@l)c lamufs illottthli) bisttor. 



37 



tie fioni tyrants. And when he died, ho confess- 

 ed thut i[ was the moral teachings of his I'alher, 

 added to ihe liiile learning he pieUed np in a' 

 town sehool at Boston, to which he owed his 

 success, Ins liappiness and his reputation. He 

 did what he could to testitV liow sciisihie he was 

 of these ohiigations. Ho bei|iicathed liherally to 

 his native city, the means of inducing the young 

 to nnpiove their advantages, and to cnahle the 

 indnstnons to succeed in their callings. And he 

 creeled a moniiinent over his father' to tell his 

 vn lues to another age. But the glory of the fa- 

 ther was in the child. His son's character was 

 his nohle-st monument. The examples that son 

 set, of industry, perseverance and economy, have 

 exciieil and are e.vciiiiig many to iuiiiate tliem. 

 And Ihousanils, yet unhorn, may owe their suc- 

 cess and hapfiiness to the manner in which a text 

 was enforced, hy a poor tallow-chandler, upon 

 Benjamin Franklin. — Qin'iicy. 



The following communication in the N. Y. 

 Horticulturist, is valuable as showing what they 

 bring ahont who diligently labor to renovate poor 

 lands and lin|,t soil. With no exception, New 

 Jersey, in the vicinity of Burlington, before it is 

 improved, is the poorest soil we have any where 

 Been.— £rf. Visitor. 



Notes on the Market Gardening of New Jersey. 



BY H. W. S. CLEVELAND, BURLINGTON, N. J. 



The species of culture to which the land in 

 any scciion of country is subjected, must depend 

 not only upon the nature of the soil, hut upon 

 conyemence of access to markets, ami the nature 

 of the markets themselves. Thus it is obvious, 

 «»at Ihe culture of fruit and vegetables can only 

 be earned on advantageously, on a large scale 

 leilher in the immediate viciniiy of a large city, or 

 in such places as are brought near, by nieans <,f 

 steam communication ; while on the other hand 

 (vhere such convenience exists, those crops must 

 be the most prohtable which can he grovvn, pro- 

 dded the soil is such as to admit of their culture. 

 Bearing these facts in mind, a glance at the 

 nap will suffice to show that the farmers of this 

 lection o( i\ew Jersey, must find the raising of 

 mils and vegetables for the great markets of N. 

 ioik and Philadelphia, to be the most profitable 

 ise to which their lands can be applied ; yet one 

 vjio has not witnessed it, can hardly realise the 

 ast amount of such produce, which is daily de- 

 patclied, by cars, steamboats and sloofis, durin.. 

 lie market season ; and to one accnslomed to see 

 nly small patches devoted to such crops, to be 

 Jnded at odd limes, between the more important 

 irm laliors, it is a matter of cnriosiiy to see lar^e 

 urns euiuely devoted to their culture. SuHi 

 irnis are to be seen here, resembling, dnrin.' the 

 sason of cultivaiion, vast gardens, lalherUian 

 inns, hingle fields of strawberries or melons 

 lay be seen, containing ten or twelve acres, and 

 eas, beans, encumbers, sweet potatoes— in short 

 I'ery description of vegetables is cultivated on a 

 !Ule truly aslonisliing. The sandy loam which 

 )nsliiutesour soil, not only facilitates such cnl- 

 re hy the ease with which it is worked, but is 

 (treniely favorable to the early ripening of all 

 nds of vegetables, enabline us to send our i.ro- 

 ice to inarket ten days earlier than our neinh- 

 J*, on Ihe Ofiposiie side of the Delaware riv'er 

 ho do not, therefore, attempt to compete with 

 '.Inu devote ilieir (arms to grain and grazing. 

 1 lie nrst labor of the season on a " truck fariil" 

 every species of kitchen garden produce bein- 

 lowu here under the general name of " truck " 

 ft 'I"; >>«l<'iig of hot beds, which is done about 

 B middle of February, and in which are plant- 

 tomatoes, egg plants and cabbaees, and at a 

 er season, sweet potatoes and peppers. Pea'^ 

 e 1' anted as soon as the ground can be plou-'h- 

 '"■"','; "^ K'-n-^lly the last of Febr,'iary,°or 

 |- <■! March, and green peas are picked at the 

 j ' 01 Al;iy, at which time strawberries also are 

 ■V in i°"T, t^'''""":'"''^ ^^' ^"' i" 'I'e field about 



^d by ploughing and striking out in cross fnr- 

 *s, tbree leet,dpait,aleacli crossing of which 

 *ovel lull of stable manure is thrown, ami a 

 Uraised over it, in which the plant is .«e . Riue 

 ]nfitopsare picked early in .Tulv. The first 



.aJh"- '° ".""I'^.t i« asparagus, of which there 

 [fields in this vicinity containing twenty acres. 



