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CE 038 968

Growing Vegetables. People on the Farm.Department of Agriculture, Washington, DC. Office ofGovernmental and Public Affairs.Mar 8237p.; For related documents, see CE 038 960-969.Special Programs, Office of Governmental and PublicAffairt, USDA, Room 536-A, Washington, DC 20250.Guides Classroom Use Materials (For Learner)(051)

EDRS PRICE MF01/PCO2 Plus Postage.DESCRIPTORS Agricultural Education; *Agricultural Production;

Agronomy; Business Skills; Career Choice; *CareerEducation; Economics; Farm Accounts; *Farmers; *FarmManagement; Farm Occupations; Government Role;Harvesting; *Horticulture; InterdisciplinaryApproach; Job Skills; Learning Activities; LifeStyle; *Occupational Information; SecondaryEducation; Technological Advancement; VocationalEducation

IDENTIFIERS *Vegetables

ABSTRACTThis booklet, one in a series about life on modern

farms, describes farm operations and some activities in the lives ofsix vegetable farmers throughout_the United States. The bookletvisits the tomato growing of Carl Schneider and his partners and thelettuce growing farm of Norman Martella, both in California. It thenincludes brief accounts of the operations of the potato farm ofFerrell Palmer of Idaho, the fresh and processing vegetables farm ofthe Bergums in Wisconsin, the Florida vegetable farm of JohnnieGoodnight, and the small vegetable farm of William James of NorthCarolina. The booklet then describes a rare market auction in Faison,North Carolina. For each of these operations, the booklet includessome information about the skills needed, the economics involved, andthe daily lives of the farmers and their families. Although thebooklet focuses on vegetable growing, it includes discussion of majortopics that are common to all of the booklets: (1) farming as abusiness, (2) the impact of technology on farming, (3) the increasingspecialization in farming, (4) the role of government in agriculture;(5) the diversity in farming, (6) the interdependence betweenagriculture and the rest of the economy, and (7) the way of life offarmers and their families. The booklet is illustrated with black andwhite photographs. (KC)

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IN TR ODUC VON

Vegetables are_ grown__everywhere in the UnitedStateseven in desertswhen there is irrigation.Many of them are grown inhomg, gardens. This booklethowever, describes growingvegetable.; in commercialquantities.

Further, People on theFarm: Growing Vegetablestouches u_pon_the_productionof a few important veget-ables. There are several oth-ers.

Near Woodland, Calif., CarlSchneider and his partnersgrow tomatoes to be pro-cessed into _the catsup youpour over hamburgers andfrench fries, the tomatosauce you devour on pizzasand an uncounted number ofothelr foods:

Since California devotesmore than twice as muchland to growing vegetablesas any other State; it wasinevitable that this bookletshould include anothervegetable producer from Cal-ifornia. Norman Martell.% ofSalinas, represents growerswho produce the lettuce forsalads eaten throughout theUnited Stpte.s._

Potatoes are a basic veget-able. Idaho produces Jarmore than any other State.So this booklet includes abrief visit with Ferrell Palmerat Aberdeen, Idaho.

After California, _which_pro-duces both fresh and pm-ceasing vegetables, Wiscon-sin produces the most pro-cessing vegetables. So Peo-ple on the Farm: GrowingVegetables includes a visitwith Bob Bergum, a formerprofessional football playerwho returned to farming near

Rid, WiS.About half the Nation's

winter supply of fresh veget-ables Cornea from Floridathe other half from Mokito.This booklet describes aFlorida vegetable grower,Johnnie Goodnight, of lm=moka lee, Fla.

Finally, there are the smallfarmers of North Carolinawho fill an impbetant niche inthe marketing of some veget-ables in June and July, whenthe big producing States areeither shutting down orhaven't started up yet Th!sbooklet visits one of them;William James of Bowden,and goes to a rare auctionmarket at Faison

Sinai Wbild War 11, veget-able production in the UnitedStales has swung dramati-daily to the west coast. lnprocessing vegetables alone,California's output rose fromabout one-fifth of the _U.S. to-tal to more than half. Thetranscontinental shipment offresh vegetables from Cali-fornia to eastern cities hasbeen:going on for severaldecades though;

Expansion of Irrigation wasa key fact& in the increaseof vegetable production inCalifornia; Without irrigation;much okthe land planted tovegetables would Still bedesert The long central val-ley of California; whichstretchet hUndrede Of Milessouth from Sacramento toBakersfield as well as thatState's imperial Valley; be-came literally a modern_ Gar;den of Edenwhen waterwas provided by State andFederal water projects.

The size of all farms, in=cluding vegetable farms;continues to grow, The fami-HOS depicted in this bookletare generally not small

acreage farmers; but they donot represent the largest pro-duction centers for veget-ables by any means. Many ofthe largest vegetable farms,those which own andoperate several thousandacres, are controlled by fami-lies who have been in thevegetable business for yearsand have been able to growas opportunities presentedthemselves. A relatively fewlarge-scale operations arefarmed by corporationswhose principal functfontare nonagricultural.

Within the vegetable grow-ing business; there havebeen many changeS. FOr Instance, in the years between1960 and 1971, per capitaconsumption of fresh veget-ables dropped from 106pounds a year to 96; but re-turned to 108 pounds a yearby 1980. Meanwhile, per dap:.ita consumption of frozenvegetables has increasedfrom 7 poundt is 10 pounds-,and consumption of cannedvegetables increased i'om43 pounds to 50 pounds perperson.

Fast food restaurants aremaking profound changes InAmerica' s_ eating habit&Salad bars, for instance,have increased the amountOf lettUce and other frethvegetables being grown andshipped. More french friescalled for more potatoes tobe grown on the farm, aswell as more tomatoes forcatsup to go along with thefriet.

Also significant is the increased cost of fuel for tran-sportation. Some experts saythis will cause more andmore vegetables to be growncloser to the areas of con-sumption.

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One of California's 700 tomato growers,Carl Schneider looked over a just-ripened crop of "peeler pear" tomatoes

slated for harvesting the next day.Averaging an Investment of about$1;300 an acre in the growing and har-

g),

vesting of tomatoes for processing,.Cal-ifornia farmersprovide 86 percent ofthe nation's need for such food.

PEOPLE ONTHE FARM:

GROWINGVEGETABLESTOMATOES FORPROCESSING

The red, oblong fruit brokecrisply between CarlSchneider's teeth. The firm ripemeat of the tomato was juicyand sweet. It came as nosurprise to Carl that this"peeler pear" would tastegoodit had just reached fullmaturity. A field full of themwould be harvested tomorrow.That's what Cal Can said itwanted. . .peelor_pears.

Carl has grown about aquarter of a million tons oftomatoes in his life, but he stilllikes to snap a ripe tomato cffits vine and eat the ripe redfruit right out there in the warm

California sunshine.Like most farmers, he enjoys

being in the field where theaction is and he doesn't mindgetting dirty. He has beengetting dirty all his lifewhenhe was a guard on theWoodland High School footballteam, and later when he strungcommunication wire in thearmy.

When we visited, Carl and hispartners, Bill Fricke and Joe,Carl's older brother, wereoutlining their Plans for the day.Bill's big job in the partnershipis to keep the machineryhumming, and it_ was. Bill hadmade sure that the harvesting'machines nearby would beoperating at peak efficiency atthis most crucial time in afarmer's year. So he felt free totake the day off; He and hiswife Amelia were joininganother couple at the horseraces in the State Fair atSacramento. Besides, Bill's two

4

sons were deeply involved inthe harvest.

Joe Schneider was going topay some bills today and thenget out the welder to hardenplowshares. Office work andshop work are his contributionsto the partnership. It was Joe4ho had the vision years ago toconvert the family farm from adairying operation to row cropssuch as wheat and corn, thuspaving the way eventually fortomatoes. _

Carl and 19-year-old RichardFricke would oversee theharvesting of "rounds" today bytwo crews of sorters andharvesters. Rounds aretomatoes with the familiarshape found in markets. Butthese tomatoes would neversee the fresh produce counter.Developed by scientists towithstand the shocks andbruises of nechanicalharvestird these round redtomatoes,would end up in a

1

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der and partner Billay's plans by trailer

tomatoes.

der brothers, Joe,about paying a

tungsten rod ton plowing. Tenthe partnershipert and Bill Fricke's

in the operation.

canner's processing plant.Nearly all the tomatoes grown

in the Sacramento valley areprocessed into puree andtomatoe sauce to bccomecatsup or pizza topr.ings or anintegral tasty part or countlessother foods needing the uniquetomato taste, color, and texture.

On the other hand, the peelerpears are an oblong variety oftomatoes developed especaillyfor their ease of peeling_as wellas firmness to withstandmechanical harvesting. Theyare canned whole or in bigchunks and draw a premiumprice in the stores. Cal Can(California Canners andGrowers, a cooperative ownedby Carl and other farmers) hadasked for peeler pears_to beharvested tomorrow. Theprocessing plant would begeared up to handle thatparticular fruit, rather thanrounds.

Harvesting crews would workwell into the night to keep a

steady stream of ripe red fruitheaded toward the processingplant.

Unexpectedly, theconversation of the men wasinterrupted by silenceor, atleast, something quieter thandiesel throbbing. The greatlumbering landship of a tomatoharvester nearby had ceaseddevouring whole rows of tomatoplants and had fallen into asilent sulk.

