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The Democrat. TERMS*-* 2 A YEAR, BAINBRIDGE, GA., THURSDAY MORNING, MAY 24,1883. VOL XII-NO. 32. 01 RE TRUCK, pbba»k which belongs HEOBfiCV ONLY. . iflw’s Yeatare Into an Lj field Mi Wfc«t Case *f It- *nrA b»*m* the Berrtatlea E/gp—.M-w I* Melnm »■$ In HjftiMf*. * 6 u Atl*® 14 Cogitation, # McKsk's May 6.—About six V out of Valdosta lives Mr. V Molkc. the first, largest successful truck farmer Mpa- . Jt p^at is tlic interest in the . juju-try of ,ruck growing L important has it become; 11 determined to spend a day Mr. McKee and from bis ex- and observation of ten n ptliercl lor the readers of (Constitution what seemed to L^resting or instructive. In il, the truck business is an riment with us. Here is -a i»hu can speak as Mr. Conk- ItouM say, from “the arduous (Oration of deeds done/ Unu-li a large gate, into a in which sheep [ftltlc are grazing—through Jlfr cate into a smaller grove Ihidi several horses are pastur «d through another gate handsome flower yard, up (! walks to a comfortable with broad halls and , well furnished and hospi- louking. Before you reach kous' you are met by Mr. Mc- iiman of middle age, sliow- cucumbers, packed them neatly and sent them forward. They sold readily at high prices, and I then discovered the secret of sncessful truck-farming, viz, offer only your best truck for sale. Destroy or use at home all that i$ peer. Pack neatly and value your reptltatioil with the commission merchants. “Did the business grow rapidly this year?” “Not the vegetable business. For years the man who planted cucumbers was laughed by his friends. It was only by repeated demonstration of the profit in it that others would come in. It is now pretty general and has spread over the whole of South Georgia. With melons it was different. The first year (eight years ago) Mr. Tally and I planted 12 acres each in melons and made 13 car loads each. We were afraid that this would glut the markets, so I agreed to ship to Savannah supply the eastern cities while he ship ped to Atlanta and supplied the northwest. I cleared $1,800 on my 12 acres and I think he did the same. We doubled acreage next year; others began planting and the melon acreage in Lowndes has doubled year after pear uutil now about 3,500 acres in the coun ty are down in melons; and near ly all South Georgia counties have taken it up.” COTTON FARMING COMPARED WITH TRUCKING. “Eight years ago,” said Mr. Mc- i Ree, “I was a cotton planter. I ilainlv in presence and man- J was p er }i a j)g a better farmer than is Scotch origin. His delib- J ^] ie average, and yet I was able to pi'.'ifive demeanor gives >tliat he is a man of force, phis studious and thoughtful shows that he has not been habit of reaching cou- Miastilv. Beyond this there of the furtive, haggard leftlieman who is hairasaed pbt or anxiety. You have you evidently a man who t’ii through all that and is t ease, and disposed to smile (scars. prr msTORY ok trucking in UKOIMUA. first truck farming in this said Mr. McKee, “was |hy Mr. Talley, my neighbor, president of our association, whap<< a few others, just 8 Fruits and vegetables already being raised in fa The brother of Mr. Elli- faisnow on the Savannah, i Western railroad, was "gin Florida and urged hi^ ‘r. then in the railroad busi- 1 Illinois, to come down and tint to got rates for his truck. Mr. Taylor reached this i he urged Mr. Haines to Jap a truck business along 1 of his road. Mr. Haines n ?> Mr. Taylor was put in r"* f was then planting I *n>i was very much discour- thought I saw a future in business and I planted a in cucumbers, peas and ero soon required to pre- treight on all we shipped. b°cn promised this would required, but the truck orida had met such poor roads were forced to Prepay. This virtually business up. We reason- ,f Veterans like the Florida * beating us to market by three weeks, could not e, r truck bring the freight there was no use in our °f our money by n £ .freight So we let our °n the ground. I had lumbers then I ever 0,1 or since, and had made en *- W hen I heard how rock was going begging , e % I went to Sav£ .. —.■ * went, wj ouvan- . Ppeued to see some of truck on its way to " as slouchily packed, , y> and altogether not hme m fu A . Sreat light J hurried home, se- ftve ral crates barely come out even at the end of the year. My land was getting poor# every year, and I was get ting older, and both therefore less able to maintain a struggle in which we were then but barely holding onr own, as far as the cash went. I was discouraged and thought of giving it up. About this time I began study ing the truck problem. I saw that with the same hands and plows I was obliged to keep for my cotton I could put in a few acres of vege tables and fruit, and did so. But I was so afraid of losing my hold on cotton that I began by pre paring my truck patches for cot ton, so that I could follow vege