23 Commercial Gardening 



ON STARTING THE MARKET GARDEN 



Let us assume that a man contemplates starting a market garden on 

 a small scale, and that he intends to grow Apples, Pears, Plums, Goose- 

 berries, Currants, Raspberries, vegetables of various kinds, and Mush- 

 rooms, also bedding stuff, Chrysanthemums, Cucumbers, Tomatoes, and 

 bulbous plants under glass, with catch crops of various things between. 



Having made up his mind what he intends to do, he must find the 

 necessary land. He then has to consider whether it will be better to 

 purchase an established garden, or to make a fair start and carry out his 

 own views on an open and suitable piece of ground, well situated so far 

 as railway facilities, &c., are concerned. If a young man, it will be wiser 

 to start his market garden on modern principles rather than hamper him- 

 self with an oldfashioned and perhaps tumbledown place. If, however, he 

 should meet with a fairly recently established market garden, with fruit 

 trees and bushes properly planted at reasonable distances apart, and, if the 

 glass structures have wide panes of glass and not too much heavy timber, 

 good boilers and piping, it may be wise to invest in such a place. As a 

 rule it is unwise to take over very old gardens with worn-out trees and 

 bushes, as such a place can never be brought up to date except by com- 

 pletely grubbing up and replanting. This would cost an enormous amount 

 of money, besides which it might be prohibited by the terms of lease, which 

 in most cases have been drawn entirely in the interests of the ground land- 

 lord and to the distinct disadvantage of the tenant, chiefly owing to the 

 intense ignorance of horticultural practice on the part of the legal advisers. 



Assuming that a market garden such as we have described is to be 

 started from the beginning, unhampered with legal restrictions as to the 

 number of fruit trees or bushes that must be planted to the acre, and 

 untrammelled with any predecessors' errors, the following estimate as to 

 capital outlay will be found approximately correct: 



TABLE I. ESTIMATE AS TO THE APPROXIMATE COST OF ESTABLISHING 

 A FREEHOLD MARKET GARDEN OF 10 ACRES. 



s. d. 



Purchase of 10 ac. freehold land at 50 500 



Dwelling house and offices ... ... ... 500 



Packing shed, stables, &c. ... ... ... 150 



2 horses and harness at 40 ... ... ... 80 



1 large wagon ... ... ... ... ... 40 



1 small wagon 20 



Spades, forks, hoes, dibbers, rakes, wheelbarrows, 



ploughs 25 



Fencing 500 



8 greenhouses, 100 ft. by 12 ft., and piping ... 1000 



Miscellaneous ... 100 



Total 2915 



