HOW TO MAKE A MARKET-GARDEN 37 



good supply of water. It may not be advisable 

 to expend money upon a well or motor pump at 

 the commencement, and in fact the erection of 

 most of the structural improvements can well be 

 postponed, together with the perfecting of the 

 water-supply, until the land itself has been cleansed 

 and put into good heart. The vicinity of a railway 

 station and a good market are all-important factors 

 at the outset. When the ground has been well 

 worked and insect enemies are mastered it will be 

 time to spend capital upon sheds and glass. By 

 doing this slowly, year by year, as general expenses 

 diminish and sales increase, the market-gardener 

 will be certain to prosper. Many fail, owing to a 

 too lavish expenditure of capital at the outset, 

 before their knowledge of the garden, market, and 

 special individual requirements of the place has 

 been acquired. They find then, with bitter dis- 

 appointment, that greenhouses, potting-sheds, 

 water-tanks are in unsuitable positions and that 

 the money spent upon them would have been better 

 employed in providing labour, manure, and wire 

 netting to keep out marauding rabbits. " Go slow 

 and build up bit by bit " is the advice I like to 

 impress upon beginners. 



Experience has taught me that with a moderate 

 amount of capital it would not be difficult to make 

 a profitable garden out of a field in a few years' 

 time, provided one could devote all one's energy 

 to growing only saleable stuff. Even upon chalky 

 ground which has to be fed with endless cartloads 

 of manure, where also, as in my case, every bit of 

 leaf-mould has to be bought and good soil is only 



