1890.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 4. 39 



ofl' the mortgage of eighteen thousand dollars, solely 

 from the profits gleaned from his eight acres and two thou- 

 sand hot-bed sashes. This was in war times, however, when 

 the profits were nearly four times what they are to-day ; but 

 Eiley would have made market gardening a success almost 

 under any circumstances. He was strictly methodical. He 

 worked an average of eight men summer and winter, and, 

 no matter what work was being done, whether inside or out, 

 he worked the whole in solid phalanx, leading always 

 himself. He was ignorant and uneducated, — could hardly 

 write his name ; but no Jersey market gardener ever 

 made his mark so prominently as he. 



The capital required for beginning market gardening 

 in the vicinity of any large city should not be less than 

 three hundred dollars per acre for anything less than ten 

 acres. The first year rarely pays more than current 

 expenses, and the capital of three hundred dollars per acre 

 is all absorbed in horses, wagons, implements, sashes, 

 manures, seeds, etc. If the capital is insufficient to procure 

 these properly, the chances of success are correspondingly 

 diminished. Above all, be careful not to attempt the culti- 

 vation of more land than your capital and experience 

 can properly manage. More men are stranded, both on the 

 fiirm and garden, in attempting to cultivate too much, per- 

 haps, than from any other cause. 



It has been the practice in the past to use hot-bed 

 sashes almost exclusively for the purpose of forcing vege- 

 tables, or forwarding plants for use in the open ground. 

 But of late years greenhouses are being largely used, both 

 for the purposes of forcing lettuce, radishes, beets and 

 cucumbers, as also for growing plants of early cabbage, 

 cauliflower, lettuce, celery and tomatoes ; and, in either case, 

 we believe that in well-constructed greenhouses not only is 

 the work better done, but that the saving in labor in 

 three years will more than ofl'set the greater cost of the 

 greenhouses. We ourselves grow immense quantities of 

 vegetable plants of all kinds, all of Avhich are now started 

 in greenhouses, in the following manner : We make our 

 first sowing February 1, in our greenhouses, where the tem- 

 perature will average about seventy degrees ; that is, about 



