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t those peoples or nations who employ vegetables and fruits in abundance, other things being equal, will be most fit to survive and must outstrip others less fortunately situated. We may for this reason alone look forward to the increasing importance of vegetable growing and fruit raising; but there is a more obvious and perhaps more direct reason. There is in the production of vegetables, at least, a method of satisfying the dietetic needs of an increasing population. The employment of a part of the area now in cereals and forage crops for the production of potatoes, cabbages, legumes, roots and tomatoes is one of the most ready means of increasing the food supply. Whether such substitution will be advantageous to the human race depends, however, not so much upon the food returns from a given area of land as upon the products from a given amount or unit of labor. KINDS OF HORTICULTURE In that form of intensive agriculture to which is given the designation horticulture, there may be recognized several more or less distinct divisions, as fruit growing, market gardening, truck farming and floriculture. Each has its own special problems, based upon conditions of culture and market. While, as in all classifications, there is more or less overlapping, the tendency is for them to become more and more distinct. The market gardener is the producer of vegetables for a local market, while the truck farmer produces similar products for a larger or wider distribution. The former grows a great variety of products, disposing of them in relatively small quantity, not infrequently directly to the consumer. The latter raises a few highly specialized crops which he sells in gross, usually through a commission merchant. Truck farming has developed since 1860, in consequence of the growth of large cities, which require enormous supplies of vegetables of fairly uniform quality, and on account of the continuous demand for fresh vegetables as nearly as possible throughout the year. Watermelons and sweet potatoes can be raised in the southern states and laid down in New York City or Boston more cheaply than they can be raised in the suburbs of these cities, and, what is equally important, they will be of superior quality. The extension of railway facilities, the introduction of refrigerator cars and the building of cold storage plants has made it possible to grow in one climate products to be consumed in another. C
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