Soft Spanish words filled thevoid. The Jaime_familyArturo,Refugio, Alicia, Carmen,Martha, and Neidajumpednimbly off the machine onwhich they worked. Theyquickly pulled tacos out of thehidden recesses of theirclothing and settled down toeat. The family of a Mexicannational who worked for Carl asan irrigator for 30 years, theJaime family had returnedagain this year to join in theharvest.

It was 9 o'clock in the

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morning: The Jamiessorters;they are calledwould get 15minutes off after their first 3hours of work.

Their job was to sort out thevines, stones, hunks of dirt,and bruised and unripe fruitwhich tumbled past them onconveyor belts along theoutside of the machine. Theywork while standing onplatforms along the side andrear of the harvester.

The Schneider brothers,Fricke, the Jaimes and a hostof other truckers; inspectors,and packing house workers areamong the thousands of peopleinvolved in the harvest eachyear of between 5 and 7 milliontons of processing tomatoes inCalifornia:

The canners contract to buyCalifornia's processingtomatoes months before theyare harvested; even before theyare planted, in most cases.Then they tell the growers, whoown or rent the land; when to

--"Mmillra

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harvest those tomatoes: Theymay even tell the growers whento plant and what variety toplant.- Today; it was time_ for theSchneiders and Fricke, whoplant tomato seeds in nearly800 acres of rich SacramentoValley land every year toharvest some of their "rounds."

As soon as the harvestingmachine's diesel awakenedwith a snarl, the Jaimes jumpedaboard her sides like birds onthe back of a rhinoceros: Theclumsyappearing butingenious process of moderntomato harvesting startedagain: The Jaimes adjustedtheir bandannas, or caps, andgloves and began sorting. In arhythmically sweeping motionof their arms, they picked outthe extraneous matter from theflow of tumbling red fruithurrying past them on theconveyor.

A few years ago, there weretwice as many sorters standing

,

A modern re_placement for stoop labor,tomato harvester elevated whole plants_onto a shaking device, which separatedtomatoes from their vines. Human sort-ers along the sides and rear of harvest-er removed any stones,_vines,dirt, orgreen tomatoes which have escapedearlier processes in the machine.

beside the conveyor belts ontomato harvesting machines.But the "eyes" of electronicsorterswhich can tell a greentomato from a ripe one and seethat the green ones arediscarded had made theother workers unnecessary.

Before the mechanicalharvester, it took back -stretching; stoop labor toharvest the tomatoes.

With its bright canopies andslow pace, its slight rockingmotion and its human cargo;the harvesting machine lookedlike a calliope trying to catchup with the last circus whichhad passed through town.

3

THOUGHTS OF ANAPPRENTICE TOMATOSORTER(A writer's notes)

You have to be the right size,that is, about 5 feet tall, to beable to bend over the bar that isbetween you and the conveyorbelt.

The sorters wear long_ pants,bandannas, and hats. They allwork in shade.

Sorters are constantly pick-ing. Their first priority seems tobe dirt. . .chunks ofdirt. . .then an occasional vine,then small green tomatoes, thendamaged tomatoes. The non-stant fast line can be dizzying.They wear rubber gloves.

They don't talk to one another.But they says lot with theireyes when they straighten up towipe their brows with an arm.

They throw chunks of dirt andstuff down through an openingbetween them and the conveyorbelt. It seems to be a sweepingmotion,41ke agambler sweepingin the chips off a gaming table.But the good fruit is passed onto the elevator. They scoop outtwo handfuls of trash at a timeand pull the stuff over the edge.That's what's happenin_g at therear of the machine. Up frontand on the left side there arethree sorters sweeping outbranches mostly. The machine

gets rid of a lot of branches too.A lot of dirt and smaller toma-

toes fall through the sorter atthe end of each conveyor beltbefore they get to the humansorters_

The driver often_gets out ofhis seat on the harvester, walksout in front and disentanglesvines from the conveyor belt,which has been lifting plants upto the sorting belts. He has aniron ber to keep the front of themachino from clogging. The har-vester. with its ambling gait andslight rocking motion over thesoil and canvas awnings lookslike something left from acircus. Only music would beneeded to complete the picture.

At 10 minutes to 10 in themorning, the driver unfurled hisumbrella over his seat to protecthimself from the sun.

What are they constantlypicking_at? I don't see thatmuch to throw out. Ugh, thesquashed ones. There _I misseda stone. . . well, you lust can'tget them all. Everything comessQ fast. It makes you mad andyou want to do a better job.Then you're mad at the machinefor not doing a better Job. Andthere's no chance to talk abovethe noise of the motor, a diesel,or sing. But you can think.

Suddenly there are fewertomatoeathen no tomatoes.Then we can sit down. But thenoise continues its assaults.

I

"No es facill" I scribble on mypad and show the young girlnext to me. She smiles as ifsaying to herself, "don't do any-thing to offend this gringo whohas the freedom to move allabout the machine and the fieldand who has a cameraman withhim."

Look at all those tomatoescoming_down the belt. There issome temptation to pick up abranch and look at it to see if Ishould pick off the ripe tomatoon it. . .but there is no time.Throw It all away.

Some of the hand movementis just pawing through the toma-toes to look for damaged ones.The boy by the elevator controlsthe flow into the wagon, thoughthe tractor driver slows orspeeds up so that the elevateris placed over that part of thewagon he wants to fill.

I can leave, The sorters can-not. Behind the harvester youcan't see where you'veharvested. . .there are all thosetomato plants still In a rowthough in pilesand there aregreen tomato- among them.There are even some red toma-toes. This is not a totally effi-cient machine. But I know there I

are fewer tomatoes In the plantsthat are left because of all thosethat went in front of me on theconveyor belt. And there are thewagons brimming with red fruitat the end of the field.

Pear - shaped tomatoes_were _sorted atthe rear of the harvester by ArturoJaime and his sisters, Carmen and Mar-tha. In 1965. when legislation made itmore difficult to hire farmworkers fromMexico. mechanical harvesting of can-ning tomatoes jumped to 20 percent ofthe crop. from 3 5 percent in 1964.

. Since 1970. all of the California Crophas been machine harvested.

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When introduced, the mechanical har-vester saved 52 man-hours of labor peracre, and $7 per ton in harvest costs.While processing tomato productionhas nearly doubled since 1964, theamount &labor needed to harvest thecrop has been halved, Below, In finalstage of harvesting, tomatoes, speciallybred to withstand rough machine han-dling, were elevated into trailer.

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Truckers hired by canners drove theharvest to a State inspection station;then to the processing plant: Trailerswith their bright red cargo are common

slight on California highways at harvesttime. Two-way radios permit them to bedispatched to sites of greatest need inthe area throughout the day and night.

Met& teeth in the maChine'smouth wrenched whole tomatoplants out of the earth: A reeltossed them onto a conveyorbelt, which lifted them, fruit andall, to the top of the machine. Ashaker there separated the ripetomatoes from their plants,sending fruit tumbling to eachside for sorting: With greentomatoes still attached, thediscarded plants dropped to theground behind the harvester:

Refugio, Alicia; and Carmenpulled out the dirt, branches,and bruised and greentomatoes that the shakersomehow missed. Stones andthings even they couldn't catchin the dizzying flow were soonspotted and discarded byArturo, Martha, and Neyda onthe rear platform:

The harvester emptied intowagons being pulled alongside.Whenever the wagons werefilled; they were replaced byanother pair with scarcely a

6

hitch in the harvesting.Just before the lead wagon

was commpletely filled, RichardFricke, driving another tractor,pulled two empty wagons inline behind the filling wagons.He stopped, stepped down, andwalked forward to the leadtractor, where he jumped upand tapped its driver on theshoulder. The lead driver, inturn, Jumped down and walkedback to the other tractor andwagons Fricke had left. Soonthe front two wagons werecompletely filled and Frickedrove them away to the edge ofthe field, where a truck wouldhaul them to a weighing andinspectioh station in town. Thereplacement wagons werepulled into place beside theharvester, which had stoppedmoving for only 15 seconds.

Car!, who was &one now,watched with quiet satisfactionat the four wagons parked atthe side of the field, each filled

to the brim with 25 tons ofbright red fruit. The wagonsacted later as trailers; assemitractors hitched directly tothem and hauled them in pairsat cruising speed alonghighways. The fruit represented5 months of careful groundpreparation; cultivating;irrigation; and sprayingthework of growing tomatoes,which enabled Carl and hispartners to make a living. Thiswas payoff time!

Carl had planted tomatoseeds in this field in lateFebruary; the earliest of manyplantings that spring. Usually ittakes only 125 days fortomatoes to grow and mature;but the tomatoes in this fieldhad been slow in maturing

It had been a cool spring.The planting was almost ananticlimax for Carl, who hadspent considerable time justgetting the ground ready forplanting. First, Carl cut up theresidue left in the field from theprevious crop; which hadprobably been either corn orwheat. Carl disked the stalksright into the soil with whatappeared to be a gang of pieplates turned on edge. Then,he went over the field with adeep plow; turning the rich soilover and opening it to the sky.At the same time, he applied apreemergent herbicide to keepweeds; whose seeds weresuddenly exposed, frompopping up all over the field.

Then, Carl or one of his menplaned the field as level ashumanly possible with an earthmover. All the fields seemed asflat as a table top, tut for thefarmer who must later run aharvesting machine through it,every mound and dip had to beleveled out.

Still the ground wasn't readyfor planting. Carl broke up theclods of soil next with a steel-fingered plow called a chiselplow.

Then the soil was ready, butit wasn't shaped correctly. Carlplants the tomato seeds in

beds that are built up betweenstraight lines of furrows; whichwill later control the flowofwater through the field. So hePulled a machine through thefield_that bUilds up these bedsand flattens out their WO. Atthe same time; he appliedfertilizer laced with insecticide.

