Moving Perishables to Market: Southern Railroads and the Ninetennth -Century Origins of Southern Truck Farming By: James L. McCorkle, Jr http://www.jstor.org/pss/3743542 The above is an interesting little article. It helps me understand my father's success as a produce broker at the State Farmers Market in Thomasville, Ga. My parents married in 1929 and my BigMama lived with them. She had a big Packard (car). BigMama loaned Daddy her car to go out into the country and buy vegetables. He would load that Packard as full as he could get it. Then he came back to town & sold the vegetables to little neighborhood grocery stores (No Winn Dixie's then). Eventually, with help from local politicians, Daddy got the State of Georgia to build a Farmers Market., this c1940. Then the farmers brought their vegetables to be auctioned. My Daddy was the first buyer on the market and occupied stalls 1 & 2, until his death in December 1979. I worked with him some seasons and learned a lot about marketing the vegetables, fruits & pecans and the shipping too. When food was no longer seasonal here, he would drive down to Pompano Beach, Plant City or Miami Florida areas and buy whatever was fresh there and load a 10 Wheeler (big truck). Then he would transport that food to the Farmers Market in Atlanta and Hendersonville, NC. Then he went off the side of a mountain with his truck in the dead of night c1954. He had a broken neck and that finished my his driving his own truck and he had to hire it done. Today the Thomasville State Farmers Market is 2nd in size, only to Atlanta's......We've come a long way baby...... Now go stoke that fire...... Winnette --- avast! Antivirus: Outbound message clean. Virus Database (VPS): 100107-1, 01/07/2010 Tested on: 1/8/2010 11:05:58 AM avast! - copyright (c) 1988-2010 ALWIL Software. http://www.avast.com