the cutting of which employs many hands, and 

 was described to me by a laborer, as "the back- 

 achingcs/ work he kiiowed of;" The cimino com- 

 mences about the lOih of April, and is doire with 

 a long knifo made with a shoulder in the blade 

 close to the handle, with which the stem is cut 

 five or six inches underground. And here let 

 me notice an article on the culture of asparagn.s, 

 in the first number of the Horticulturist, by "t' 

 B. of New York" :— formidable initials to differ 

 from on the subject of gardenin?, I confess. He 

 complains of the practice of iilost marketmeii, 

 of cutting asparagus when it is one or two inches' 

 high,— when they have " two inches of what 

 grows above ground, and four or six of what 

 grows below"— which he adds is " as tough as a 

 stick." This is perfectly true, and if the stem is 

 allowed to get two inches above ground before it 

 is cut, it is certainly belter, as he says, to wait till 

 It IS five or six inches high, and then cut it even 

 with Ihe ground. But it is also true, that the 

 part which is under ground is tender and deli- 

 cious, lip to the moment that it appears above the 

 ground, in accordance with the theory which "o- 

 verns all plants, that no woody fibre can fornrin 

 Ihe stem till the first rudiment of a leaf is formed 

 and begins to perform its functions.* Now the 

 asparagus being a plant of very rapid growth 

 would very soon form too heavy a to|) for The ten- 

 der stem under ground to support, were it not 

 that nature has enableil it to form woody fibre 

 with proportionate rapidity, from the moment its 

 head appears above ground,— previous to v>hicli 

 there existed no necessity for it. ]f therefore it 

 IS cut, as is the practice here, the moment it 

 shows it.eelf, the white stem, which hy the time 

 It IS two inches high is hard and tough, will be 

 found perfectly tender and delicious. But to re- 

 turn from this digression. Early potatoes are 

 planted about the mi<ldle of March, and a pre- 

 vailing opinion, amounting in some minds to a 

 .superstition, has fixed upon St. Patrick's day (17lh 

 IVlarch,) as the lucky time to commit that seed to 

 the ground. Potatoes are invariably planted in 

 drills and manured with stable manure or marl 

 which IS abundant, and preferred Ijy many to any 

 other manure. It is obtained from the piis at 

 Mventy-five cents per wagon load, or delivered in 

 Burlingion from sloo[)s. at seventv-five cents per 

 ton. Jt csutains a very small rnoportion of lime 

 but owes lis feriilizing property to tlie potash, of 

 which, according to the analysis of Professor 

 Kogers, it contains from nine to thirteen percent 

 Oreeii corn is cut by the middle of July, and ear- 

 ly peaches are in perfection at the end of that 

 mouth though they are gathered prematurely riiie 

 from old trees as early as the 20th. Such are fit 

 only for cooking, but often bring a higher price 

 thim the very best after they become plenty. 



Philadelphia is of course our principal inarkef, 

 but lor the earliest produce, a higher price is ob- 

 tained from the agents of New York marketmen, 

 who drive a brisk business every day at the rail- 

 road station in Burlington, which thus become* 

 a market to wlnicli the farmers hriiitf their first 

 peas, tomatoes, corn, &c., with whicii New York 

 IS supplied a week or ten days before the same 

 produce comes in from Long Island and other 

 places ill the immediate vicinity, after which it is 

 no longer an object to send from here. A train 

 of market cars leaves here every evening durin" 

 the season for Amboy, where its freight is put on 

 board a steamboat and taken to New York to be 

 ex|)0sed for sale at daylight next morning. Du- 

 ring the peach season, cars constructed expressly 

 for carrying that fruit, 0|ien at the sides and pro- 

 vided with spring shelves, on which the baskets 

 are placed, are attached to this train. Fruit may 

 also lie sent for Boston by the morning train, 

 which arrives at New York in time for the eve- 

 ning boats down the Sound, so that it reaches 

 Boston in twenty-four hours from the time of leav- 

 ing here. 



