SUCCESSFUL JN RAISING VEGETABLES 



183 



will sell all your load? h must be dis- 

 couraging to bring hack two or three 

 loads, when you find the market is al- 

 ready supplied." 



"Thirteen years ago I began to pre- 

 vent that by clearing the course of 

 such snags. I recall, as if it had hap- 

 pened yesterday, that 1 went to Stam- 

 ford, called at the various markets and 

 said, '1 am going to take orders to sup- 

 ply first-class vegetables." The reply 

 in nearly every instance was, 'Bring 

 along your vegetables and we will look 

 them over and perhaps buy some.' My 

 reply was, 'I am not doing business 

 in that way. The vegetables not sold 

 will not be kept over nor thrown 

 away ; they will stay in the ground. If 

 you want a half dozen heads of lettuce 

 on next market day you may have 

 them. You also may have a carload of 

 vegetables if you want it, but you can- 

 not get the half dozen nor the carload 

 without a definite order in advance.' 

 That seemed to be a new idea foi 

 Stamford, but I have always consid- 

 ered it the only proper basis for suc- 

 cessful market gardening. I check up 

 every load and I have a bill for every 

 customer. He knows what he is going 

 to get and I know what I am going to 

 get." 



"It looks to me," I said, "as if you 

 had a good deal more in this business 

 than a mere liking for it. The liking for 

 market gardening seems to have been 

 born in you, but you must have ac- 

 quired the necessary mental training in 



running that grocer) business in Mt. 

 Vernon. I have known (and here I 

 could not refrain from reverting to my 

 theorizing) I have known some nat- 

 uralists who love nature so well they 

 lie all day asleep under a tree, but they 

 never get much out of nature nor do 

 they confer much benefit upon their 

 fellow beings. One must apply sys- 

 tem and hard work to make anything 

 worth while. In dealing with nature 

 there must be varied, careful system 

 because of her widely varied products 

 and interests. You seem to have suc- 

 cessfully combined an enthusiastic 

 heart with a sound systematic body 

 and you devote the partnership in the 

 managing of this farm. You have done 

 a good deal out of the ordinary, and I 

 am going to photograph you, whether 

 you give me permission or not. I am 

 a better judge of that than you are. I 

 intend to photograph you and some of 

 your work, not to advertise your mar- 

 ket gardening, but to induce others to 

 emulate your example in some other 

 department of life. I believe that I 

 can show some of our general natural- 

 ists that there must be more than love 

 of the work. I do not believe that lack 

 of knowledge is the reason why so 

 many farmers move to the city. You 

 will note that the combination is Heart 

 and Head. The Heart or affection must 

 come first. This finds a fitting partner 

 in Head. When you were weighing 

 sugar in Mt. Vernon or delivering a 

 cake of soap, there must have been 



HE CHECKS EVERV ITEM OF EVKRY ORDER. 