Was Carl ready now_to plantseeds? Physically; yes. But onetore_step was needed: He hadto sell the tomatoes he hadn'teven planted. More correctly,he tried to find a buyer willingto agree in late winter to buy aspecific number of tons oftomatoes in the late summer.WS Called forward contracting;and the practice isn't restrictedto tomato growing.

There are only a handful ofcompanies that buy processingtomatoes in California. . .about5 or 6 commercial canners, asthey are called; whose namesare familiar to supermarketshoppers. Like most farrriers,tomatoes growers sell theirproduct at the best price theycan get. . not whatever pricethey choose to ask. However,Unlike wheat and corn growers;they have few buyers hagglingover their production.

Processing tomato contracts"Vary 311 over the lot;" Carlexplained. They may call for$47 a ton as a base price (orsome price which covered thecost of production) and thentwo other payments later in theyear; or even the followinr; year;as the processed tomatoes aresold. The price per ton- variesand so does the size of thesecond and third payments;depending on the pricetomatoes are bringing in themarketplace.

Other terms of the contractare also argued heatedly and atiength by packers and growers:How many green tomatoes in aload will cause the whole loadto be rejected? Whatpercentage of machinedamaged tomatoes in a ioad is"acceptable" before a grower'spaymcnt is reduced? How

t.

CASH RECEIPTS AND DISBURSEMENTSSchneider, Fricke & Schneider 1979

Cash ReceiptsTomatoesGrainHayOutaide

harvestingInterestRetained in

cooperativePaid out retains

and patron-age diVidends

Other part-nerahips

Gas tax re-fundstate

Gas tax re-fundfederal

$831,626.20276,602.98

8,272.75

6,438.471,720.37

35,161.10

34,607.17

4,259.00

186.21

285.00

TOTAL CASHRECEIPTS $1,199,159.25

DisburserrientsSalaries and

wagesPayroll taresOutside

servicesFertilizerSeedRent .propertyRentequipmentIrrigationGas and oilDepreciationRepairs and

suppliesTaxes and

licensesinsuranceOffice supplies

and utilitiesDues and sub=

scriptionsLegal and

accountingPrOfit sharing

planInterest

expenseWillow Oak Har-

vesterstomatooperations

$125,548.5013,568.81

_72,903.16267,199.2128,997.72

167,110.3812,009.2833,342.9751,340.8572,941.47 .

98,314.78

5,270.95 .j40,218.32'

1,026.901

855.75 '3,

960.00

6,265.85

85,367.694

146,282.11

$1,220,524.68Excess of dis-

bursements overcash receiptsfrom farmOperations $30,365.43

Other Disbursements:Insurance

partners $ 32,737.44Sundries

partners 1,619.94Donations 1,030.00

Ektess of dis-bursements overcash receiptsfde 1979

$35,387.38

$65;752:81

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Chisels dug_24-inch deep furrows inpreparing ground for next tomato crop.Sharp disks in roller behind chisel plow;

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examined by Carl Schneider, cut up soil. Tomato roots go six feet deep. Pro-heavy dirt clods brought Up by chisel. duction costs before tomatoes wereChisel lets oxygen, winter rains into planted reached $50 an acre in 1979.

much is "too much" dirt; vines,rocks, and other extraneousmaterial in a load?

Carl likes to plant a third ofhis tomato acreage at a time;beginning late in February orearly March. When those plantsreach the first true leaf stage(beyond the seedling leaves) in2 or 3 weeks, Carl plants thesecond third of his acreage, buthe spreads this planting outlonger. It usually takes a weekor 10 days to plant each third.

The result is that harvestingis spread out from the thirdweek of July to the first week ofOctober to accomodate thepacker. If all the tomatogrowers in the Sacramentovalley harvested all theirtomatoes at the same time; theprocessing plants would beoverwhelmed. So the contractsspell out how many tons thepackers want from each growerat what time of year. Whenharvest starts in the valley,

8

each grower is given a quota todeliver each week and eachday. The whole harvest in thevalley is carefully andconstantly monitored so thatthiSihighly perishable productis not left standing in t4 sunfor hours or the processing lineis not halted for lack of fruit.Trucks are shuffled amongfarms and processing plants asnecessary. Every vehiclecontains a two-way radio.

Cal Can alloted Carl and hispartners 1,250 tons to bedelivered the last week inAugust of 1980. Pacific CoastProducers, another cooperative,wanted even more.

So truckers hired by thepackers started arriving at thefields at mid-morning andcontinued hauling well into thenight.

For the year, Carl hadcontracted to _sell 20,000 tons.He planted 720 acres. By theend of August, he had delivered

11

half the tomatoes his contractcalled for. He expected to havethe other half delivered byOctober 1. If he produced morethan 20,000 tons, then heg_uessed he would have toplowthem under because nobodywould buy them_He hadplanned to get 30 tons fromeach acre, but Carl and the soilwere producing more than thatin 1980.

Twenty thousand tons oftomatoes at, say, $50 perton.__. .that's a million dollarsworth o_ grown by theSchneiders and Fricke in 1year. They wouldn't know thefinal figure until December.1981, however. That's when thefinal check for the 1980 cropwould_ arrive in the mail.

In 1978, the partnershipknown as Schneider, Fricke,and Schneider grossed$716,000 on the aale oftomatoes.

"That money just goes

ot: .. -.1

Irrigation water Will }IOW evenlythroughout this 350-acre field after CarlSchneiderlevels it with a Landplanebefore he shapes planting beds; Rows

, A

less than two football fields long reduceefficiency of the harvester because oftime lost in turnarounds. Large field8and large maChine8 go together.

through your hands," Carl said."It certainly isn't your net."

An Extension Service farmadviser for YOIO County, whereCarl lives; figured that if theaverage farmer had anelactronic sorter (which thepartnership has), it cost theindividual farmer $1,265.48 anacre to grOW tomatoes in 1979.That included investment costs,such as the cost of renting theland and equiprtient, as well asa management charge for thepartnership:

Carl figured the partnershipwas paid $1 ,250 an acre fortheir tomatoes that year: Sothey either "lost" about $15.50an acre that year, paidthemselves less for theManagement, weren't able todepreciate the rriaChiriery at aproper rate or in some waytailed to generate whatbusiness advisers would call afair return on their investmentin time; money; and labor:

Then why grow tomatoes?The California grower of

tomatoes for processing iscaught in an economic vise: Onone Side it his heavyinvestment in machinery. Carlfigures that the partnership's

farm machinerymost of it forgrowing tOmatoesis worth$500,000. Another tomatofarmer estimated machineryinvestments ran from $300,000to a million dollars.

On the other side of the vise,the grower is pressured by theowners of the land the part=nership works. Landowners canmake more money if their landis planted to tomatoes thanthey can if it is planted to anyother crop, Carl's partnershiprents nearly all of the land itworks. The rental deal thepartnership works out with thelandowner deperida on the cropbeing planted. And the tomatodeal is always best _for thelandoWner, though Carl sayswheat is catching up.

"You have to grow tomatoesin order to rent the land," Carlsaid philosophically. "If yoUdon't, someone else will comealong and grow them for theowner."

Not that tomatoes are all thatthe Schneider brothers andFricke groW. They usually planttwo and sometimes three cropson the same piece of land eachyear. The Warm climate of theSacramento valley and the

12

availability of water during thedry season make this possible.Further, Carl doesn't like toplant very many continuouscrops of tomatoes on the samepiece of land because diseasesand insects will build up in thesoil to destroy the next crop. SoCarl rotates the crops heplants. Doublecropping withouttomatoes will bring thelandowner $80 to $200 an acre,which is close to the return ontomatoes alone, Carl noted.-:On 2,200 acres of richSacramento valley land in1980, the Schneider-Frickepartnership not only grew18,000 tons of tomatoes, but900 tons of wheat, 215 tons ofbarley, 110 tons of rice, andsome hay.

Almost all of the 2,200 acreswere rented. Carl owns 70acres of his own land, Joeowns 180, and Bill owns 70.

While the weather in thevalley is nearly perfect forgrowing tomatoesassumingyou have a supply of water forthe long dry summerhailstorms have been known toruin crops. A rain in thesummer also would bedisastrous because themoisture under the skin of thefruit would warm up in the heatof the day and crack open theskin. Because of this, Carlirrigates his tomatoes along theground only, rather than withoverhead sprinklers._ Then there's the dry hot YoloCounty north wind.

"You never know when it'sgoing to come;" Carl said: It notonly dries out the plants butcan also destroy blOssoms thatwould have become fruit: CarldeScribed the problem

"As the outside blOssorns aredestroyed, the inside blossomsSurvive and later provide fruit:Then new bloSsorriS appear onthe outside of the plant. Theybear fruit, Finally: you have todecide whether to harvest theripe inside fruit and throw awaythe green outside fruit or waitfor the outside fruit to mature."

9

Carl left the harvesting site toinspect some of the irrigationgates in a system which usuallysupplies all the water his cropsneed throughout the drysummer. Most of Carl's watercomes down irrigation canalsfrom Clear Lake and the IndianValley Reservoir, 80 miles awayin the Pacific coast range ofmountains. Water from thewinter rains is stored there fordelivery through the canals.Such water cost Carl $7.50 peracre-foot (enough water tocover an acre a foot deep) in1980. Well water that he has topump himself costs $20 anacre-foot. So Carl sticks to themountain water as long aspossible. However, there arewinters when not enough wateraccumulates in the reservoirs,and the farmers are on theirown.

