MARKET GAEDENING. 101 



to them. Although the business, when well managed, is 

 profitable, more so than general farming, it is one which re- 

 quires large capital, very close attention, and has pretty 

 heavy risks in a dry season like the present. 



Mr. Paul. I wish to ask how long should a pump be 

 kept running in order to moisten the earth? 



Mr. Philbrick. That depends entirely upon the charac- 

 ter of the soil. There are some soils which will soak water 

 readily, and there are others, more compact in their nature, 

 which will soak it slowly. It is a matter of experiment. 

 You must have water enough to soak the roots ; if not, it is 

 worse than nothing. When you have done that, it will last 

 perhaps a week or ten days, depending upon how near the 

 roots run to the surface. Roots that run deep may be 

 watered less frequently. Another point is the use of water 

 in bringing up seed. We have to sow seeds at all seasons 

 of the year, and unless we have a shower directly after we 

 sow, the seed will not come up. That was the case this 

 year with spinach. The time when that is sown for a fall 

 market is the latter part of August. This year, it was so 

 dry that all the seed sown in August and September failed 

 to germinate, unless artificially watered, until the first of 

 October ; then it was so late that it was very doubtful 

 whether it would last during the winter. This crop is a 

 very profitable one. I had a patch this season, about the 

 size of this hall, which brought me fifty dollars. I might 

 just as well have had an acre of it. 



Mr. George Hill of Arlin2:ton. After the remarks of 

 the gentleman who opened this discussion and what has been 

 said by others, it seems as though but very little was left for 

 me to say. I hardly know where to begin, and, if I begin, 

 I am afraid I shall hardly know where to leave oflT. We 

 tire now ffoins; throui^h a time different from what I have 

 ever known before. For the last twenty years, since the 

 war was ended, we have had in market o:ardening a orreat 

 deal more competition than we ever had before, and the 

 question is often asked whether we are going to stand up 

 under it or not, whether we can go on and compete with the 

 South. I hardly think I am able to answer that question, 

 but I will say that, for one, I do not think it is any use to 



