STATE HORTICULTUHAL SOCIETY. 391 



and which should not be put upon the market, altliough they 

 are fairly flooded at times with this kind of food. I have seen 

 boxes piled up ten or fifteen feet high that had been shipped in 

 from a distance, filled with provisions in a decaying and rotten 

 condition. This stuff is shipped here, of course, to be sold, and 

 the freight or expressage must be obtained in some way. The 

 commission men don't want to lose it. and the result is the arti- 

 cle, whatever it may be, is pushed upon the market. 



I^ow, I have no objections to their shipping their vegetables 

 here from the South, provided it is wholesome and good. But 

 the shipping of such quantities of it here sometimes has a ten- 

 dency to hurt our markets. It has that effect with us. 



When these early vegetables and green fruits are shipped here 

 from a distance, in the spring, many persons will hanker for the 

 green trash. Very often it makes them sick to eat it and they 

 don't recover their usual health for weeks afterwards perhaps. 



It seems to me that we might remedy this evil in part at least, 

 and if we can we ought to do it. "We make a practice of ship- 

 ping a good deal to these markets from Red Wing, and we try 

 to place it on the market just as early as we possibly can. Beets 

 and turnips are easily transplanted. We have grown and placed 

 on the market nice beets by the first week in June, also early 

 potatoes, which we have shipped to- and sold readily on the 

 Minneapolis market. 



BEETS AND TURNIPS. 



If you set out beets too early they are apt to run to seed. We 

 usually set them about the middle of March. We plant them in 

 shallow boxes by the thousand and transplant. We find it of 

 great advantage to do this. We have the soil well prepared and 

 find they will stand quite a hard frost. It is well to take them 

 out into the open air and expose them as much as possible to 

 harden them up before transplanting them. In this way we 

 raise beautiful beets. We can do the same with turnips, 



TOMATOES. 



Of course my time is limited, but I would like to say a word 

 on the subject of tomatoes. It seems to me they are the next to 

 fruit in importance and value. They come in just after the 

 small fruit is passing away, and we have obtained big prices for 

 them. Have sold the first tomatoes as high as five cents apiece. 