Carl has farmed nearly all hislife. Now 60, he is consideringretirement.

His father, born in Germany,died when Carl was 12 and Joewas 20. An all-valley footballplayer, Carl ha -been offeredscholarships to Notre DameUniversity and the University ofSanta Clara, but his motherneeded him on the farm. Sowhen he graduated from highschool in 1937, Carl went towork full time on the family'sdairy farm, located right wherehe farms today. _

In 1945, when Carl and pillFricke were discharged fromthe service, they decided toenter farming with JoeSchneider, who had stayedhome to run the farm. Theystarted with 500 acres, theamount owned by both familiesat the time.

It wasn't until 1954, however,that they planted their firattomatoes.

"Someone said Stokely VanCamp might want sometomatoes," Carl recalls "so wewent to Stokely's and made acontract tcgrow 40 acres thatyear." Again, they were asuccess.

10

Partners' wives have taken less activerole in farming in recent years andspend more time with their hobbies.Amelia Fricke, above, likes to paint,

Bat

At

-a.

while Margaret Schneider, belof Joe Schneider, spends a loIn her garden. All three couplEvisit Lake Tahoe.

Vat

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SA

Jane Schneider, wife of Carl Schneider,is secretary to the dean of the Wood-land Unified High School. Reared only amile from her present home, Jane mar-ried Carl in July, 1941, after they wenttogether in high school.

They've been expanding eversince:

Their wives have beenworking right along with them,taking their turn at the tractorsas the enterprise grew; Nowthey have drawn back fromsuch active participation. Carl'swife; Jane, is a secretary inWoodland High School. None oftheir children is involved infarming. Their son; Carl; is acertified public accountant inSacramento; their daughterGeneva has married DouglasKoevel, a trucker, and livesnearby; and the other sonGerald Is a mechanicalengineer with a sugar companyin Woodland._

Bill'S son. David, and Joe's

son, Robert, act as day andnight foremen of the farmingoperation for the partnership.

Carl and Jane, Bill and hiswife, Amelia, and Joe and hiswife; Margaret, like to jump intheir cars and drive over toLake Tahoe for entertainment.

Carl compares farming togambling.

"Sometimes I think you mightas well go to the dice tables,"he said "I enjoy both; and I'vewon or _I wouldn't go back. Butthe odds are stacked againstyou in both places ;"

Carl can do little about theweather in a semi-arid regionwhere the annual rainfallranges from 7 inches to 35inches a year (both extremesare disastrous) and the groundwater level has dropped from20 feet below the surface in1945 to 140 feet during thedrought of 1976-77. But heand other farmers have tried tostrengthen their bargainingposition for the prices they arepaid for their tomatoes.

They organized the CaliforniaTomato Growers Associationand they formed cooperativesto process their own tomatoesand fruit; The associationbargains for its members withthe commercial packers overthe terms of the contract. Thebargaining power of theassociation weakens whenmembers drop out and bargainas individuals. Some growersjust won't join, on the principlethat It derives them of theirindependence; The commercialcanners, for their part,encourage private bargainingrather than bargaining with thegrowers as a group.

Carl, who served as presidentof the association for 3 yearkaomits It Is not as effective asmany growers would like It.

Carl and others sell to twocooperatives, The CaliforniaCanners and Growers, whichstarted_in 1960, and the PacificCoast ProduberS, which startedin. 1968. Growers buy shares Inthe cooperatives and the

cooperatives, in turn; guaranteethey will buy their tomatoesan acre's production for eachshare. The price is based onwhat commercial packers arepaying individual growers._ There are limitations. NeitherCarl nor any other grower canbuy all the shares in the co-op.The number of shares availableis governed by the co-op'sprocessing capacity and theneed for tomatoes in the openfood market; Some years; theremight be a surplus of tomatoes(perhaps fewer people wantedto buy catsup or pizza's) so theco-op's board of directors cutseveryone's allowableproduction, say, 10 percent. Orin other years; there may be ashortage of tomatoeshailmight have ruined the harvestof many farmersso the co-opmight offer to buy some extraproduction from members.

It is hard to visualize CarlSchneider retiring. . .even forCarl.

"I'm going to work my wayout of it," he said one day. "I'm60 years old and I want toenjoy life. You can't stand stillin farming. You've got to growor get on ;"

But on another day, he said,"Who said I was going to re-tire?" And he talked about thefuture of farming. He said hebelieved the processing tomatomarket Is full now and thatfarmers will have to find othercrops to grow so that they willbe able to say "no" to thebuyert if the price isn't right.He mentioned sunflower seeds,melon 'seeds; and cotton;

Still, even as Carl and Janeprepared to leave their homefor an evening of bridge withfriends, nature seemed to betelling Carl where his future lay.The full harvest moon, risingthrough the haze of the valley;dominated the eastern sky withthe most spectacular bright red"tomato" seen in the valley allsummer.

Tomorrow, Carl would be hat=vesting peeler pears;

11

EQUIPMENT OFSCHNEIDER,FRICKE ANDSCHNEIDER

2 Carryalls, one 2 wheel, one4 wheel

19 tractors3 sets rollers2 sets Sweede harrows1 set of spike-tooth harrows1 3-row tomato planter1 6-row corn and beet planter1 12-foot cotton chopper3 sets cultivators4 sets sled cultivators1 ditcher2 plows3 discs1 swather1 3-wire hay baler2 Johnson side delivery rakett2 diesel pumps for 1 mile of

rolling sprinkler line1/2 mile of 8-inch lead

line, for sprinklers2 Electronic tomato harvesters5 tomato carts1 3-row Incorpater for

tomato beds2 spray rigsShop tools: air compressor,

steam cleaner, power drills;-and sanders, etc.

2 grain harvesters for barley,wheat, rice and corn

2 stationary welders1 portable welder1 chisel1 disc chisel1 Marvin Landplane1 forklift1 bank out wagon1 case grain drill1 8400t discSiphons, about 3,0003 portable fuel wagons,

500-gallon capacity each1 12-foot float1 levee shaper2 scrapers9 pickups, 7 with radios1 6-row thinner1 2-inch sumppump8 stainless steel chemical

tanks on wheel tractors1 10,000-galion diesel

storage tank1 10,000-gallon fertilizer

storage tank2-1/2,ton trucks with

1,000-gallon tanks

12

`r

-ix P;

Only part of the equipment needed bySchneider, Fricke and Schneider tofarm is visible above. Behind CarlSchneider is _a grain harvester. Otherimplements, from rear to front, include a1965 tomato harvester, a planter. tworolling cultivators, a ridger, and a cul-

I

dm

tivator sled. Siphon pipes, below,transfer water from irrigation ditches tofields. Setting out siphons withoutstopping is an art form, Carl said OneSuch irrigator worked for the partner-ship for 30 years, then retired into theconstruction business in Mexico.

15BEST coPY AVAUBLE

-A

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"I give him moral support," is how Cyn-thia Martel la, a fifth-leneration Califor-nian, describes her role in the farming

A*,

operation of her husband, Norman Mar-tella. Behind them, a nephew, DaveMarlene prepared the heavy black soil

at.

IV^

, i 4.4

of the Blanco area of the_Salinas Valleyfor another lettuce crop. The Martellashave four children.

GROWING LETTUCENow 38; Norman Martel la

plans to retire frotri growinglettuce in just 10 years.

"I figure the only thing I'vereally done in 12 years exceptMake a living it bUild up equityin what I've got;" he explained."Why should I sit here _until_ I'm65 and ready to die before Ienjoy that equity?"

"In 10 years; my family'sgoing to be gone and I won'thave to bUtt my back anymoreto support_them. And themoment I don't need to do that,I've got to get out of thisbusiness."

Norman is a driven man; Hehas been driving himself _Ewersince_ he quit SChbeil in 1967 tosave the family farm at Salinas,California; He graduated fromthe University of California atLOt Angeles the previousyearwith a degree in accounting: Hewas studying for a master'sdegree In bUtinett

administration at the Universityof Santa Clara when his brotherquit working the family farm.

At first Norman tried to workthe farm and attend school 75miles away at the same time.He would start work at 1 a.m.on the farm and quit by 4:30p.m. in order to attend classesat the university. Then he'ddrive back to the farm at 11:30p.m., sleep a couple of hours;and head out into the fieldsagain. He was getting only 1=1/2 to 3 hours of sleep a night.Once; he was poisonedaccidently by the insecticide hewas applying. Then one nighthe fell asleep on the road. Atthat point he decided to quitschool and devote his fullattention to the farm.

Norman described the farmas near bankruptcy when hetook over. The family was$480,000 in debt, the land wasmortgaged to the limit, and noone would lend them anymoney.

16

"My brother was alwaysinterested in f_arming;' Normanrecalled, "but his interest lay inexperimenting. He did a lot ofresearch and we did a lot offantastic things on the farm.But the problem was that hewasn't doing the basic farming.You can try new things, newideas, but you try to experimenta little at a time: You don't dothe whole thing at once. Basicfarming is the only way you'regoing to make money.

"I mean you just don't rockthe boat."

The boat almost sank thatfirst year under Norman'smanagement. That year, heplanted 380 acres of celery.But that year; workers at amajor national soup companywent on strike. All of the celerythat hid been grown to go intosoup went onto the freshproduce market instead,competing with Norman'scelery. The prices of freshcelery plummeted.

13

"We were almost ruined. Wedidn't get enough money to payfor the hoeing and thinning,"tilorrnan-reoalled. "Weharvested 220 acres anddisked (plowed) under theremaining 160 acres."

