SOIL AND CAPITAL REQUIRED. 25 



early crops, do best on a warm, sandy loam. If the soil is a 

 dr}^ loose gravel, it is utterly unfit for any kind of gardening. 

 Stiff clay and boggy lands, when well drained, often make 

 excellent garden-land, especially for late crops. 



The capital needed for gardening is larger than would be 

 supposed by one unacquainted with the business. For gar- 

 dens near market, five hundred dollars per acre is often profit- 

 ably employed, invested in buildings, teams, tools, hot-beds, 

 manure, &c. ; and the force on such gardens is about one 

 horse to every three acres of land, and in summer, one hand 

 to every acre. On the more remote gardens a less capital 

 and force are used, the capital ranging from one hundred to 

 two hundred dollars per acre, and the force, one horse and 

 one man for two to five acres. 



The methods used by the market-gardeners to make the 

 most of their land are very ingenious, and deserve a more 

 careful and extended study than can be given them in the 

 limited time at our command to-day ; but it may be useful to 

 notice some of the plans in use, by which they force our 

 naturally sterile soil and fickle climate to produce two, 

 three, and even four crops in a year, from the same land, 

 and keep our markets supplied through the arctic weather of 

 our long winters with delicacies whose natural home is in the 

 tropical zone. 



The crops grown upon the gardens within six miles of the 

 city are mostly spinach, kale, radishes, dandelions, beet-greens, 

 beets, early cabbages, lettuce, onions, to be followed upon the 

 same land by the late crops, wliich are melons, squashes, 

 tomatoes, egg-plants, peppers, cauliflowers, celery, horse-rad- 

 ish, beets, carrots, parsnips. The only crops which occupy 

 the land for the whole year are rhubarb and dandelions ; and 

 some gardeners grow a crop of onion sets on the same land 

 with their dandelions. In the management of these various 

 crops so as to meet a profitable sale, and also not to crowd 

 and injure each other, the skill and experience of the gar- 

 dener are shown. To accomplish his purposes msxnj ingen- 

 ious devices are used for forcing early crops, and for storing 

 the late ones, so as to keep up an unfailing supply the year 

 round. In general, only two crops are raised upon the same 

 land in a season; but instances are not uncommon where 

 three, and even four crops in a year are taken from one piece 



4 



