288 ILLINOIS STATE HOBTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



I say capital first, for no man with his wits about him will attempt 

 to make a start in this business without sufficient money to purchase his 

 outfit of horses, wagons and the necessary tools, besides at least ^z^<? three 

 by six-foot sashes for each acre of ground cultivated, and in addition to 

 all this he should have not less than five hundred dollars, in cash, for each 

 ten acres, with which to pay running expenses until his growing crops 

 shall commence to make returns. Year after year we see men embarking 

 in this business without these before-mentioned requisites, and in quite 

 every case lamentable failure has been the result. 



The era of high prices for the products of the vegetable garden has 

 passed away. When money could be loaned for from ten to twenty per 

 cent.; when laborers and mechanics received from two-and-a-half to five 

 dollars per day, then gardeners could get prices commensurate with the 

 cost of production and something of profit besides; but now, when 

 money is loaned at from five to eight per cent., and against this is assessed 

 annually, as taxes, from three to five per cent., then it becomes even the 

 ordinary capitalist to "go slow" in his expenditures, that he may not 

 impair that capital; and, as vegetables are a prime necessity upon his 

 table, he seeks to produce to a certain extent his own supply. 



The laborer and mechanic also, who while they received large prices 

 for their labor could buy without stint, and at big prices too, as it would 

 not pay them to lose time to cultivate a garden then; now the very low 

 rate of prices at which they are obliged to labor compels them to curtail 

 their expenses and reduce them to the very lowest limit, and in order to 

 do this they dig up the little garden plots, with the assistance of wives 

 and children, perhaps, plant them, and in this way, after a fashion, manage 

 to supply partly, if not wholly, their own tables with what vegetables 

 they need. Therefore, from these causes the sales from the market 

 garden are more restricted than formerly. 



In no business does a man require more brains, in order to be thor- 

 oughly successful, than in market gardening, as his discernment must not 

 only be acute as to what to plant, but how and when. He must not rely 

 altogether upon watching his neighbor as to what he is planting, but must 

 judge for himself as to what the wants of his customers will require. His 

 neighbor's how should not be his, unless he has thoroughly proved its 

 adaptability to his circumstances. As to the when, that should be the 

 result of close observation and good judgment born of experience. 



A business of this character not backed up and pressed with energy 

 will be a failure from the start, as it must be the operator ready for the 

 season, and not the season waiting for the operator. Nature is always 

 ready with her proper appliances at the proper season, and will occupy 

 the ground with a crop of her own sowing if man is not ready to substi- 

 tute seed of his selection in place of hers, and also to assist, through 

 cultivation, the growing and maturing of it. 



Executive ability, though considered last, is by no means least in 

 importance to the gardener; he must not only cater to the various wants 

 of nature and the requirements of his growing crop, but he has also his 

 force of laborers to look after; and here, in the economic and proper 