His back to the wall. Normanlearned in a hurry how to growlettuce. He learned everythinghe Thought he needed to knowin 30 days. But moreimportantly,-he learned how totake nearly all the financial riskout of farming by contracting togrow vegetables for someoneelse.

"I'm not going to be brokeever again period," he said. "Iwas broke one time. I'll neverbe broke again."

Most-lettuce growers in thefertile Salinas valley, whereJohn Steinbeck was born andwrote; groW lettuce forthemselves. That is; they retaincomplete control over thelettuce right up to the momentit is soldas mature heads tobrokers. The price they getdepends on the demand forlettuce that day across theUnited States.

Norman called the fresh pro-duce market the only farmmarket left that is "pure supplyand demand." Lettuce is cer-tainly one of the most volatilemarkets.

In a year's time; lettuceprices can vary from $2,50 to$18 a box (which contains 24heads of lettuce): It is not un-common for the priceof a boxof lettuce to change $1 a dayfor a weekup or down. Withan average yield of 750 boxesto an acre, that variation of a&Alar can mean a $1 12,500 -a-day gain or loss for a farmerWith 250 acres of lettuce.

"In the lettuce market," saidDavid Vaughn; a marketing ex-pert in the U.S. Department ofAgriculture, "the little guy isriver boat gambler." His defini-tion of "little" included a -farmerwho grows lettUce on 200acres, even though land isvalued at $16;500 an acre in

14

the Salinas valley. Norman fig-ured the 200 acres he worksis worth a total of more than$3 million.

Norman estimates there are500 lettuce growers in Mon-terey County, where he lives.The smallest grower wouldplant lettuce on 80_acres andthe largest on 10,000 acres hesaid.

The largest growers, Vaughnexplained, can spread the vari-ations of the market over ayear's time, as lettuce on theirplots of land throughout Califor-nia matures at various timesduring the year. In 2 to 4 weeksof "hot spots," or favorableprices, the larger grower_mightmake up for losses sustainedthe rest of the year, he ex-plained.

The smaller grower spreadshis highs and lows out over aperiod of years, though he, too,harvests and sells over a periodof a few months each year.

In the Salinas area, lettucewas selling for $2.50 to $3 abox in 1980. The followingyear, it was bringing $7 to $8 abox. Farmers planted less let-tuce the second year, Vaughn

r."7-4 '';" ,N. -,

-

..

rt

said, so there was a smallersupply.

Norman works roughly 210acres of land twice a year,mostly growing lettuce. In 1980he planted 416 acres for thewhole year. That was made upof 272 acres of lettuce, 60acres of spring "flower"(spring - harvested daulifloWer),and 85 acres of fall "flower."

He shares ownership of theland with his aunts and_father.

NOrtnen contracts_ in Sep;tember or October to grow let-tuce for one two, or morebuyers. In 1920, he contractedto grow lettuce only for HansenFarms; a large-scale lettuceproducer that Norman said /worked several thousand acresof its own land. Norman agreesto provide land ready for plant-ing, irrigation water, and thecultural practices it takes tokeep letuce growing andhealthy.

In 1980, Hansen Farms plant=ed the lettuce; brought in acrew of some 30 workers tothin it out, and brought thesame crew back to harvest it.The kind of lettuce to be plant-ed was decided by Hansen, as.

Norman Martella said he makes enoughmoney "to pay off my debts, get mykids through_ school and do -some of thethings I want to do." It makes him hap-

py to see the crops and the ranch "inreally nice shape." If thing, "go 50 per-cent right and everything looks good,then I'm happy," he said.

17

Norman Martella irrigated a cauliflowercrop with water drawn from a reservoirof the underground Salinas River that

111111L=:aawo¢»

flows beneath the valley. The 500-footdeep reservoir provides water low Insalts. An abnormally high salt concen-

:

tration in the soil would retard plantgrowth by reducing the rate at whichplants absorb water.

were the times of planting andharvesting. Even the timing ofthe last two applications of wa-ter was determined by Hansen;since Hansen fieldmen knewbest when they intended to har-vest

Most farmers in the region,Norman said, do their ownplanting; decide which lettuceto grow and when to harvest it.They hire crews to thin out theplants and do the harvesting.

Providing the land; irrigationwater, and cultural practices isa full time job for Norman, hisforeman; and a small irrigationcrew. Early to bed-(8 or 9 p.m.)and early to rise (5 a.m.), Nor-man spends most of each of 7days a week at his work ex-cept when he is traveling or onvacation.

In providing the land, Normanprepares the soil for planting.He and his foreman, BillMcClure, go over the soilseveral times with various im-plements to loosen it up andbreak it up into small pieces.When the dark rich soil of the

valley is broicen up so that let-tuce roots and water can movefreely through it, Norman levelsit with an earth mover andchisel plows it one more time.

After he shapes the beds forthe lettuce seed; the land isready for planting. A precisionplanter inserts the tiny lettuceseed into the 18-inch-wide dirtbeds at about 3-1/2-inch inter-vals.

If Norman is lucky, it rainsright after planting. If there isno rain, he must irrigate theland at least twice to speedgermination and early growth ofthe lettuce plant To do this andto provide other irrigationthrough the growing season, heemploys two full-time irrigatorsand a part-time pipe mover:

In about 2 weeks, when thenew lettuce has establishedtwo leaves of Its own (beyondthose which originated In theseed), Norman or his foremancultivates; that is, he drags asharp cutting implementthrough the soil in such a waythat any weeds which have

6 5:3

grown up between the rows arecut down and the soil isloosened to receive still anoth-er shot of irrigation water.

All that irrigation doesn't hap-pen with the turningrof a han-dle, however. Men have to haulthe aluminum pipe with theirrisers like lawn sprinklers Intothe right fields, and thenturn on the water. Norman hasenough pipe to water a third ofhis land at a time. His menmove the pipe from field to fieldas scheduled.

Because the farmer or, inNorman's case; the buyerdoesn't want to have all hislettuce mature on the sameday he spreads out theplanting schedule over severalweeks. Norman's lettuce mightbe at 10 different stages ofmaturity at any one time,depending on when it wasplanted.

Next, the buyer brings In acrew of thinners. The thinnertakes a long-handled hoe andchops out plants and weeds sothat the remaining heads of

1

VESTING CREMS AS A TEA

firms crews started harvestingthe Marta Ila farm at 6:30

)on as it was light. IncludingIblers, row bosses and crew

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Nine miles of 30-foot long Irrigationpipe; with risers; are used to bring Wa-ter to vegetables grown on the Martelia

17,

tg -

farm. The farm employs two full-timeir-rigators and a part-time pipe mover toshift the pipes between fields and con-

nee them; Underground water supplyhelps Salinas VelFey abilifve droughts.irrigation supplements rains.

lettuce are 10 to 12 inchesapart

After the soil has dried outsomewhat following thethinning operation, Normancultivates the crop once again.By-this time, the heads areabout 4 or 5 inches across.Norman then applies somefertiliter, it he thinks the plantsneed it. There are_only about10 days left before harvest.

Harvesting on Norman'sranch starts in mid-May, about40 days after the first planting,and continues about 1 or 2days a Week thereafter untilthe end of AuguSt.

When Norman isn't busy onlettuce, he's working on thecauliflower, either preparing thesoli for planting, actuallyplanting the crop, cultivating it,irrigating it, or harvesting it.

"You have to plant two cropshere or you can't pay the rent,"Norman explained. The workschedule for growing

18

cauliflower fits neatly into thework schedule for lettuce; Forinstance, the harvesting ofcauliflower in the spring usuallyends just as the harvesting oflettuce begins. __ _

Norman sees the farmingoperation of the typical producefarmer_ as separate from thefinancial aspects Of thebusiness;

"T_he farming you have to do,Whether you know you're goingto make money or not In orderto have -the _ end result;" heSaid. "You ha_ve to do the samebasic things."

What about the financialside?

"You're_talking abOut a lot ofgross Income on_ a produce__farm," Norman explained. If IWere farming these 260 -acreson my own, -my potential geoidincome would be about $1-1/4million_a year. Somebody whofarms that -much haS the abilityto handle massive amounts of

money. Mishandling it couldmake the difference betweenwhether you make money ornot. There is no room forerror-=--zero percentage. if 1could make 1 percent profit ona gross of 1-1/4 million, I'd bevery happy.

"Usually were talking about0.03 to 0.04 percent of grossincome_The last good year wehad, 1978, there were a lot ofnumbers batted around thevalleysay, 2 to 2-1/2 percent(of groS8).=and I mean therewas more money in the valleythan you could shake a stickat."

it Is the buSinessman inNorman who goes to the buyerin September to talk about theterms of hit; contract for nextyear's crop. He goes wailprepared,

BaSlcally, he has to knowwhat his operating costa will befor a year; taking inflation intoaccount. He says he's been

21

Norman P. Modelle Flame Inc.Income and Expense StatementFor Year Ended October 31, 1980

IncomeCauliflower $100,680.00Lettuce 232,440.00

Miscellaneous 3,431.00

Gross income $336,551.00

Exp-AnStotsAuto and Truck 658.00Depreciation 15,846.88Gat and oil 21,010.67Insurance: State compensation 2,576.23

Employee health 5,961.20Unemployment 1,714.27General 4,491.33

Interest 3,666.62Herbicides and insecticides 1 157.18Machine hire 7!330.50Mi Scenarios:WS 17,544.53Secretary of State 10.00

; Accounting 520.00Legal fees 1,001.00Dues and subscriptions 1,300.00Donations 265.00Payroll taxes 6,794.75Property taxes _1,450.89Rent 72,854.21Repairs and maintenance 45,971.79Utilltiei 11,193.10Wages 119,266.62

TOTAL EXPENSES $342,594.77Net loss from operations before

Income taxes $6,043.77State Income taxes $1,500.00

4

NET LOSS FROM OPERATIONS $7,943.77

right_on the inflation factor 12years out of 12. To keepinformed, he reads a SanFrancisco newspaper, a localnewspaper, and a nationalfinancial flournal. He watchesnews on television. Hemaintains many personalcontacts, and includesattorneys among his close

6

personal friends. At the Statelevel, he's on the board ofdirectors of the AgriculturalLeadership Training Program ofthe Council Of CaliforniaGrowers, and meets monthlywith other producers to discussa wide range of subjects. Thereare regular meetings Withbankers, public officeholders,

and others to keep up onanything that might affettagriculture.

