As a business, fruit growing is more profit able than farming, but the risks are greater. The element of risk has its fascination, •but un less one is temperamentally suited for this.sort of thing, he had better occupy himself with some line of work less hazardous, A big money-making crop of fruit is usually the re suit .of a combination of circumstances and Some of the conditions are not controllable. A good many of them are con trollable. The grower must have patience and nerve, for he may go along for a number of years with nothing but expenses and hard labor to show for his efforts. If in discourage ment he relaxes his efforts or his vigilance, if he decides for a year to omit proper fertiliza tion, proper spraying, or cultivation, taking a chance, as it were, when the time comes for the big strike his trees will likely fail him. If the grower, on the other hand, has kept himself keyed up and has done the things he should have done, he may in one year make enough to pay a handsome profit on his own labor and his investments for a considerable period of years.
Within the past decade great progress has been made in the handling and marketing of fruit. Gradually the producers themselves are assuming control of these matters and are thereby enabled to strengthen their business and increase their profits. Various associa tions, exchanges and other organizations have been developed for the purpose of standardiz ing the product, ensuring uniformity, a more equitable distribution, the avoidance of gluts, mutual help in transportation matters, and in the purchase of materials and supplies used in the final disposition of the fruit. Some organi zations have entered the selling field so that the growers practically control the product from their own hands directly to the consumer. The citrus growers of California are more highly organized than any other fruit-growing group in the country. During the paste 10 years the California Citrus Exchange has worked a revolution in the growing, handling and market ing of the orange crop of that State. The California Citrus Exchange is a leader in this field and has pioneered a way that has proved just and equitable to all concerned.
Vegetable Growing.— Vegetable growing may for convenience be considered under three heads: Market gardening, truck farming, home gardening.
Market gardening as a commercial enter prise has developed in this and other countries as a concomitant of the grovrth of large cities. The city must be fed, and as an important part of the food supply consists of fresh vegetables, it was but natural that tht production of these vegetables should attract men of energy and foresight, with the result that a very important business has developed.
As the cities grew, many of the market gar deners were forced to go further out into the country in order to find land sufficiently cheap to warrant its use for intensive cropping. Not an inconsiderable number of the earlier market gardeners who owned land within the limits were able to realize handsomely on the land, for the increase in real estate valises were rapid and great. The advent of the trolley car, the extension of good roads, the difficulties of sufficient quantities of stable manure in the city, especially from the street car 'com panies, the coming of the automobile and the motor truck have all profoundly affected this business. Being an extremely intensive line of work, and as every foot of soil must be used and doubly used, the market gardener can afford to continue cropping his land even when values have readied several thousand dollars per acre. It is not unusual for a good market gardener to take' from $1,000 to $2,000 worth of produce •from an acre of land in the course of a year. This is accomplished, furthermore, without the aid of glass or other forcing equipment or forcing methods. The area handled by market gardeners is relatively small, running from two to three acres to as high as 50 to 60 acres in exceptional cases. It is not uncommon to ,find men who have brought up their families, educated their children and put away something •for the future on three or four acres of land devoted to market garden ing. Handled properly, land devoted to market .should give a net profit of from to $700 a year per acre.
i The use of glass n forcing vegetable crops greatly intensifies the work. Some market gardeners :use nothing but glass, either as greenhouses or insoles or both. The principal crops' forced under glass are lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes and radishes. A considerable number of other crops are also forced, but the fore named are the leaders. Handled properly, glass houses may be made to yield a gross return of from 30 to 50 cents per square foot of bed space covered. The average will probably be somewhere from 30 to 40 cents per square foot. There are many acres of glass devoted to this work in the vicinity of our large cities, es pecially Boston, New York and Chicago. No late figures are available as to the extent of the industry. It would appear from the data at hand that from 60,000,000 to 75,000,000 square feet of glass would fairly represent the extent of this industry. Probably two-thirds of this glass is in well-constructed houses, the re mainder being in cold frames and hotbed sash.