208 



The HorticuUnrist and Journal 



Market Gardening. 



BY J. M. SMITH, GKEEN BAV, WIS. 



No. 3. 



IET us now turn for a few moments to the 

 -^ expenses of running a good sized garden. 

 Here you have the advantage over your east- 

 ern friend. While a few, say $3,000 to $5,- 



000 would be a great help to you, still it is 

 possible, as I know by experience, to com- 

 mence with very little ready money ; while 

 at the east, several thousand dollars is an ab- 

 solute necessity. And the first thing I wish 

 to say upon this point is this. If you have 

 any idea of cheap tillage, and half culture, 

 discard them at once and forever. If your 

 garden contains six acres, better by far to 

 let one-half of it grow up with weeds, and 

 thoroughly cultivate the other half than to 

 attempt to cultivate the whole, and only half 

 do it. I shall not deny that a wretched half 

 system, or no system of cultivation, will some- 

 times result in showing a large crop. A kind 

 Providence has arranged the natural laws 

 of growth as well as the seasons, in such a 

 manner that such will sometimes be the case ; 

 but such cases are the exceptions, not the rule. 

 Whereas you may, and you ought so to cul- 

 tivate, that large crops will be the rule, not 

 the exception ; but to produce this result, you 

 must spend more labor and more money upon 

 an acre of land than is generally given to it. 



1 know very well that insisting upon this plan, 

 I am talking against the tide, and against the 

 almost universal custom of our whole west, 

 and I fear that I shall talk to little purpose 

 upon this point; but, gentlemen, I am in 

 earnest, and I know that I am right. Here 

 I must refer to my own system again. I do 

 not do so for the sake of boasting, but because 

 it has proved a success, not as successful by 

 far as I expect, and intend to make it here- 

 after, but still a grand success as compared 

 with the system, or rather the entire want of 

 system of the most of those about me. 



I have found, and with me the rule has 



been invariable, not a single excejition to it, 

 that the more I have spent per acre in culti- 

 vation (and in cultivation I include manuring), 

 the greater have been, not only my gross re- 

 ceipts, but the greater has been the riet profit 

 per acre. With each succeeding year, I have 

 spent more in cultivating than in any previous 

 one. The invariable result has been, not only 

 a return of the investment, but a larger net 

 profit from the garden than ever before. Last 

 season I cultivated about fourteen acres. In 

 the spring I commenced a more thorough and 

 expensive cultivation than ever before. Soon 

 a most terrible drought came on, and lasted 

 till I began to get frightened, and even went 

 so far as to consider the propriety of discharg- 

 ing some of the hands, but concluded to keep 

 on and keep the garden in the best condition 

 possible, so that it should get the full benefit 

 of rain when it did come. I followed out this 

 plan, and when light showers began to come, 

 there was no crust on the ground to be dis- 

 solved before the rain could penetrate into the 

 ground, there were but very few weeds to di- 

 vide the benefits of the rain with the crops. 



In a few days, the change seemed almost 

 miraculous. The result of it all was, that 

 although it was one of the dryest seasons ever 

 known in our part of the state, and that in 

 cultivating and marketing fourteen acres I 

 spent $3,986, or $284 per acre, yet not only 

 is the balance upon the right side of the ledger, 

 but it is a nicer one than I have ever had 

 before, and I see now that my cultivation 

 during the drought was what saved me ; and 

 if I had carried it still farther in the right 

 direction, I should have been hundreds of- 

 dollars better off than I was at the close of the 

 season. The cost of manure must vary the 

 cost of your cultivation materially. With our 

 present imperfect knowledge of manures, sta- 

 ble manures will be your standard, with the 

 use of superphosphates, plaster, lime, ashes, 

 and other manures, as your experience and 

 good sense will dictate. 



If you can lay down manure in your garden 

 for $4 per cord, you will need at least $50 per 

 acre for manure, and $1.50 for other expenses, 

 making $200 per acre ; and after you have 



