ow 
~ 
Fig. 47. Truck gardening is a more intensive form of agriculture than cereal farming. It takes 
many acres of carefully cultivated land, as in this truck farm in the state of New York, to pro- 
vide the great cities of the country with fresh vegetables and to supply the demands of the can- 
neries. 
CHAPTER FOUR 
THE VEGETABLE FARM AND THE TRUCK GARDEN 
VEGETABLE farming is an important industry in densely populated 
regions, like the plains of India and China, or western Europe and 
the northeastern United States. In Japan and China, except in the 
cities, nearly every family raises its own vegetables in tiny, well 
cultivated plots. Even in northern China three crops are often 
raised on the same land each year. One plot may produce early 
cabbages, followed by melons, and then by radishes; another may 
give a crop of winter wheat, then onions, and finally late cabbages. 
In western Europe and the northeastern United States the number 
of gardens is relatively less than in Japan and China, for a smaller 
percentage of the people practice agriculture, even in the villages. 
For this reason, and because so many people live in great cities, 
it is profitable for the farmers to raise far more vegetables than 
they consume themselves. 
Truck gardening. Raising vegetables for a city population is 
called fruck gardening. From spring till fall the local truck gar- 
deners send to the great cities a constant stream of fresh vegetables. 
Almost every kind of conveyance is used, from the leisurely farm 
wagon to the speedy motor truck and the fast express train. The 
vegetables are sold in the great city markets or at the corner grocery, 
or are peddled from house to house. Many of them lose their fresh- 
ness and much of their value long before they reach the consumer. 
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