He travels to other countriesfor an agricultural machinerymanufacturer to help people Inother lands learn thetechniques of Americanagriculture.

"I try to diverSify myself. I tryto find out what's going onelsewhere, " Norman said. "Ilisten to what a lot of peoplehave to say. Then I sit downwith my of calculator and comeup with the numbers I need.But when you come up withstatements that interest ratesWill hit 16 to 18 percent justtry to argue that e months inadvance."

When Norman rebuilt thetransmission of a 19-year-oldtractor in October of 1980, hefound that the tarts cost$6,000, and the- entire tractorcost only $10,000 when it wasbought in 1961.

"If I hadn't learned themaintenance of machinery; " hesaid,i'd have been out ofbusiness 10 years ago."

in 1968, the first yearNorman contracted to grow forsomeone else, his gross incomefrom the contract was $89,000.He grew roughly the samecrops on the amount of land in1980; a dozen years later, andhis lettuce contract alonebrought hitn$232,440. Yet,Norman said that his netincome increased only slightlybecause of the rising costs ofoperation.

The cost of growing food hasmade a lot of farming bigbusiness, Norman said Yeteven large corporations get Intotrouble growing produce; hebald.

"Personally, I think theconglomerates will be out ofproduce production in 5 years."he said. "Their stockholder"'won't stand for the losses." Hecited one large company'soperation as "not cost-effective" and "apparently a tax

22 BEST COPY AVAILABLE19

writeoff (the charging of farmlosses against the profits ofanother, more profitabledivision of the company, for taxpurposes)." He estimatesanother large firni was losing$100,000 a day.

"No one is really workingthere," he said. "They're justmanaging."

In his =own_ fashion, Normanhas worked the debt on hisfarm down to $72,000. And he'ssatisfied with the way he'sbeen attacking it.

"If I were on my own in thisgame, I could make a milliondollars tomorrow," he said. "OrI could lose a million.

"Other people aren't justtalking about it. They're losinga Mil liOn=br they're making amillion."

Over the years, it hasn't beenall work and no play forNorman._ He was married in 1967 toCynthia, and they have fourchildren.

The Warta Ilds live in a typicalCalifornia community within thecity liMits of Salinas and hedrives to alarm office fromthere each morning. . .usuallystopping at a nearby motel'scoffee shop to talk withbusiness friends at 6 a.m.

The Martel las go out todinner weekly. They dance andplay cards with friends, andtravel. During the winter, theyski together as a family for acouple of weeks; then Normanand Cynthia go somewhere bythemselvei. . .in the past toSpain, Mexico, Tahiti, and theCaribbean. They enjoy thetheater in San Franciscowhenever possible;

Cynthia, who had never beenassociated with farming beforemeeting Norman, still leavesfarming up to Norman alone.

"Just raising the childrenkeeps her busy," Norman said.

"I've enjoyed my life up tothis point," he said. "I've madea good living doing this. Ithasn't been fantastic, but it'sbetter than working for

20

is &he-kin-ea kit Of StatisticalHOW DO YOU KW1--NO. data that's going to sit.

"I actually learned how to . somewhere. its. meaningless y:farm in about 30 days from_my.:, information._ 4:!-;(,.father when my brother oult7 . "You can't teach *DMNorman Martens recalled. 1r how to grow lettucALTheffitlearned to know basically what, -.way possibft to Wr (kW_was wrong with a crop and what..",.._ havesomibodyiessn he"it needed: . lettliel-Coreit

"I store all this information Caulifktweri, or anyoflmy head. It would take an_offir**,::prexfuote.:.:: out Of Ithree times this size tO way -to ie4roall down and store it It_ la and` growcompletely impossible to put an "Say you'rethe variables In. . tang winter

"When you make a dealsiOn,:, Should yeti !siderite*,you_need instantaneous .. lettucwith iKkfluM'suifsinformation. A few hours can catieet at it? MAYO,"Make a difference_as to whether :going keet isems atxxf 0you-have a crop or not. Maybeyee're riot. May'

"Say you have 2 to 3 weeks tort_`,:'; better off OMN' telolUiffharvest and a dry spelt starts on e.gaiatt lnitanWhat do you do? That ilWrminditti.',::rernOtiOIVY04143011(09on what the temperatures hairpi.:-Mtieftettfilit itbeen and what they are washed out of Itexpectedlo be and whether thirt.;:;'1,:.,1c10ii!tiOerifi the cot`crop has lust been Irrigated;just beencultivatedi or just :',.*:72-*"r4,,Pbbeeflatilt WM_ U*Iibeen fertilized, cultist been ..:_7`:.1_-**Oktoctultiok. But yrs*sprayed with insecticide. Whai4iiriffeknoce where yoVfra atare the-color and texture of . the reitlegest sciALYOu_dti-'

-leaves? How fast can you getr..:);;i_luientihostinuch haiwater and fertilizer on it? &Viler Witt much humu ''h'?'.;"The computer isn't toOkIneriEiVifi thirsted*** thasfailifr-,'. s-;,:the lettuce; it doesn't know who -.1lYcleiten-Ifliid out rrenkftpyou mean whenleii SAY the test Mir. Wel telt youlettuce looks awful. yosi fitivss.Th

"Put on too much fertilizer'andraWftluvrffat yotirt Index*,it stays warm; you get too big a-:..f...:Dist that doesn't tell youhead of lettuce. What Is the ,temperature of the soil? Plck "You're stilt Whig on the -to.r_ fsome dirt up in your hands and basis of theseat of your pant*,feel it. You can tell. _ you know. What do you think iii

"Thermometers workflne If going to work?you want to gather a lot of 'You try It. If it works, itstatistical data. All you're doing works.. If It doesn't It doesn't

someone else."Norman is working basically

where his grandfather, a Swissimmigrant, started farming In904. He figured It would take$4 million for someone to startgrowing lettuce and cauliflowerat the level that he's doing it.He estimated_ the land wouldcost $3.2 million,the_equipment another $400,000,and bringing the first year'scrops to the harvest, another$800,000.

"If someone were to come itand buy me out lock stock antbarrel, land and all, I wouldn'ttake lead than $1-1/4 million,"he said. "But I'll never sell theland.

"If none of the children wantto become involved in theoperation, I'll dell out thebusiness and equipment only.I'M not going to move. I'll eitherdo consultingWork Or go tiawork for somebody else. But I'Inever sell the land."

23BEST COPY AVAILABLE

de

Peas must have the right degree ofhardness before canners combines willenter grower's field for the harvest. Bob

Bergum, right, who grew the peps, andRoger Icenogle, left, field foreman forthe Del Monte Corporation, examined

peaEcorn!MLA

BACK TO THE FARMFROM THE GRIDIRON

Tall, muscular Bob Bergumplayed left end for the Detroit_Lions football team for 3 yearsbut he would rather grow peasin WisconSin. He grows themby the ton.

Bob grows peas, along withhis father Eugene and brotherPair!, just north of Madison,Wis. because:

1) There is a processingplant nearby tb can the:1)am

2) It helps with the cashflow during the summer, and

3) Corripeting CrDDS, suchas feed corn, don't pay quite asmuch.

Without any of thcite fadtbra,Bob might very well not growgreen peas for a canningcompany. Unlike many of thevegetable growers of Californiaand Florida, the farmers ofcentral Wisconsin have a reelchoice._ They can growSomething else. They have very

little invested in machin:ry thatis restricted to the growing ofvegetables.

The Bergum brothers andtheir father farm 1,000 Gresnear Rio (pronounced Ryezci inWisconsin), and devoted only80 acres to peas in 1981: Therest were planted to wheat,corn, and soybeans.

"It helps our bargaining _

position with the canners," Bobsaid "They_have to competewith the price of corn. Withfield corn bringing good prices,the canners are finding itharder to find growers."

Wisconsin farmers growslightly more than a million tonsof vegetables for processingeach year, much more than anyother State except California,which grows six times thatamount.

By producing 120 tons ofpeas on 80 acres, Bob is doinghI8 Share.

Generally, Bob plants hispeas the last week In April, but

24,

onicotheCC1

8bar

11'

M uin shovpia!saytheThy

andBot

"Iowrgooaiscthesonthemlif

expingIS s

c tractoNpulledI the crop. Trucksper load.

s signed acannar. In 1981,the Del Monte

d a typical brie:

e a price of soiy I'd like to put:s. They says they wanttance, I mightthat price and:ter with 12.

