462 



THE GARDEN AND ITS PKUITS. 



[CnAP. V. 



it will dissolve no more, and then using that brine to slalco lime. A bushel 

 of salt may thus be mixed with three bushels of unslaked lime and the mix- 

 ture applied at the rate of 30 to 100 ITushels of the slaked lime per acre. If 

 the lime at'ter slaking is kept in a pile under a shed, the outward portion 

 effloresces, and it may be raked off and put away in barrels as it accumu- 

 lates. The lime is then in the best possible condition for use. 



Of the profits of gardens there can be no doubt. Any one who is fa- 

 miliar with the ojierations of the market gardeners near large cities, knows 

 that the business is more profitable than ordinary farming. There is no 

 reason why many other persons should not enjoy similar profits. 



There is not one A'illage in ten in all the Eastern States that is large 

 enough to support a locomotive butcher that would not sujiport a good 

 market garden from the first year of its establishment, the produce being 

 sent around to the houses in the same way that the butcher sends his meat. 

 Of course, all the waste or refuse of the garden naist be fed to the cov,-, 

 pig, and poultry, and of course the owner would grow wealthy faster than 

 the owner of a large farm cultivated in the ordinary way. 



The great secret of success in market gardening lies in the succession 

 of crops. Heavy manuring, thorough cultivation, and a good market are 

 of course important adjuncts, but all of these will not give nu;ximura re- 

 sults without the gardener's skill in keeping the ground fully occupied ; and 

 in that, more than in all other things, is where not only gardeners, but 

 farmers, fail. They keep too much unoccupied land, allowing a grain crop, 

 oats, for instance, to be followed by a crop of miserable weeds more worth- 

 less than it is easy to imagine, for they are more exhausting than the grain, 

 and of no use to man, animal, or soil. Land should never be left idle. In 

 a well-arranged market garden one thing succeeds another so rapidly that 

 one row of the first crop is oft" to-day and its successor growing in its place 

 to-morrow. The owner can not atlbrd to wait till all is oft", because by 

 planting one after the other, he has the ripening crop for sale in the same 

 order, and thus secures the whole value of the manure. 



The work in a market garden proj^erly 'begins in autumn. There are 

 several vegetables that must be started at this season, and all the ground 

 should be manured either then or during the winter. Much of the success of 

 the garden pecuniarily depends upon having its products a little anticijDate 

 the usual season. Potatoes early in the season are worth two dollars a 

 bushel. Three wetks later they are down to a dollar or less. There is a 

 like falling oft' from most other articles, though hardly anything fails to re- 

 turn a paying price. 



Spinach is sown in September and October to furnish cuttings in April 

 and May. Cabbage is sown about the same time to furnish plants for the 

 cold frame, which are kept through the winter, transplanted in April, and 

 furnish heads in June. They arc put into the frame in i-ows very near to- 

 gether in November, and when the winter sets in, are covered with boards, 

 removing only in mild weather and increasing light and heat as spring ad- 



