GARDENING. 867 



and are less bulky, such as early potatoes, beans, asparagus, strawberries, and other small 

 and large fruits, squashes, late cabbages, turnips, and other roots. On these more remote 

 gardens, the market wagon will make only three or four trips per week, in general, in summer, 

 and two in winter. The value of the crops raised will naturally range from two hundred to 

 five hundred dollars per acre. The amount of manure required for the good management 

 of these farms will be from six to ten cords per acre. 



The nature of the soil has much to do with a good garden. The best for general 

 purposes is a deep black loam, well drained by a subsoil of fine sand; but it is desirable to 

 have some variety of soil, as no one soil is adapted to produce all the vegetables in perfection. 

 A rather stiff soil suits late cabbages, celery, and cauliflowers, while early lettuce, radishes, 

 beets, and roots in general, as well as greens and most early crops, do best on a warm, sandy 

 loam. If the soil is a dry, loose gravel, it is utterly unfit for any kind of gardening. Stiff 

 clay and boggy lands, when well drained, often make excellent garden land, especially for 

 late crops. The capital needed for gardening is larger than would be supposed by one 

 unacquainted with the business. For gardens near market, five hundred dollars per acre is 

 often profitably employed, invested in buildings, teams, tools, hotbeds, manure, etc. ; and the 

 force on such gardens is about one horse to every three acres of land, and in summer, one 

 hand to every acre. On the more remote gardens a less capital and force are used, the 

 capital ranging from one hundred to two hundred dollars per acre, and the force, one horse 

 and one man for two to five acres. 



The methods used by the market gardeners to make the most of their land are very 

 ingenious, and deserve a more careful and extended study than can be here given; but it 

 may be useful to notice some of the plans in use, by which they force our naturally sterile 

 soil and fickle climate to produce two, three, and even four crops in a year, from the same 

 land, and keep our markets supplied through our long winters with delicacies whose natural 

 home is in the tropical zone. The crops grown upon the gardens within six miles of large 

 cities are mostly spinach, kale, radishes, dandelions, beet-greens, beets, early cabbages, lettuce, 

 onions, to be followed upon the same land by the late crops, which are melons, squashes, 

 tomatoes, egg-plants, peppers, cauliflowers, celery, horse-radish, beets, carrots, parsnips, etc., 

 The only crops which occupy the land for the whole year are rhubarb and dandelions; and 

 some gardeners grow a crop of onion sets on the same land with their dandelions. 



In the management of these various crops so as to meet a profitable sale, and also not to 

 crowd and injure each other, the skill and experience of the gardener are shown. To 

 accomplish his purposes many ingenious devices are used for forcing early crops, and for 

 storing the late ones, so as to keep up an unfailing supply the year round. In general, only 

 two crops are raised upon the same land in a season ; but instances are not uncommon where 

 three, and even four crops in a year are taken from one piece of land. Thus, winter spinach, 

 sold in March, was followed by onion sets, melons, and celery, on the same land, all full 

 crops; again winter spinach, sold in April, was followed by bush-beans, melons, and spinach 

 again It would be idle to attempt such work as this without skillful use of glass and heavy 

 manuring. The plants started under glass for field planting are lettuce, early cabbage, 

 egg-plants, tomatoes, celery, melons, summer squashes; and some gardeners also start their 

 beets and onions under glass, to be transplanted to the field. 



The hotbed is invaluable for raising plants for planting out of doors; the ease with which 

 the plants are aired and hardened off by removing the glass just before setting the young 

 plants in the open air, makes the hotbed far preferable to the green-house for this kind of 

 work. Many gardeners also raise a crop of lettuce, radishes, parsley, or carrots, in the hotbeds, 

 before the field plants, marketing them in March, April, or May. After the field plants have 

 been removed from the hotbeds, in March, or April, or May, and the lettuce or radishes sold, it 

 is customary to employ the whole of the glass upon cucumbers, using a little manure to start 