tables with cotton. I thus hedged against the dimunition of what I considered my money crop. As I have told you, I cleared some money on my truck, and I also made better cotton on my truck patches than I made anywhere else on my place.” “What did you do with your money ?” “I used it in preparing more land for truck, and in buying im proved impliments. In preparing an acre for truck, I charged every thing, including the fertilizing, to the truck crops, and I always cleared money on the acre, ranging from $50 to $600. It was then left in better condition for the cotton than any other acre on the place* I have frequently made a bale of cotton to the acre, on land from which I had taken early m the season enormous crops of cabbage orcucnmbers.” “So truck farming does not de crease the cotton crop F* “On the contrary, it increases it. My experience is this: Where I used to get a bale to three acres, I now get a bale to the acre, and the enriching of the land I always charge to the truck, which always pays for it and more besides. I get six bales of cotton to the hand, and the same hand manages the truck crops. I have only five plows now, and they give me twice as much cotton as i ever got to the plow before and do my truck farming besides. In short, with truck, you raise more cotton on less ground, and at less cost, for all your fertilizers, and say half your labor is charged to another crop.” “It has been a great thing for you then f” “It has saved me from a life of me independent and happy. What it has done for me it has done for scores of my neighbors. What it has done for us it will do for any others who go at it intelligently.” ttttE profit of trtuck farming. “What is the profit of truck farming ?” “That is a dangerous question to answer—and a hard one. It has proved itself very profitable with us, or it could not have grown so rapidly. Why it was considered undignified to raise melons or truck for sale, and the pioneer truckers were laughed at In spite of this those who watched it closest haye gone into it heaviest, and it has doubled and quadrupled and doubled, growing by its own work and forcing its own way. I do not know* of one man who has started truck farming and abandoned it. The very reverse is true.” To put the profits in dollars and cents is hard !” “Yes, I could say safely that I have cleared more than $50 an acre on every acre of melons I have planted in eight years, and this year I have 210 acres. I have averaged $250 an acre on 20 acres of truck clear profit. From present prices I think I will clear nearly $200 an acre on vegetables this year. I cleared 8610 on one acre of cucumbers year before last, and made a bale of cotton on the same acre the same year. Last year I cleared over $100 an acre on cabbage. These things vary. One year you hit it on one thing and one year on another. But I have cleared as I tell you, over $50 on melons for eight years, good and bad, and 1 am disappointed if I don't average from 8100 to $200 on veg etables. My net prfits for last year were $15,200, and hare in creased steadily each year since I began.” “This is a very handsome profit” “But it is not the money that I value most. I have enriched my farm. Besides the money I have taken out of every acre, 1 leave a surplus in the ground in increased fertility. My farm was 10 per cent richer last year—had 10 per cent more reserve in the the land—than it had before I took the $15,000 in cash out of it. Or, to make the contrast. Un der the old cotton srstem my farm paid me nothing and got poorer every year. Under truck and cotton it paid me well and got richer every year. Say that it was worth $5,000 eight years ago. I would't take $40,000 or it to-day, even if it were for sale. If I had gone ou impoverishing it each year with cotton, you couldn’t have given it to me to-day and forced me to live on it. So you must add betterment to cash profit.” HOW TO HANDLE 8,000 ACRES PINE LANDS “Now, Mr. McRee,” said I, “you have made a success of farming —you have tried many systems of planting—you have a large place here, and you doubtless have your plans for the future. What do you propose to do with it ?” “My idea is to bring my place to such a condition that when divided among my iotir boys it will make each of them indepen- dent—as well off as if I left them a fortune of $100,000 each*” “How will you do it ?” “Well, I have 8,000 acres of land. Of this 6,500 acres is in woodland, 1,500 acres cleared. Of this latter I have 400 acres ift truck and about 1,100 acres rent ed out This is the material with which I have to work. “The first thing of course is to utilize the 6,000 acres of wood land. This I shall do with sheep. I now have h flock ol about 700, which I will increase this lall by the purchase of 2,000 to 3,000 sheep, or more if I can buy them. Before that time I shall have the entire 0,000 acres inclosed with a wire fence. I do not believe in of them