No. 4.] MARKET GARDENIXG. 25 



MARKET GARDENING. 



BY PROF. H. F. HALL, DURHAM, N. H. 



Market or commercial gardening represents the most in- 

 tensive branch of agriculture. Within a few miles of Boston 

 gardening is carried on upon land worth from $1,000 to 

 $3,000 an acre, in many cases $200 to $400 per acre being 

 spent for fertilizers, seeds, labor, etc., before the crop is 

 ready for market. Realizing these things, we must admit 

 that it is certainly very intensive work, and requires skillful 

 management. Gardening in Xew England has assumed enor- 

 mous proportions within the past fifteen years, and is a good 

 business if rightly managed. It is attended, however, with 

 risks, as in the case of other pursuits. Xo set of hard-and- 

 fast rules can be laid down, the following of which will al- 

 ways bring the desired results ; but careful and intelligent 

 effort will finally win. Classes or even varieties of vegetables 

 profitable in the hands of one grower or on one kind of soil 

 may be unprofitable when grown by another, or by the same 

 person on other parts of his garden. It therefore becomes 

 necessary for each individual to work out many problems 

 which cannot be otherwise determined. Careful bookkeeping 

 will determine the profit and loss from certain crops and 

 methods, and will prevent the drawing of many false conclu- 

 sions which will be misleading and often very expensive. 



In these days of keen competition, a gardener needs both 

 scientific and practical knowledge to achieve the greatest suc- 

 cess. He must be intelligent, practical and ambitious, giving 

 due importance to location, soil, moisture, seed, fertility, cul- 

 tivation, insects, diseases, packing and marketing, if he would 

 make the greatest success of his undertaking. 



The tendency of the times is toward specialization, as vege- 



