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THE GARDENERS' MONTHLY 



[September, 



PHILADELPHIA MARKET-GARDENING AND 

 SEED GROWING. 



BY A CONTRIBUTOR. 



Philadelphia is the Metropolitan City of a grand 

 old State, one which not only furnishes all the 

 anthracite coal and the best of iron to the sister- 

 hood of States, but, according to the United States 

 Census Report of 1881, her farmers bring her to a 

 ■commanding position as an agricultural State, 

 ranking — first in rye; second in hay, buckwheat 

 and potatoes ; third in oats and tobacco; fourth 

 in milch cows; seventh in sheep; fifth in the 

 number of farms — these last numbering two hun- 

 dred and fourteen thousand. Thus, may Phila- 

 delphians be proud of Pennsylvania's position in an 

 agricultural way based, firstly, upon the wealth of 

 money her products bring to the pockets of her 

 farmers and, secondly, to the noble position she 

 occupies in providing food for mankind — she is an 

 Empire! One of our most gifted men said, "Agri- 

 culture feeds us, to a great extent clothes us; with- 

 out it we should not have manufactures, and we 

 should not have commerce." 



In an agricultural community no man occupies 

 a more important position than he who provides 

 seed-stock of esculents and cereals for his fellow- 

 agriculturists. If of good quality and well selected, 

 he is a public benefactor — if impure, his careless- 

 ness or ignorance entails a loss falling directly or 

 indirectly upon every one. Seed farming is in this 

 view the most important of agricultural pursuits, 

 and upon it I propose to draw some reflections, 

 but will first briefly touch upon the subject of mar- 

 ket-gardening. 



Gardening like other pursuits had its origin in 

 the supply of primitive wants ; these increasing, 

 with development on every hand, its details ex- 

 tended till the "gooseberry bush and cabbage," 

 which comprehended a garden in the eyes of Lord 

 Walpole, over-lept the fence and went abroad into 

 the fields to out rank in its money returns acre for 

 acre any other agricultural pursuit. Vegetables 

 are among the most important of foods, being alike 

 used by rich and poor. To a colonist they are 

 invaluable, and when he makes a garden and has 

 plants in growth he begins to feel himself again ; 

 'tis evidence of ownership; he has made wild na- 

 ture his servant. Socrates said, " It is the source 

 of health, strength, plenty, riches, and honest 

 pleasure." An eminent English writer said, "It is 

 amid its scenes and pursuits that life flows pure, 

 the heart more calmly beats." The same idea 

 expressive of the pleasure of a country life is con- 

 veyed in the words of another English worthy of 

 ancient days ; this party was like many of the "cits" 

 who now-a-days visit our friends in the Jerseys. 

 "Who so valueth or eateth with so keen a relish 

 the peach he buyeth of the stall-woman in a 

 market, as that which he gathereth after great 

 pains and perhaps peril encountered in the search." 



The Romans introduced into England their styles 

 of gardening, but with their expulsion the art, if art 

 it was, was tost. It was not till near the reign of 

 Henry VIII, 1547, that cabbages, salads, carrots, | 

 turnips and many other esculents were success- 1 



I fully grown in Holland. Queen Catherine, it is 

 I reported, used to send a special messenger to Hol- 

 j land when she wanted a salad. It must have been 

 I stale when she got it I Peas were first brought 

 j into England in the time of Elizabeth, a quaint 

 writer of that age remarking, " Peas brought from 

 ; Holland are fit dainties for ladies, they come so 

 ; far and cost so dear." 



j British gardening which principally took the 

 form of ornate horticultural embellishment, may 

 I be said to have been greatly developed under 

 Elizabeth, a little over three hundred years ago. 

 Not till the reign of George II, one hundred and 

 fifty years ago, was it worthy of much notice, but 

 under his successor it was more fully developed, 

 especially as respects the culture of esculent 

 J vegetables, much stimulated by seeds and plants 

 sent over from the American Colonies. It is said 

 this strange and wonderful wealth of plants, a 

 new creation, was the impulse that developed 

 English styles of landscape gardening, about 

 which the English poet Grey, said, "Our skill in 

 gardening, or rather laying out grounds, is the 

 only taste we can call our own, the only proof of 

 original talent in the matters of pleasure." This 

 English poet certainly was a truthful man. Thus 

 it will readily be perceived, that though gardening 

 is the most ancient of the pursuits of man, it was 

 certainly carried on in a very simple manner up 

 to one hundred and fifty years ago ; indeed, all 

 garden seeds used in England were obtained from 

 Holland up to the year 1700. 



The first work on English gardening was pub- 

 lished by Thomas Tasser, who in 1758 enumerated 

 one hundred and fifty species of garden plants, 

 introducing them as follows : " Seedes and Herbs 

 for the Kychen, Herbs and Rootes for salletts and 

 sawce, Herbes and Roots tuboile or tubutter, 

 Stewing Herbs of all sortes, Herbes, branches and 

 flours for windowes and pots. Herbs to still in sum- 

 mer, Necessarie Herbs to grow in the garden for 

 Physic not reherst before." 



Anterior to the American Revolution, the settlers 

 in the Colonies sent abroad to their friends for their 

 supply of seeds, and in those days their wants were 

 very simple ; quite one-half of the vegetables now 

 used being then unknown — it was before the days 

 of tomatoes, egg plants, sugar corn and okra, — 

 squashes, watermelons and canteloupes were very 

 rare and of such families of plants as were in use the 

 members were of very limited numbers and such, 

 indeed, as would to-day be considered of very poor 

 development. The total number of exotics in 

 England up to this date did not much exceed one 

 thousand species, but about that time the gardener 

 was abroad and the number rapidly arose to five 

 thousand. Up to 1737 the classification of plants 

 was not scientific, but an inharmonious system 

 prevailed, which was so much improved upon by 

 the immortal Linneeus, that he is looked upon the 

 world over as the elevator of botany into a science, 

 and giving an impetus to agricultural and horti- 

 cultural affairs, far exceeding all efforts preceding 

 his day. His investigations and those of others 

 swept away a mass of ignorance connected with 

 vegetable physiology and put the cultivator on a 

 plane of higher thought and action. 