of choice drudgery and anxiety, and made^ letting sheep take care p selves and run oh [an open range. The sheep men of Colquitt and Irwin counties, who never see their sheep but once a year, are satisfied if the Hocks hold their own in iitiinber. With only par tial care of my sheep I have done very much better Utah this. The past winter is the hardest ever known here on sbeyp, e «nd my flock shows less than 50 sheep dead and 250 fine lambs to balan x that loss. I intend to keep my flocks inclosed by this wire fence and to put them under the care of a perfectly competent shepherd that I shall import. I expect to keep from 5,000 to 7,000 sheep on the range of 6000 acres. There is no better range in the country.” “After the sheep, what ?” “I shall then reclaim from my renters the 1,100 acres they now have. I think our farmers make a great mistake in renting their lands. While the rent may pay a pretty good interest on the in vestment, the lands are getting poorer every year. The tenant is usually irresponsible as to pay ment and to methods. If he makes the money he’ll pay you. If he don’t make it you can’t make him pay. He usually treats the land as if he never expects to sec it after the present year, and it consequently gets poorer every crop that is taken out of it. There may be exceptions, but that is the general rule. I shall therefore take my land out of the hands of renters just as fast as I get ready to bring it up.” “What will you do with it?” “As much of it as is needed I will put down in winter pasturage for my sheep, such as rye or peas. I shall turn the sheep on these pastures and let them enrich them until I think them good enough to put into truck. What is not needed for winter pasturage I shall put probably in corn. I havemade corn this year at a cost of 13 cents a bushel, and am going to make it at less. I sold 3,500 bushej^l&st year at from 90 cents to $1 bushel. 1 can make more money raising corn to sell at 40 cents a bushel than I can by rais ing cotton at 10 cents a pound.” “•Will you continue to raise cot ton on your truck patches?” “I doubt it I do not like cot ton. It takes all the year to make it and handle it 1 may plant a few acres of my truck patches in cotton, but mv policy will be to sow down all the truck acreage in peas or rye, and after the truck is taken off turn the sheep in on it, and in this way bring it np to the highest pitch of fertility.” “Will this pay you as well as planting it in cotton?” “Yes. Mutton commands twen ty cents a pound in Jacksonville all the winter. I could have sold 800 pounds a day in Jacksonville for four months last year at fifteen cents a pound, and it would have cost me only one cent a pound to get it there. As long as Atlanta, Savannah and Jacksonville Will pay me even five cents a pound for fat mutton I can beat cotton acre per acre with wool and mut ton, even if my land would aver age a bale to the acre. And then you see every time 1 take a bale of cotton out of an acre I have drawn just that much from my ground. When I plant it in peas and turn the sheep on it I enrich it very heavily and must add this increased reserve to the wool and mutton I take off it” “You propose then to bring your whole 1,500 acres of cleared land up to the high pitch P f “Yes, and instead of buying the material to do it with, I a ill use my flock of sheep. It is my pur pose to clip about 5,000 sheep an nually and sell the wool. In the winter I will fatten and kill such of the wethers as I can spare and sell the mutton in the neighbor ing cities. My fenced woodland range will be the home of these sheep, but I shall turn them in on my cleared lands, giving the preference to my 400 acres now in truck, and bring up the ether 1,100 acres in cleared land as fast as I can. The clip, the increase and the mutton of my flocks ought to and doubtless will, pay me several thousand dollars profit, and en rich my farm lands Without cost. I shall, of course, have some fine eattle, hogs and a few horses run ning on toy ranges also. 1 believe in raising everything on my farm that can be raised.” “And you will carry on special improvements also ?” “Of course. I flip just closing a war against stumps. 1 have studi ed the labor question pretty close ly and have long felt assured that the price of negro labor would be raised and the difficulty of com manding it constantly increased. I therefore thought it wise to for tify myself against it The first protection suggested was improv ed machinery. The objection to this was the stumps, which clus tered so thick as to preventits gen eral use. I moved at once against the stumps. I now have 800 acres of land in which their is not a stump to be seen, and I’m moving on my other land now. Nothing I have done has given me so much confidence as this. I can use on it two-horse cultivators, screw pulverizers and any sort of im proved machinery, and am com paratively independent. I intend to make my place as near perfect ai I can get it, and equip it with the best stock, Implements aud buildings that money can buy, if it takes all the profit of my truck farming to do it. An in telligent farmer can put his surp lus money no where in the world where it will pay him such a large certain and satisfactory dividend as to put it back on his farm.” “Won’t the 1,500 acres of truck be too big a farm for one man to manage?