A market train for Philadelphia leaves Burling- 

 ton every morning and evening, besides which, 

 two steamboats leave our wharf every mornin.' 

 and one every evening, for the same place, aiul 

 sloops ply constantly from the various landings 

 •suiled to the convenience of the neighborin<^ 

 farmers. These reach Philadelphia in an hour 

 and a ha f, and their freights are, for the most 

 part, sold on the wharves to hucksters, who re- 

 taiUhem in all parts of the city. Some farmers 



accompany their produce and dispose of it them- 

 selves ; others send it to agents in the city, or en- 

 trust it to men who go down daily in the boats 

 iHKl make a business of selling truck on commis- 

 sion -a business re.piiring much experience, 

 skill and precision, in disposing of the various 

 lots to the best advantage, keeping the separate 

 accounts of the different owners, and havin^ a 

 careful lookout for the baskets,— the theft "of 

 which, among marketmen, seems to reflect no 

 more upon a man's character for honesty, than 

 cheating in a horse trade. The basket holds— or 

 ought to hold-three pecks, and is the measure 

 by which almost every species of truck is .«old. 

 1 rices of course vary according to the season 

 and the f|uality of the articles. I have known 

 hve dollars paid for a basket of tomatoes- the 

 nrst of the season— and three weeks later have 

 seen the same quantity sold at 19^ cents. In fact 

 It IS only the earliest produce which pays: and I 

 tiave seen cart loads of the most delicious nut- 

 meg melons given to hogs, when a purchaser 

 could not be found at )2i cents per bushel 



Watermelons are sold by the hundred, and 

 range from $3 to $20 per hundred. Strawberries 

 are picked by women and children, in little square 

 bo.xes, holding a pint each. A cent a box is paid 

 for picking, and the fruit sells at three to six cents 

 I)er box. 



As yet there has been comparatively little at- 

 tention paid to the cultivation-and none what- 

 ever to Ihe forcing— of choice fruits, owing prob- 

 ably to the fact, that the men engaged in the busi- 

 ness, are, for the most part, of a class who are 

 iinwdlmg to engage in an employment Which 

 does not promise a speedy return fbr the invest- 

 ment. Peach trees, liowever, grow so rapidly, 

 and with so little care, that large orchards are 

 planted annually ; and the ground being kept in 

 cultivation, in three years a large ci-op of fine 

 fruit IS gathered, after which, the trees decline, 

 and a second crop, for the most part, finishes 

 them ; it being considered cheaper to plant new 

 trees annually, so as to have a constant succession 

 of young trees, than to attempt to preserve or 

 renovate the old ones. Enouiih has been done 

 l>y individuals, however, to prove the fitness of 

 our sod for the culture of every species of choice 

 fruit. 



The plum, and other smooth skinned fruits, it 

 IS true, are liable to the attacks of the curculio, 

 which finds a safe harbor in our sandy soil, but 

 wherever his attacks are guarded against, the 

 finest frmts are produced. To any one desirous 

 of making a business of cultivating choice fruits, 

 this [lortion of New Jersey offers such a combi- 

 nation of advantages, as couhl hardly be found 

 elsewhere. A large portion of the lands may yet 

 be bought at larHess than the value tliey might 

 be made to attain, under proper cultivation, and 

 a choice of trees may be had in this vicinity, from 

 some of the best nurseries in the country. 



A taste for such culture, is indeed rapidly form- 

 ing, and Ihe efforts of the State Horticultiiral So- 

 ciety are doing much to foster and increase it.— 

 Indeed, the success of the Society itself; is an 

 evidence of the sense which the people Jiave of 

 the importance of its olijects. It has been in ex- 

 istence only four years, but has gone on steadily 

 increasing in strength and spirit, in spite of many 

 sage predictions that it must fail, which predic- 

 tions were mainly based upon the fact, that we 

 have no large city in which to concentrate oiir 

 forces, and whose wealth should furnish the 

 means necessary for its support. 



•yij4i r.i 



The risks attendant on rapid accumulation are 

 always in proportion to the chances of success. 

 Ihe farmer sows his seed, and has no doubt but 

 that the harvest will repay him. But he who 

 embarks in speculations that promise sudden and 

 great wealth, knows that he may be "sowing the 

 wind, to reap the whirlwind," And the constant 

 fear of such a result embitters his days and ren- 

 ders his nights restless. And if attained, success 

 gives but little satisfaction. The higher the rise, 

 the wider the horizon ; the greater the accumu- 

 lation, the more exorbitant the desire. And this 

 is not the extent of the evil. A total want of in- 

 dependence is too often the result. Few men in 

 our community have those resources that will en- 

 able them to carry on extensive operations on 

 their own means. Almost all depend uinuv-b"'- 



