iv Preface. 



back to a successful business experience of twenty-four 

 years. So far as I am aware no market gardener in 

 Massachusetts or New England employs a larger 

 capital or sends to market a larger annual product. 



The extent of my establishment and operations at 

 Arlington has attracted general public notice. Men 

 who have already embarked in the business, and have 

 themselves been more or less successful in it, will find 

 in this book the means of comparing their own methods 

 with mine. Young men who are about to choose their 

 avocation, and who have heard of the increasing 

 extent and importance of this business of Vegetable 

 Growing, will find here facts collected from a long 

 experience, which can hardly fail to be valuable to an 

 attentive reader. 



A reasonable man will estimate the worth of this 

 book by what it contains — not criticising it for the 

 absence of matters which lie beyond its scope and 

 purpose. In the introductory remarks with which it 

 opens, I have endeavored to explain my object with 

 sufficient precision, and throughout the preparation of 

 the work I have aimed to outdo,- rather than come 

 short of, the promise held forth in the opening chapter. 



w\ w. R. 



Arlington, Mass., /ttw/aryi 1S87. 



