1890.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 4. 37 



Atternoon Session. 



The meeting was called to order at 1.30. 



The Chairman. The lecture this afternoon will be by a 

 gentleman whose name is almost a household word in every 

 rural home in this land, as a practical and successful florist 

 and market gardener for over forty years, and as an author 

 whose name reaches far beyond the limits of this country ; 

 and, this being the first time that he has appeared before a 

 New England audience, it gives me great pleasure to intro- 

 duce Mr. Peter Henderson of New Jersey, who will address 

 you on " Market Gardening as a Business." 



MARKET GARDENING AS A BUSINESS. 



BY PETER HENDERSON OF JERSEY CITY HEIGHTS, N. J. 



Market gardening is not the profitable business it was 

 twenty years ago, yet we have so simplified our operations 

 of late years that even at the lower prices there is still a fair 

 profit in the business, — certainly more than in ordinary 

 farm crops. To many present the most that I can say about 

 market gardening will be nothing new ; but an experience of 

 forty years in the business of actual practice and observa- 

 tion may enable me to tell some of the younger men a 

 few things that may be of benefit. 



There are thousands of farmers whose lands are near to 

 the smaller towns, hotels, watering places and summer 

 boarding-houses, where, if the farmer would devote a few 

 acres to fruits or vegetaliles, or both, there is scarcely a 

 doubt that it would be found that every acre so cultivated 

 would be much more profitable than if devoted to ordinary 

 farm crops. In most cases success would 1)e proportioned 

 to the quality of the land ; but no one need hesitate to begin 

 the cultivation of either fruit or vegetable crops on any soil 

 that will raise a good crop of corn, hay or potatoes. The 

 farmer, when he grows to supply a local demand, such as 

 for hotels, boarding-houses, etc., has a great advantage in 

 selling direct to the consumer. A few years ago an old 

 friend told me of his unusual success in this line. His farm 

 adjoined a village of two thousand inhabitants, which was 

 to some extent a summer resort. He had one year a large 



