The Market Gardens of South 

 San Francisco. 



ARKET GARDENING is an industry 

 whose value is exemplified in many 

 parts of the State. A unique and 

 most interesting example of Cali- 

 fornia market gardens and of some 

 of the vegetables that grow in Cali- 

 fornia all the year round may be 

 seen in the market gardens of South 

 San Francisco. 

 Here is almost another Holland, so intensively 

 is the ground cultivated. Great Dutch windmills 

 with huge wooden arms pump the water, which 

 flows in neatly constructed laterals or ditches 

 along the terraces, which, like broad steps mount- 

 ing upward from the center of the valley, com- 

 prise the vegetable patches. 



Twenty minutes' ride from the center of the 

 city on the Mission-street car (the one marked 

 "cemeteries") brings one to these unique gardens, 

 where there is planting and harvesting all the year 

 round. Thence the gardening stretches down a 

 valley eight miles or so in length, way down to 

 Halfmoon Bay, and further still — practically to 

 San Jose. 



"Isn't this land mighty valuable?" you ask. 

 "How can it be devoted to market gardening 

 while fairly within the limits of a great city?" 



Of course it is valuable — very valuable. One 

 man I met pays ten dollars a month per acre for 

 the rental of this land. In all he has fifteen acres 

 of land and it costs him one hundred and fifty 

 dollars a month just for the use of it. He employs 

 seven men and pays them good wages. Naturally 

 market gardening must pay, otherwise this gar- 

 dener could not afford to lease land at such a 

 price as this. The land in this little Holland, right 

 in the suburbs of San Francisco, is, I am informed, 

 worth from one thousand dollars an acre up. Yet 

 there is demand enough for vegetables to make 

 it worth while to devote it to this use. 



This is why the market gardens of South San 

 Francisco are interesting. They make a com- 

 mercial showing for the industry. The ground 

 is well adapted to market gardening and 

 the gardens are not located so far distant that 

 their produce cannot easily be taken by wagon 

 to the public markets in the heart of San Fran- 

 cisco. 



Of course South San Francisco is only one of 

 the many cities of California which support mar- 

 ket gardens. 



I want to say that I did not see one glass pane, 



