MARKET GARDENING. 97 



We plan to work about twelve hours a day, averaging 

 from eleven to twelve. In the summer we commence at five 

 and work until half-past six, going home to dinner. In the 

 winter time, from about six o'clock until half-past five. 



The item of labor with us is very important, — perhaps 

 nearly half of our expense. It requires about thirty men to 

 carry on my place in the summer, and twenty in the winter, 

 so you will see that the labor expense is very great. Our 

 labor costs from a dollar and a half to two dollars a day. 



I will not speak of any particular crops, but this subject 

 of irrigation, it seems to me, is a most important one in the 

 line of market gardening at the present time, and I think it 

 will not be lonfj before the market gardeners who raise veo^e- 

 tables to any extent will all have steam pumps, for you can 

 pump your water very much cheaper than any of you would 

 think. It requires capital, of course, to get a boiler and 

 steam pump, but a thousand dollars expended in that way is 

 the best thousand dollars you can spend in a dry year. You 

 can take your water from a pond or river or driven well. I 

 think there are but a few places where wells cannot be driven 

 and suflScient water for irri<ratiou be obtained from them. 

 There are two market gardeners in Arlington who are 

 putting up quite extensive works for irrigation, and one 

 of them gets his water from a pond, the other from driven 

 wells. 



Question. I would like to inquire of the gentleman if 

 he has used a windmill ? 



Mr. Rawson. Yes, sir ; I have two windmills and two 

 steam pumps, and they all work well. Take them alto- 

 gether, they pump considerable water. The windmill is 

 good as far as it goes, but it does not go a great ways when 

 the wind don't blow. Unless you have a very large reser- 

 voir, you cannot get sufficient water from a windmill, be- 

 cause sometimes I have seen three or four days in succession 

 when there would not be a breath of wind. I have two 

 windmills, and I have put two steam pumps under the wind- 

 mills, and whenever the wind does not blow outside, we can 

 make it blow inside, so that we can make the pumps work 

 some way. 



Question. What distance do you force the water? 



