MAEKET GA31DEXIXG. 85 



for deep ploughing and light manuring will not return as 

 large a crop as shallow ploughing and light manuring. What 

 is heavy manuring? Market gardeners do not consider fif- 

 teen or twenty cords of manure, as it comes from the stable, 

 too much for an acre ; but farmers would call it extravao-ant 

 waste to apply that quantity. The market gardener judges 

 from his standpoint, and that is measured by the ability of 

 the land to produce two or more crops in one season that will 

 pay him a large return in money. The farmer estimates the 

 value of one crop in a year, of hay or corn, to be fed, per- 

 haps, to produce milk for which, this winter, he is graciously 

 allowed to receive about thirt}"" cents for a can of 8i quarts. 

 Both are right ; the one can afford the outlay,- while the 

 other cannot. 



There are certain other requisites for the gardener in order 

 to produce the best results, and among these must be reck- 

 oned not only an abundance of manure to fully carry the 

 crops through the season, but much of this manure must be 

 in such a condition as to be immediately available for the 

 young plants, so that they may not be pinched at the critical 

 time of their existence, but may have that food at hand that 

 enables a plant to start and grow with vigor. 



Plants so nourished will make larger and better specimens, 

 will withstand disease and the ravages of insects, and will 

 give a more profitable return for the labor and use of the 

 land. Market gardeners generally use stable manure rather 

 than commercial fertilizers, and situated as most of them are 

 in regard to land, it is probably the best practice for them to 

 adopt. Most of them cultivate from four to twenty acres 

 each, and it is all under hoed crops. By this constant crop- 

 ping the soil would in a few years become exhausted of a 

 large portion of its vegetable matter, wej"e it not returned 

 by these heavy applications of stable manure. Then the 

 mechanical effect of stable manure serves to loosen and 

 lighten the soil, whereby it more readily receives the benefit 

 of the air, rain, sun and dews. 



I have thought that if a gardener had a few more acres of 

 land than he Avished to keep in hoed crops, he could grow 

 crops of grass on some acres. These grass lots, Avhen put 

 under cultivation again, would be found to have acquired a 



