No. 4.] MAKKET GAKDENING. 27 



Good seeds are indispensable in gardening. The more in- 

 tensive the culture, the greater their importance. When sure 

 of obtaining a desirable strain, the gardener should purchase 

 in large quantities, as such seeds are not always available ; 

 and, furthermore, experimenting in a large way with seeds 

 of unknown value is expensive, and should be avoided as 

 much as possible. 



When a grower discovers a good strain of seed, he should 

 buy heavily, and be sure of enough not only for one season, 

 but several. In doing so he is sure of the best seeds, which 

 are of great importance to any grower, especially where his 

 land is high priced and his cultivation intensive. 



When the crop is ready for market, the packing and sell- 

 ing is an important part of the market gardener's work. 

 Vegetables of good quality, well grown and properly packed, 

 strengthen the market and increase the demand. A great 

 many times we have in our larger markets like Boston a 

 serious glut. Everything in certain lines is selling very 

 slowly, but there is generally very little difficulty in selling 

 the best truck if it is well packed. Appearance and quality 

 in almost all markets are at a premium, the larger markets 

 paying more for quality than the smaller ones. In the 

 smaller markets we find often one universal price offered for 

 a certain vegetable, regardless to a certain extent of its value. 

 In the larger markets this is seldom true ; here quality usu- 

 ally counts, and commands a good price. 



When selling No. l's be sure the box contains only No. l's. 

 A great many, though not following this rule, believe in it, 

 and consider it a proper thing for the other fellow to do ; 

 and so we go on packing our vegetables with the better 

 specimens on top. I believe, if every grower packed his 

 truck honestly, — and by honestly I mean the same right 

 down through the box, — that it would be better for every 

 one concerned, and in a few years there would be greater 

 confidence on the part of dealers and consumers. 



The complaint of over-production is often a misapprehen- 

 sion of the condition, the real cause being under-consumption, 

 due to inferior quality and poor packing, or an uneven sup- 

 ply or both. We must learn that it pays to give nice delivery 



