The Canadian Horticulturist. 



71 



Cabba^je to the amount of ^40 00 



Onions 25 00 



("elerv 7 00 



Carrots, turnips, beets, toma- 

 toes, etc 5 00 



Grapes 10 00 



887,00 



This, I considered, about an average 

 crop. The ground, moderately ma- 

 nured, was in good condition, and 

 kept as clean as the excessively wet 

 season woidd allow. You can no 

 more expect to get a heavy crop of 

 vegetables than of wheat unless you 



GIVE THE GROUND FAIR PLAY. 



The above residts, I think, you will 

 admit are better than you would 

 expect from wheat, even supposing 

 you had forty bushels to the acre. 

 A friend of mine, however, in Corn- 

 wall did better than this. I measured 

 his ground, 1,310 square yards, a 

 trifle over a quarter of an acre. Off 

 this he sold : 



Vegetables $53 06 



Strawberries 28 38 



Currants and gooseberries t3 47 



Grapes and apples 323 



Tomatoes 6 80 



$105 00 



Besides being a better gardener 

 than I, he had the advantage of a 

 ready town market. Working in the 

 woolen factory from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., 

 all the time he had for the garden 

 was before or after these hours. All 

 his hired help for the garden didn't 

 amount to more than %\o. I call 

 this profitable gardening. Besides 

 the vegetable garden, I had, in 

 strawberries, 1,488 square yards, 

 about five-sixteenth of an acre. These 

 were in rows four feet apart. Off 

 this piece I sold to the amount of 

 $100, which I considered above the 

 average crop, and having sold all the 

 fruit in a home market, saving all 

 the expense of boxes, crates, freight 

 and commission. I did better than if 

 I had been obliged to ship them. 

 We often read of $500 to S700 or 

 $800 from an acre of strawberries, 

 but I woidd advise vou to receive all 



such reports with caution. No doubt 

 it has been done, but don't you ex- 

 pect such a crop. Some of you who 

 may know more about strawberry- 

 growing than I do may say, that crop 

 of strawberries cost you a whole sea- 

 son's work, the year before yielding 

 you no crop. True, but this year's 

 was the third crop on the same 

 groimd, so you must divide the 

 extra year's labor among the four 

 crops. Again you say, you had any 

 amoimt of 



HOEING AND WEEDING. 



Yes, we had ; and sore backs, too, 

 picking; but tell me, what do we 

 get that's good without labor ? And, 

 as a rule, the better it is the more 

 labor it costs us. Besides the pecuni- 

 ary gain, isn't there pleasure and 

 profit of another kind in having your 

 fruits and vegetables fresh from the 

 garden ? A happy contrast to those 

 tliat have wilted in the market wait- 

 ing for a purchaser. We often hear 

 our town friends say : these are not 

 like the strawberries we get in the 

 city ; and we believe them. 



A WORD ABOUT THE ORCHARD. 



You want that, too, not necessarily a 

 large one. A few trees are indis- 

 pensable for your family; an acre or 

 two out of your hundred will, I 

 think, be a safe investment for most 

 of you. My first orchard was planted 

 forty years ago. I may say I have 

 been re-planting ever since. I have 

 been complimented on having the 

 thriftiest looking orchard in our 

 neighborhood. The trees grew well, 

 with every appearance of hr-althi- 

 ness, but I have had lots of failures. 

 My first and greatest mistake was 

 planting trees imsuitable to our cli- 

 mate. The nursery catalogues told 

 me they were hardy, but they were 

 not enough so for our cold north. 

 The kinds we can successfully grow 

 here, so far as I know, are compara- 

 tively few ; but it's only a few good 

 kinds we need. Its a mistake to 

 have 



