truck farming, horticultural practice of growing one or more vegetable crops on a large scale for shipment to distant markets. It is usually less intensive and diversified than market gardening. At first this type of farming depended entirely on local or regional markets. As the use of railroads and large-capacity trucks expanded and refrigerated carriers were introduced, truck farms spread to the cheaper lands of the West and South, shipping seasonal crops to relatively distant markets where their cultivation is limited by climate. The major truck-farming areas are in California, Texas, Florida, along the Atlantic Coastal Plain, and in the Great Lakes area. Centers for specific crops vary with the season. Among the most important truck crops are tomatoes, lettuce, melons, beets, broccoli, celery, radishes, onions, cabbage, and strawberries.

organic farming, the practice of raising plants—especially fruits and vegetables, but ornamentals as well—without the use of synthetic pesticides, herbicides, or fertilizers. In the United States, as elsewhere, awareness of the environmental damage and threats to health (see pollution; environmentalism) caused by DDT, dieldrin, and other insecticides and by the excessive use of chemical fertilizers has fostered interest in organic gardening, particularly among home gardeners. Organic gardeners use short-lived, biodegradable pest-killers or biological pest control and prefer manure for fertilizer. Organic farming on a large scale is both difficult and costly, but a small, steady market for organically grown, or "natural," foods supports a limited commercial effort in the United States. See also Integrated Pest Management; organic food.

farming the taxes: see farming, in taxation.

farming, in agriculture: see agriculture.

farming, in the history of taxation, collection of taxes through private contractors. Usually, the tax farmer paid a lump sum to the public treasury; the difference between that sum and the sum actually collected represented his profit or loss. Although tax farming is no longer practiced, it was common in the cities of ancient Greece and in republican Rome, where the collection of direct taxes was farmed out to publicans; in the Roman Empire only indirect taxes were farmed. In the past, tax farming was practiced in most countries of Europe and Asia. In England the system was tried briefly but played no important part. It was most fully applied in France after 1681, when Jean Baptiste Colbert founded the general farms as an agency of royal administration. The collection of certain indirect taxes was leased by the king to the company of farmers general, a chartered body of 40 financiers (at one time they numbered 60) that guaranteed a fixed sum of revenue in advance. Popular hatred soon developed against the huge profits and extortionist practices of the farmers general, whose organization was abolished (1791) in the French Revolution; some 30 former members of the farm—Antoine Lavoisier among them—were guillotined in the Reign of Terror.

dry farming, farming system adopted in areas having an annual rainfall of approximately 15 to 20 in. (38.1-50.8 cm)—with much of the rainfall in the spring and early summer—where irrigation is impractical. Seeding rates are used that correspond to the soil water supply; management practices that minimize water loss and soil erosion are also utilized. The land is often summer-fallowed (not used for crops) in alternate years to conserve moisture. Dry-land crops must be either drought-resistant or drought-evasive, i.e., maturing in late spring or fall; special varieties of crops such as wheat, barley, corn, sorghum, and rye are often used.

Agricultural system in which landowners rent their land to farmers and receive either cash or a share of the product in return. Landowners may also contribute operating capital and management. Under one arrangement, known as sharecropping, the landowner furnishes all the capital and sometimes the food, clothing, and medical expenses of the tenant and may also supervise the work. The sharecropper then pays the landowner with a portion of the output grown on the land. In other forms of tenant farming, the tenant may furnish all the equipment and have substantial autonomy in the farm's operation. Tenants and their families probably constitute two-fifths of the world's population engaged in agriculture. Tenant farming can be highly efficient, as has been shown in England and Wales. Abuses occur when landowners' power is excessive and the tenants are poor or of inferior social status.

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Form of farming in which nearly all the crops or livestock raised are used to maintain the farmer and his family, leaving little surplus for sale or trade. Preindustrial agricultural peoples throughout the world practiced subsistence farming. As urban centers grew, agricultural production became more specialized and commercial farming developed, with farmers producing a sizable surplus of certain crops, which they traded for manufactured goods or sold for cash. Subsistence farming persists today in sub-Saharan Africa and other developing areas.

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Raising birds commercially or domestically for meat, eggs, and feathers. Chickens, ducks, turkeys, and geese are the birds of primary commercial importance. Guinea fowl and squabs are chiefly of local interest. Though chickens have been domesticated for at least 4,000 years, their meat and eggs have been mass-production commodities only since circa 1800.

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or organic gardening

System of crop cultivation that uses biological methods of fertilization and pest control as substitutes for chemical fertilizers and pesticides, which are regarded by supporters of organic methods as harmful to health and the environment and unnecessary for successful cultivation. It was initiated as a conscious rejection of modern agri-chemical techniques in the 1930s by the British agronomist Sir Albert Howard. Miscellaneous organic materials, including animal manure, compost, grass turf, straw, and other crop residues, are applied to fields to improve both soil structure and moisture-holding capacity and to nourish soil life, which in turn nourishes plants. (Chemical fertilizers, by contrast, feed plants directly.) Biological pest control is achieved through preventive methods, including diversified farming, crop rotation, the planting of pest-deterrent species, and the use of integrated pest management techniques. Bioengineered strains are avoided. Since organic farming is time-consuming, organically grown produce tends to be expensive. Organic produce formerly accounted for a minuscule portion of total American farm output, but it has seen a huge proportional increase in sales in recent years.

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or till-less agriculture

Cultivation technique in which the soil is disturbed only along the slit or hole into which seeds are planted. Reserved detritus from previous crops covers and protects the seedbed. Primary benefits are a decreased rate of soil erosion; reduced need for equipment, fuel, and fertilizer; and significantly less time required for tending crops. The method also improves soil-aggregate formation, microbial activity in the soil, and water infiltration and storage. Conventional tillage controls weed growth by plowing and cultivating, but no-till farming selectively uses herbicides to kill weeds and the remains of the previous crop. No-till farming is one of several primitive farming methods revived as conservation measures in the 20th century.

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or fish farming or mariculture

Rearing of fish, shellfish, and some aquatic plants to supplement the natural supply. Fish are reared in controlled conditions worldwide. Though most aquaculture supplies the commercial food market, many governmental agencies engage in it to stock lakes and rivers for sport fishing. It also supplies goldfish and other decorative fish for home aquariums and bait fish for sport and commercial fishing. Carp, trout, catfish, tilapia, scallops, mussels, lobsters, and oysters are well-known species raised through aquaculture.

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Form of animal husbandry that uses mammals, primarily cows, for the production of milk and products processed from it (including butter, cheese, and ice cream). Though cattle, goats, and sheep have been kept for the production of dairy products since the earliest historical times, modern dairy farming resulted from the technological advances of the past hundred years: the factory system for processing; sterile storage; refrigeration, fast vehicles and paved roads; and pasteurization and the enforcement of food-safety laws. Outstanding dairy breeds include the Holstein, Guernsey, Jersey, Ayrshire, and Brown Swiss.

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