206 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



etables off, I sowed all of it that I could in cowpeas. They grew 

 up, standing two feet high, and in September I turned the whol i 

 crop under and manured it again that winter. The next year I 

 planted it in vegetables, and I gathered off of it and sent to the 

 provision store of the Missouri penitentiary $1,800 worth of vege- 

 tables. I continued the same process the following year; and 

 what I did during the year 1908 is almost an incredible story. If 

 I had not done this myself, I would be inclined to think that the 

 story I am going to tell you was "fishy;" but these vegetables have 

 been gathered, and have gone into the dining-room, and I will now 

 proceed to give you the proceeds of that garden for the year 1908. 

 I hope that you, gentlemen, will not be misled by anything which 

 I may say here, because the first essential thing that will enable 

 a man to succeed on a garden of this kind is to have a market. We 

 have always heard that the man was farthest from the market who 

 had nothing to sell ; but if a man has got plenty of stuff to sell he 

 needs a market, and must have it, and when in this country we get 

 rapid and safe transportation and a system of good country roads, 

 then we are going to prove a great blessing to the people of our 

 great cities, and the people of our great cities are going to prove a 

 blessing to us because there is so much land and so much oppor- 

 tunity in this country to produce fine vegetables, fine fruits, 

 and everything in fact that tends to make mankind happy, that 

 when we can be brought close enough together, why then both 

 city and county will profit thereby. The people in the towns and 

 cities of Missouri have to pay too much for many farm crops. We 

 want good roads, quick transportation, so that every farmer in 

 this State can get to the great cities with his commodities. 



In the year 1908, we gathered and fed the prisoners 9,040 

 green onions at $6 a thousand, making $542.40 ; we gathered off 

 of this same garden 45 boxes of onions, at $1 per box. (Each of 

 those boxes held II/2 bushels.) The green onion that I first re- 

 ferred to is known as the winter onion, the one that stays in the 

 ground all winter. It is the easiest thing raised that I know of; 

 it will multiply as rapidly as buckbrush if you will give it the 

 chance. We gathered 32 bushels of yellow onions, at 75 cents a 

 bushel ; that onion was raised from seed. We gathered 55 bushels 

 of German onions, at 75 cents, making $41,25. We gath- 

 ered 88 bushels of Red Globe onions, at $1 per bushel; 981 bushels 

 of tomatoes, at 75 cents a bushel ; we raised and sent out of that 

 garden 70,120 pounds of cabbage at $1 a hundred; we raised 185 

 bushels of lettuce, at 25 cents a bushel; we gathered and fed 13 



