M T^< }{\\c\}^r) (grardeo. W 



MARKET GARDENING PROFITABLE. 



HERE is no doubt that vegetable gardening is a profitable occupa- 

 tion, where one makes it a specialty and uses some judgment in 

 his work. Indeed many a gardener who understands his busi- 

 ness, makes more money off a few acres of ground than' some 

 farmers off a farm of one hundred acres. There is scarce a 

 village in Ontario so small that it would not support one or two 

 vegetable gardeners, and the larger towns will consume the 

 product of many gardens. The fact is that many people who 

 have gardens, find it pays them better to buy from a gardener 

 than to grow what few things of each kind are wanted each week, 

 and when visited by a truck wagon two or three times a week, 

 gradually cease to grow the poor and meagre stuff which it has been customary 

 for them to produce, and buy the fine large cauliflowers, beets, melons, etc.. 

 which are brought them in attractive form by the gardener. 



A writer in The Country Gentleman gives a good hint in this connection. 

 He says :— It sometimes appears to me that farmers and gardeners show less 

 ingenuity in developing new lines of work than do men in other occupations. 

 It is not only that there are new crops to try, but new methods of handling and 

 selling the old, to the end that they may bring a better profit. As a gardener, 

 growing hot-bed plants for my own use, I have found that a considerable local 

 trade could be established in them without much effort. 1 found also that the 

 average village gardener, especially if he was an amateur, had little knowledge as 

 to what he wanted in this line, and some farmers were not much better posted 

 Most of them were inclined to confine their purchases to cabbage and tomato 

 plants, not seeming to understand that to make a complete garden there was 

 quite as much need of pepper and celery, and cauliflower and sweet potato 

 plants, as of the others. When I would call their attention to the wider variety, 

 with a few words of explanation as to the time and method of planting, they 

 were usually glad to act upon my suggestion that these be added to their list. 

 So that many who would ordinarily have been my patrons to the extent of a few 

 shillings at the most, became buyers for from one to five dollars' worth of plants, 

 and I am glad to believe that the value of their gardens was increased in like 

 ratio. 



In any village or suburban community, there is a chance for the building 

 up of a little business in this line, which, while not reaching any great amount, 

 will represent more clear profit than most other occupations of the soil. The 

 time employed in making and attending to the hot beds will be largely in that 

 season of the year when one cannot yet work in the open ground. The capital 



(27) 



