king the men in gangs. Only
the difficulty of getting good help at their prices prevents them
from using twice the number.
However, the possibilities of putting capital into land at a profit
are still infinite.
What chiefly attracts the gardener to the great cities is stable
manure; this is not wanted so much for increasing the richness of
the soil--one ninth part of the manure used by the French gardeners
would do for that purpose--but for keeping the soil at a certain
temperature. Early vegetables pay best, and in order to obtain early
produce, not only the air, but the soil as well, must be warmed;
that is done by putting great quantities of properly mixed manure
into the soil; its fermentation heats it. But with the present
development of industrial skill, heating the soil could be done more
economically and more easily by hot-water pipes. Consequently, the
French gardeners begin more and more to make use of portable pipes,
or thermosiphons, provisionally established in the cool frames.
Competition that stands in with the railroads can be met only by
being near the market or having water transportation. Indeed, the
erect of water transportation in getting manure, and in delivering
the produce from the railroads, appears in the early history of
trucking. The railroads often crush out boat competition by
absorbing docks and standing in with the commission men. This could
be met by such cooperative selling agencies as the flower growers
already have.
"One of the earliest centers for the development of truck farming in
its present sense was along the shores of Chesapeake Bay, where fast
sailing oyster boats were employed for sending the produce to the
neighboring markets of Baltimore and Philadelphia. In a similar way
the gardeners about New York early began pushing out along Long
Island, using the waters of the Sound for transporting their
produce. The trucking region on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan
is another sample of the effect of convenient water transportation
in causing an early development of this industry. The building of
the Illinois Central railroad opened up a region in southern
Illinois that was supposed to be particularly adapted to fruit
growing." ("Development of the Trucking Interests," by F. S. Earle,
page 439.)
If one goes into the trucking business on so large a scale as to be
able to make deals with the railroads, such as The Standard Oil
Company has made, of course additional pri
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