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