'plies the seedit from what

Ises all theirprovides asaid: "They

Ispraying andrhey deductg the peas to:ding on the

figures hismome for grow-

acre of landfollowing page;

21'

EXPENSESprimarytillage(his labor)and machine) $8.00

secondarytillage 9.00

RETURNaverageyield

break-evenorice

3,000 lb. (1.5tons) per acre

$160 per ton($239.38+ 1.5tons)

planting 4.50 (with 15%return tofertilizer 30.00 management) $184 per ton

seed 60.00contracted price $1 89 per ton

land cost 96.66

TOTAL $208.164-

Interest(15%) 31.22

NETINCOME $7.50 per acre

Total Ex-penses $239.38

per acre

Three-month-old Ben Bergum learnedto float on his back on the day his pic-ture was taken. His mother, Cheryl,

22'

above, was on vacation from teachingfifth grade and took him into town forswimming lessons.

;:! =

Bob gets the contracted priceonly when his peas registerbetween 96 and 100 on a littlemachine called aTenderometer. The cannersdon't want their peas toosquashy or too hard before theyare cooked in the cans. Theywant them just right.

A Tenderometer is a metalmachine about the size of abasketball, with a long handleoutside and sets of teeth insidethat Tit into each other as thehandle is turned. It looks like abig hand-operated ice crusher.

On the day before Del Montewas to harvest Bob's peas inJune of 1981, Roger Icenogle,field foreman for the canningcompany; visited-the farm andtook samples of Bob's peas tothe Tenderometer. The sampleregistered too soft, and Rogerjudged it would take anotherday for the peas to reach anacceptable level of hardness.

Bob considers farming muchmore of a challenge thanprofessional football.

"In professional footballyou're treated pretty much likea piece of meat." he said. "Ifyou do a good job in farming,the success is right herelooking you in the faceeveryday. There is nobody,elseto -take the credit or the blame."

Both Bob and his wife Sheryl_hold bachelor's degrees. Cherylnot only teaches 5th grade in anearby school but gets involvedin a lot of work around the farmas well. She taught school inMichigan when 6-foot-5-inchBob played for the Lions.

After the football years(1969-71), Bob became acanning equipment salesman.

"But he was gone 40 weeksout of the year, and I said I'mnot going to live this_way,"Cheryl recalled. So Bob askedhis dad if he could come backand farm with him. His dadagreed. Cheryl grew up on adairy farm nearby-and likesliving in the country. She alsolikes "the-family situation,"meaning Bob is home and they5

work and play together a lot.Cheryl drives the tractor whileBob bales the hay.

"When he hollers at me fordriving too slowly, or stopping_abruptly I tell him he'll have tofind another driver;" shelaughed.

Cheryl also helps the mothersheep (ewes) in the springwhen they have trouble bearinglambs. They keep 50 ewes onthe farm, just behind the house,"to keep things cleaned up (thepasture mowed)". There are 30beef cows pastured on another,rented farm.

She bottle feeds the lambswhen they become separatedfrom their mothers because themothers refuse to accept themas their own after separation.

When they first came back tothe farm, Cheryl noticed therewere some afternoons whenBob would be gone and sheknew he wasn't working.Finally; she asked him; "Wherehave you been?" He replied,"just looking." So Cheryl went"looking" with him.

Together, now they drive theroads that border the fieldswhere Bob and Paul haveworked so hard to till the soiland grow their crops. Sheshares the pride of straightrows, green healthy plants, andgood-looking animals.

And the only thing thatfrustrates her is that shedoesn't have enough time to geteverything done.

a;

So few green peas are available freshIn the market the Government stoppedmeasuring their production in 1969.

Some freshly-harvested p4loadesi, above, at one of a(ning plants in Wisconsin.

Y

Early summer harvest of peas permitsplanting another crop In-same field thesame year. At left, Bob Bergum and his

26

brother Pau l measure thewhich soybeans are plantswhere peas had grown:

WINTER BELONGSTO FLORIDAAND MEXICO

When Johnnie Goodnightplants his bell peppers andtomatoes in the grey soil ofsubtropical Collier County; Fla.;he keeps one eye mentallyfixed across the Gulf of Mexico.Mexican growers, particularlythe growers near Culiacan inSinaloa State, are his strongestcompetitors in satisfying theU.S. hunger for freshvegetables in the winter.

Johnnie (it's really John E.,but everyone calls himJohnnie), his father, John ;hisbrother, Gary, and Arthur Floresare in a partnership; growingluscious green bell peppers,tomatoes, and watermelons on840 acres of drained andirrigated land in southwestFlorida. They don't own theland. They lease it from a landcompany.

The Goodnights lease theirland from the CollierDevelopment Corporation,which is said to own at least 80percent-of the farmland inCollier_County. Only a little overa half of the acres theGoodnights lease, though; is incrops. Much is in ditches androads. The Goodnights_ lanted300 acres to bell peppers in1 981; and the rest towatermelons and tomatoes. Theonly land they own is 100 acresthey bought in 1980 to bedeveloped eventually as acitrus grove.

Together, Florida and Mexicoprovide nearly all of the freshvegetables consumed in thewinter months in the UnitedStates. For instance, in thewinter of 1980-81, Mexicoprovided 46 percent of thefresh tomatoes sold-in theUnited Statet from December toApril, and Florida provided 50percent: But each area's shareof the market changes fromyear to year and from month tomonth within any given year.

Mexico supplies most of the

24

4-,

fresh vegetables to the UnitedStates during January,February, and March. Floridasupplies large quantities ineach of those months, butprovides more than 50 percentof the fresh vegetables duringNovember, December, April,and May.

Florida growers areprotected; to an extent; by thiscountry's tariff laws, whichimpose import duties on certainvegetables during certainmonths. Tomatoes coming infrom Mexico, for instance, havea tariff levied on them of 1.5cents or 2.1 cents per pound;depending on the month ofentry. Other vegetables coveredinclude asparagus; cucumbers;beans (other than lima),eggplant, peppers,and squash.

Johnnie Goodnight ispresident of the SouthwestFlorida Winter VegetableGrowers Association, whichcharged that Mexico has"dumped" vegetables on theU.S. market; that iS, Sold themhere at less than the cost of

1

.........:1.

NIP.- ^

ilriZ.; ,f. *.A,_

.444i' A ."

I; , 2-#

production: The FederalGovernment ruled that theMekicari growers Were notdumping, but the associationappealed that decision to theU.S. COurt of InternationalTrade in New York City.

"There's nothing quite likethe vegetable business if aguy's kicky enough to Strikewhile the gettin's good,"Johnnie said: The prices thatJohnnie gets_for his peppersrange from $6 to $18 a cartonover the weeks and through theyears. In the spring of 1981;Some farmers in Collier CotintYsimply didn't harvest theirpeppers when the price offeredthem WaS $6 a carton (whichcontains 1=1/9 bushel).

"At $6 a carton; I losemoney," Johnnie explained. "At$10 a carton I make a lot ofmoney."

There are a lot of "ifs" in thenumber* but this IS the wayJohnnie figures his net incomeon the peppers:

He averages a production of750 cartons to the acre. It costs

At left, Johnnie Good-night, who majored ineconomics in college,grows two crops_ofvegetables ,-tall throughspring, on 840 acres ofleased land in Florida

At right, bell pepper har-vesters, many of themHaitians, were paid 40cents for each bucket ofpeppers picked in the

.-Goodnight operation in.'1981, earning about $45

a day. Labor was Good-nights'_largest cost itemin 1980, reaching nearly$400,000.

I

him $3,500 an acre to grow andharvest the peppers (nearly halfthe cost_ is for harvesting). Thatmeans, on the average, heneeds_$4.26 a carton to breakeven. But he must pay thepacking company in nearbyImmokalee about $2 as a salescommission. So Johnnie reallyneeds abbUt $6.26 a crate tobreak even.

If his production soars to1;200 cartons to the acre. ofcourse, he can sell for lessmoney and still break even:

The 6-dollar price; by theway, is for !laege" peppers, thetop of the line. If -some ofJohnnie's peppers are gradedless than "large" at the packinghouse, his price will be loweredaccordingly.

Johnnie says the freshproduce market is one of thetrue- supply_and demandmarkets left in the world today.He doesn't know whether hispeppers are sold until a dealhas been struck over thetelephone:

One day in Aptil of 1981

Johnnie was watching hisharvesters_ pick peppers thathadn't, as far as Johnnie knew;been sold yet. He only knewthey had to be picked, becausethey were mature. Peppers aregood for picking for only 2 or 3days.

"Today, they're talking $10for large," Johnnie mused."We're picking peppers and oursalesman is trying to get $1_0._Ifhe sells out by 9 o'clock, he isselling them too cheap. If thereare no buyers by afternoon,he's tciti high. If 8 or 10 peoplewon't pay $10, you knowthere's something to it. Theprice is up to the salesman. Hecan come down to $5 withoutseeing me."

Johnnie's operation ismedium size by SouthwestFlorida standards. There aresome small farmers with lessthan 200 acres invegetables.The medium size farms rangefrom 400 to about 800 acres.Then there are some largefarmers who own or' leaseseveral thousand acres.

2s

Johnnie said the Goodnightenterprise hadn't shown a profitin-2 years. In the spring of1981, he figured it was$950,000 in debt. Yet he wasconfident this would diminishconsiderably as the harvest ofvegetables progressed.

