No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. ^ 247 



COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS. 



Truckers who use green manures to the exclusion of stable 

 manures generally find it profitable to employ commercial fertilizers 

 more freely. The plant food contained in green manures does not 

 become available so quickly as that of stable manures. It is ordin- 

 arily less expensive, however, and certainly less troublesome to 

 buy plant food in the condensed forms of commercial fertilizer. 

 AVhen fertilizers are purchased the best forms should be procured at 

 the least cost and combined in such a manner as to be the most 

 valuable for the crops to be grown \n order to have entire control 

 of all problems connected with the preparation and use of fertilizers, 

 home mixing is advocated and practiced to a considerable extent. 

 The advantages of home mixing are well known by many Pennsyl- 

 vania gardeners. 



THE VALUE OF GREENHOUSES. 



If there is any one thing needed more than another among the 

 market gardeners of Pennsylvania, it is more greenhouses. Too 

 many men are depending upon hotbeds for all work requiring glass 

 when greenhouses would serve their purposes to much greater 

 advantage. Hotbeds are not economical neither are they convenient 

 to operate. So far as uniform results are concerned all points are 

 in favor of greenhouses. Ventilation, temperature and moisture 

 are much better controlled in greenhouses and a properly con- 

 structed and heated greenhouse is a source of pleasure to the 

 farmer's family during the winter time when farm life is not so 

 attractive as at other seasons of the year. It is not difficult to 

 make the greenhouse pay a profit by forcing crops before it is time 

 to sow seeds for the early vegetable plants to be planted in the 

 open ground. 



MARKET PROBLEMS. 



A great many men succeed admirably in the production of fine 

 vegetables, but do not realize a profit because of failure to market 

 the produce in the right condition and in the right packages. The 

 first essential is rigid grading or sorting. One inferior specimen in 

 the package may repel buyers or result in an abnormally low price. 

 Every specimen strictly first class in size, shape, color and sound- 

 ness will go far towards getting the best price. The second essential 

 is the right kind of a package. Most packages are too large. They 

 are too large because produce carries to market better in small 

 packages, and small packages are attractive and popular with the 

 consumers because they may be carried home with very little in- 

 convenience. A day or two spent at the retail stores of our cities 

 should convince the most skeptical of the merits of the small pack- 

 age. The right kind of a package embraces the idea of using a 

 clean package. Soiled and discolored baskets and crates are always 

 repulsive to buyers all along the line of middle men as well as the 

 consumers. Vegetables to sell well must look well. This is the 

 great fundamental principle which should be kept in mind by the 

 packer. It is absolutely necessary to give the vegetables an at- 

 tractive appearance. Catch the eye and the bargain is more than 

 half made. Skillful and intelligent marketing is unquestionably 

 the most important item in securing maximum profits. 