*’ “To properly manage, it is. But I shall bring it up gradually. My truck interest is first, my sheep next, my pasturage and com crop next, and cotton next, and my overshadowing object is to enrich and improve my farm. By the time I get it into condition, some of my boys Will be ready to take part of it and so it will divide up.” “You will keep your boys on the farm ?” “I shall let them decide that mainly, but I suppose they will stay here. I hope so. There is no life that is happier, more inde pendent,-freer from temptation or fuller of hearty enjoyment, and none that is safer or more lucra tive. I abandoned civil engineer ing, and a flattering position too, to come to my farm. I shall nev er cease to thank God that I did so. My land will give me every year, good or bad, all the money I want, and will carry in its soil every season, a big balance to the credit of my sons. When I die, it will be an inheritance to them that will make them independent and comfortable all their lives, if they will only let it do so. MARKETING THE tfitfCK CROP. “The one danger of the truck ing outlook in Georgia is glutting the market. Can this be done ?” “I am decidedly of opinion that it can not. I was much more un easy about overstocking the mar ket in our first year when Talley and I discovered that We had 13 car loads of melons each, than I have ever been since, We have had an alarm about this every season. I went to Savannah a few years ago and told Mr. Haines that I thought we would raise 75 carloads of melons that season. He said “Mr. Me Ree of course I want to see the business increase, and will haul all you raise, but if you raise 75 car loads you’ll never be able to sell them. And yet last year we sold from this county alone, nearly ten times that many and got better prices and better demand than eyer before.” “The markets open np with the advance in the crops?” “Yes While a bigger crop brings bigger responsibilities, it also com mands larger attention and facili ties. Why, when I commenced shipping melons it took me two days longer to get a car load to Atlanta than it now takes me to get it to Chicago. The freight to Chicago was then $210 a car. It is now hardly half so much. It is all a question of distribution, and swift schedules.” “But the increase of acreage has beeil so enormous this year.” “ So have the facilities. Last season we had §2 points in the west to which we could ship. This year we have 572 points. The talk I had with Mr. Jeseph M. Brown, of the State road, disclos ed to me facilities that in my opin ion will distribute and sell this crop quicker and better than the crop of one fourth the size was sold last year. The work of that one man will overbalance the in creased acreage, for he has an old head on his shoulders and the sys tem and persistence of his work is simply amazing to me. We knew nothing of what he was do ing, save what you reported, and he comes to us just when we need him, with every considerable point this side the Mississippi river be tween Buffalo and Vicksburg opened up to our direct shipment. In that territory is 16,000,000. peo ple, ol whom we can reach 5,000, 000 in an average of three days. With swift and perfect distribu tion of our truck, and nearly a million immigrants pouring into the country every year and the natural increase swelling this to tal, I have little fear of glutting the markets. In the markets our facilities have greatly increased. At first the commission merchants in the larger cities paid but little attention to us. Our patronage was not worth their special effort. Now it is quite different. The strongest and best firms east and west solicit our consignments and do the best they possibly can lor us. This makes a great difference. You saw how the freight men came to Valdosta the other day to ask for our freights* We Used to hunt the railroad men up, and it was very seldom we could find them. Now they look us up/ “You look, then, for an indefin ite increase in the new industry?” “I do. I see no reason why it should stop where it is—or any where near it It pays those en gaged in it—it is legitimate and pleasant.