Johnnie's fuel bill ran$12,000 to $15,000 a month in1981. Most of that goes intopumping waterout of thefields in the wet season andinto the fields in the dryseason. Vegetable growers insouthwest Florida are virtuallywater engineers, They don'tirrigate by sprinkling overheador by running water betweenthe rows of crops. Rather; theydig big ditches at the edges ofthe fields and fill them up withwater to the level of the rootzone. The water then seepsthrough the ground to thevegetable plants. Naturally, thisis called seepage irrigation;

The greatest expense of thepartnership is labor, which costthem about $400,000 in 1980.Labor is so important to theenterprise that the Goodnighttmade a former crew chief apartner in the firm: ArthurFlores owns 25 percent of thefarm. Usually the crew chief isan independent operator whoprovides a given number ofharvesters for an agreed-uponprice.

Johnnie is worried aboutinflation. His costs of operationhave climbed unremittingly inrecent years.

"There may come a day when-only the extremely rich will beable to afford freshvegetables," he said. "Everytime an auto worker or a steelworker is itid_off, I lose acustomer. The unemployeddon't eat fresh fruits andvegetables. They eat beans andrice."

"I worry as much about thatguy losing his job as he does.Whiiti-itdbmatto making achoice, this (pointing to the bellpeppers) is what they'll dowithout."

25

Many of the tomatoes grown in Floridato be sold fresh rather than processed,are held off the ground by strings thatare tied to sialces_between plants:Compared to California's machine har-vest. fresh market tomatoes are pidkedby hand so there is less danger of theirbeing bruised before reaching themarket. _Most such_ tomatoes are pickedwhile they are green but mature; thenplaced in a controlled-atmosphereripening room before shipping.

26

4

ti

29

IDAHOANSGROW POTATOES

They grew 7.8 billionpoundsof potatoes in Idaho in 1980far more than in any other stateand a quarter of all the spudsgrown in the whole country thatyear.

Ferrell Palmer did his share.His 475 acres near Aberdeenproduced 13 million pounds ofpotatoes that year, enough tomake 52 million servings ofFrench fries. He made moneyon them, too, selling them at anaverage of $6 perhundredweight, or 6 cents apound. It cost him 3 cents apound just to grow them.

A year earlier; Ferrell sold hispotatoes for 2.5 cents a pound,which is less than it cost togrow them. Some yearsFerrellcalls them "the bankruptyears"he sold potatoes at ahalf a cent a pound.

Fortunately; potatoes don'thave to be_sold the day theyare dug. Ferrell stores thepotatoes he harvests in the fallin huge metal buildings wherethe atmosphere is controlled toenhance storage time, and inother half-buried buildings hecalls cellars, where fans keepthe air moving over themountains of potatoes allwinter. Ferrell keeps an eye onthe markets and tries to get thebest price being offeredbetween September and Aprilfor cellar-atored potatoes, andbetween September and Julyfor the potatoes stored in acontrolled atmosphere.

Potatoes that will be soldfresh =that is, in their originalformwill bring him the mostmoney. Many of his sales are toprocessors, who make Ferrell'sspuds into potato chips; Frenchfries; or dehydrated potatoes.Quite often, a processor willtake the best - looking potatoesof those bought for processingand resell them in the freshmarket.

One of Ferrell's problems isthat fresh-market buyers don't

Baking _potatoes.Ferrell Palmer grof tons. Palmer i;breed, though_; oiduced potatoes i

they were counted,_down 80 percentInds from 1963. Potato production has in-

creased in that time, though. Most po-r0- tatoes are processed rather than of-Par fared fresh in the supermarket.

27

want off-shaped potatoes. Eventhe processors discount priceson them. But these too big, toosmall; or weird-looking potatoesmight represent a third of afarmer's crop.

For years, the farmers havebeen "giving" these misshapenpotatoes to the processors, wholower their prices because ofthem._

So Ferrell found a use forthese "roughs," as they arecalled: He built a large distilleryon his farm; which makesalcohol out of chopped "rough"potatoes. He plans to use thealcohol in running hismachinery. IIn -facts he plans tocut his fuel bill in half once hismachinery has been adapted tothe burning of alcohol:

Ferrell has begun to use themash that is left over from thedistillation process to feed tohis cattle as a proteinsupplement. Practically all ofthe carbohydrates have beeneliminated: The cattle love it.

Other cattlemen_and dairyfarmers have inquired aboutbuying the mash that Ferrelldoesn't use. Fuel distributorsfrom as far away as Oregon andCalifornia have inquired aboutbuying his surplus alcohol.

Ferrell believes the newdistillery must be operated 300days a year to be efficient. Hedoesn't think he'll run out ofpotatoes because at themoment, he can get all therough potatoes he wants atother farms just by haulingthem away.

So what was once a problemfor Ferrell now a whole newbusiness for him.

28

er14116.---

Relatives and. friends play Importantroles in harvesting Palmer's potatoes.Above, his 14-year-old daughter Caro-line, right, and her friend, Vivian Booth,earned $3.75 an hour pulling stones

MIL

,

-

and dirt chunks off the conveyor beltloaded with machine-dug potatoes.Below, cleaning by men and womencontinued in the farmyard alongsidebelt that leads to bay storage.

At left, misshapen potatoes (roughs) arethe raw material of the 190-proof al-cohol that Ferrell Palmer produces inthis half-million-dollar distillery. En-zymes convert starch to sugar, whichyeast in fermentation tanks converts toalcohol.

Aj

,

at the entrance to a 176- of potatoes_ Twin bay adjoining heldtorage bay that held the another 2,500 tons. A storage cellar-of-50;000-1-00-pound-sacks- nearby could hold 6 million pounds.

32

4-4

and his sons also plant 20acres to tobacco; 8 acres tocucumbers, 10 acres tostringbeans, and 80 acres tofield corn. The fields that havebeen planted to vegetablesearly in the year are followed inthe same year with still anothercrop, such as soybeans.

"So farwe've-been able toget along," William said, "Overthe years we've fared about aswell farming as we would haveworking for others. I've alwaysbeen a small farmer. That's all I

intend to be."He has just the right amount

of water storage with a 6-acrepond and a "water hole" to beable to irrigate the 146 acresthat he tills. AS William puts it"I can wet all I can tend."

"I wouldn't want to gamble onbig equipment atmy age," he.3aid. William is 54. "I preferthat my sons not either. Onecrop failure this day and timeand it hurts:"

That's the principal reason he

Ai/ AMMM.

grows vegetables."You've got to have too many

acres to live on corn alone," heSaid.

The auction at Faison, 5miles from the James' farm,serves about 400 farmers justlike the James from about May20 to August 1. With enoughroom for about 15 trucks at onetimepickups full of freshproducethe Faison Fruit andVegetable Exchangels a raresurvivor of another age. Onlyone other market, located inNew Jersey, is comparablylarge.

Farmers bring in squash;beans, cucumbers, bellpeppers; eggplant; butternutsquash, acorn squash, and hotpeppers to be auctioned off tothe highest bidder.

On July 1, 1981, there were 15buyers in the market biddingfor the vegetables which hadbeen graded for size andmaturity by governmentinspectors. They followed the

auctioneer, Jimmy Jolliff,around the enclosed area in acluster, from pickup to pickup,to make their bids.

The day before, the exchangehad handled $289,000 worth ofsales, and the day before that$378,000. About 25,000 cratesof peppers and 5,000 bushelsof cucumbers were shipped outeach day to places-as far awayas Texas, Minnesota, andCanada.

"There will always be smallfarmers," said Harold S.Precythe, president of the

At left, William James will harvest afield of bell peppers four times as indi-vidual peppers matureif the pricestays up: Sometimes the price Jamesgets won't pay the cost of harvesting.

Washing and separating_the _peppers bygrade in the field were; below. James!_ _

wife; 4en; right; and neighbors Mrs: PatHolland and Mrs. Judy Hardison. Mrs.James also helps with tobacco crop.

Faison Exchange, "So thismarket will always be here."

Snodie Wilson, Duplin CountyAgricultural Extension Agent,said the small farmer growsvegetables because of thepotential for high net income onsmall acreage. The prices mustencourage them because NorthCarolina ships more bellpeppers in July than any otherState in the Union, and, whenJune and July are combined,that State ships morecucumbers than any otherState. In a world governedalmost entirely by supply anddemandihe fresh producemarketthere is plenty ofdemand for the North Carolinasmall farmer's produce duringthose few weeks of June andJuly.

The James' family got $13.25per crate (1-1/9 bushel) fortheir largest peppers on July 1,and $8.70 per crate for the rest.

Extension economists andhorticulturists-estimate thatDuplin_County farmers earn$293.77 an acre on theirpepper crops, counting all oftheir cash expenses plus suchother costs as depreciatLon andtheir own management. That'swith peppers selling at $5 perbushel. Other vegetables wouldbring the following: cucumbers,$291 per acre; snap beans,$223.80 per acre, and summersquash, $410.44 per acre.

None of the vegetable cro_pscompare well, however, withreturns on acreage devoted toflue-cured tobacco. On amedium-sized plantingof 25acres, flue cured tobaccoreturns the owner $1,369.92per acre. But the amount ofacreage that each farmer canplant is restricted by thegovernment after farmers havevoted for a restriction in areferendum.

31

At right, Linda Lynn Kornega_y, a Stateinspector, looked over the bell peppersoffered by Melvin James in the FaisonProduce Auction Market, checking themfor defects, size and maturity, accord-ing to federal standards. Buyers bidafter she marked the crates.

32

At left, harvester Robert Carlton helpedMelvin James load pickup with peppersto be driven to market. Pickers are localpeople. who also help the Jameses withtheir labor-intensive tobacco crop.

o U. 8, GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1982 368.866

telt vegetablesiy of the farmersIly 25-30 acres.

raphs may betography Division,

and PublicS. Department ofin; _Mt; 20250:vailable free toy a small fee.

A,of ..f