in summer from the atmosphere, and being conveyed to it by rains and dews, and continually being taken up by vegetation, it is volatilized, evaporated with water, washed away and lost. Later and more exact chemical experiments have shown that the soil contains less ready-formed ammonia than was formerly