CHAPTER VII 



SUCCESS IN TOWN OR CITY 



One of the most profitable small gardens was at 

 Darlington, Maryland, where a little patch of about 

 one-third of an acre yielded Alfred P. Edge produce 

 worth two hundred and seventy-one dollars and thirty- 

 nine cents at a cost of forty-five dollars and sixteen 

 cents, and secured him the second Allen prize, fifty 

 dollars in gold. 



The summary of this wonderful little garden is 

 worth itemizing: Labor cost twenty-nine dollars and 

 thirty-eight cents ; manure, four dollars ; seeds, three 

 dollars and ninety cents ; rent of land and of tools, 

 seven dollars and eighty-eight cents; total cost, forty- 

 five dollars and sixteen cents. The manure was mostly 

 that of sheep and obtained at one dollar per load. 

 Manuring was evidently not extreme and the value of 

 the crops seems owing to good management in various 

 directions, as will appear in the extracts following, 

 taken from Mr. Edge's very readable account. His 

 notes on garden irrigation, with illustrations, appear 

 in the chapter on that subject: 



I always have piles of old leaves, weeds, chaff, 

 in fact anything I can find of this sort. I follow the 

 plow and fork this material into the furrow and when 

 the plow comes around again it is covered. This plan 

 followed up will change the worst clay soil into just 

 what is wanted. 



Instead of permanent hotbeds, I dig a hole in the 

 most convenient place in my garden, fill it with manure 

 and pack it down, then set my box without any 



