34 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



from the cities that we cannot get the dressing from the 

 stables. Is it a fact that we are going to reduce our farms in 

 consequence of this ? 



Mr. Rawson. We are situated very differently in Xew 

 England. We can sow grass and other seeds and turn the 

 green matter under, and make almost a good fertilizer in one 

 year. In the south they can't grow grass at all ; they can't 

 find any grass. 



Mr. Ii. M. Howard (of West Newton). I came in here 

 looking for information, and that is what most of you are 

 here for, no doubt. The lecturer is a near neighbor of mine. 

 We are in the same business, I suppose ; but he is interested 

 in three large greenhouses and a market-garden farm right 

 in Newton. The business he is running is very similar to 

 my own, except that he is catering to the wholesale market, 

 whereas I am working entirely, or almost entirely, for the 

 retail market. 



For three years I kept accurate time accounts of the labor 

 put into the production of each one of the crops which I pro- 

 duce upon the farm, and at the end of the year we footed the 

 columns and took the ratio of profit. I found some crops 

 were paying me a return for the labor expended on them, 

 $6 to $1 put into the labor, and other crops were an expense 

 to me. I consequently dropped those crops. 



I think it is a big mistake to try to get too cheap help, for 

 the market gardener especially, who wants to get help that 

 will produce the most for him, regardless of what it costs 

 him. If he can get a man that is worth $2.50 a day right 

 straight along, let him get him. He doesn't want to be fool- 

 ing with a man that is worth only $7.50 a week, when he can 

 pick up one that is worth twice that in a week, and he 

 shouldn't. There are plenty of the cheap kind. I think that 

 the rule of our market gardeners in getting their help is to 

 hire everything that comes along, until we get as many or 

 more than we want, and then pick out the best from the lot 

 and give them a little more than the average going price, and 

 try and hang on to them. If a man is making money for me 

 on my place, I am going to keep him if I possibly can. If 

 he does something I don't just like, I am going to get out of 