—the more we raise, the better prices we get and the bet ter demand there is. It seems to me that an experience of eight years would have shown ns all the dangers, except that of over-pro duction, which I do not consider a danger.” “What are the dangers of the business ?” “Principally greed on the part of the farmer that leads him to send inferior truck to market or slouchiness that leads him to pack it badly. We should all make a point to ship only the very best of our truck and to pack it neatly. It is much better to let the poorer truck rot on the ground than send it to market to discredit what else we send, and either disgust the public or fail of sale altogether. The farmer must of course watch the markets and pick the place he ships to. He should be very care ful in the selection of his commis sion merchant, for there is a very Important part of the business.” THE EFFECT OF TRUCK FARMING. “What is the general effect of trucking on your section ?” “There’s no end of an answer to that question. The most impor tant general effect, in my opinion is that it brings about the inten sive system of farming. We all agree that the greatest trouble has been the scattering plan of culti vation. The more land we could scratch over the better we thought we were doing. The result was the land deteriorated, our places went down, and there was general discouragement Truck farming has changed all that The truck patch means a little land well tilled. You’ve got to make it rich or it won’t Make you rich. “I’Ve noticed* when a Wan en riches his truck patch* and sees how touch better it pays than the old slipshod system he begins to improve the test of his farm. And even his neighbors who are out Of the truck belt; ate affected by it When they see him mak ing a bale of cotton on an acre from Which he has already etaken a crop of cabbages, they begin to wonder why they can’t make a bale to the acre without the cab bages. I think the introduction of truck farming raised the stand ard of general farming in Lowndes fully 50 per cent “With our people, truck has re lieved them of the dependence on one money crop. They have gen erally raised their own bread and meat, but having only cotton as a money Crop has been bad. This * gives them another Money crop; marketed when they need money most sorely, Incidentally it has lessened the credit business, and put many of them on a cash basis, where they haven’t been for a long time, “Beyond this it Will result in the establishment of many incidental industries, such as barrel and box and crate factories, canning estab lishments, pickle factories, etc. We need such things now. They will come in time, attd will but emphasize what I have long be lieved, that truck farming is the salvation of this section. In mak ing its own Meat and bread, it managed td hold its own on cot ton, but like me it was getting less ableXto do it every year, Trucking did for it whal it did for me. It gave it a cash balance and put it ahead.” Mr. McRee said that all along the M. & B. and Central roads he had noticed the very best trucking lands, and It is his opinion that the business will spread along these roads very rapidly, after this season’s bUsines is footed up, I Might fill this page With the in teresting experience and opinions of this pioneer in the great work. But time nor space will not permit at present. He would not estimate for me the probable profits on hk farm this year, as he prefers to give figures only of What he ha a done. His neighbors say that ko will clear certainly $20,000, and that it will take 400 cars to carry to market all the produce he will send. Don’t that beat politics or the profession ? --T-. ■»»», ..r • “It is probably trtie that Mr, Henry W. Grady,, through the columns of the Atlanta Constitu tion; has done more for the ma terial development of Georgia by his inimitable letters than any other one man in the State with in the past ten years. It is im possible, in a short editorial para graph to enumerate the many paying enterprises this brilliant S oung journalist has set on foot Jr his pen, Lost week he spent in the “truck” regions of west Georgia, and nis letters from that section have been published throughout the country. They hate been read by a million peo ple within the past ten days, and the Georgia truck farmer Will have abundant cause in the near future to thank Grady for his visit to them.” We copy the above from the Augusta Evening News merely for the purpose of endof*- ing every world there of. Henry Grady has done and is doing a grand work for Georgia. —That all great minds run id the same channel was clearly il lustrated an last Thursday by the contemporaneous appearance in the Democrat and the Atlanta Con stitution of editorials Upon iden tically the same subject, our con temporary taking almost the identical grounds and position assumed by the Democrat. The subject and editorial alluded to was that upon “The Negro and his Future” and it appears elsewhere* —Col. Marcell us E. Thornton, Proprietor oi the Atlanta Post- Appeal has failed, and applied for a receiver. A daily newspa per is a very expensive plaything anyhow—and besides the Consti tution is the only daily that pos sibly can make money in Atlanta, and it beats a gold mine,