i2th January, A. D. 1899. • 



E S S A Y 



BY 



AARON LOW, HiNGHAM. 



Theme : — Vegetables. 



Mr. President: — When your Secretary wrote to rae that your 

 Society wished nie to give you a paper upon Vegetables, I 

 thought that he had selected a very comprehensive subject ; a 

 subject that to the market gardener is of great importance, for 

 at the present time if he desires to 1)e in the front rank, he nuist 

 ever be on the alert to cater to the whims and fancies of his cus- 

 tomers in supplying them with such varieties of vegetables as 

 they wish for. 



The market gardener of forty or fifty years ago had a very 

 simple task, to supply the demands of customers, as the num- 

 ber of varieties in cultivation were but few, and these mostly of 

 the old standbys. Since that time, there has been developed 

 and brought into general use many new vegetables then unknown. 



Among the vegetables used or grown fifty years ago. Rhu- 

 barb was but little known. Now it is one of our best paying 

 early spring crops, of easy and simple cultivation, producing as 

 it will quite a number of tons yearly per acre, when well estab- 

 lished and on early land ; selling at good prices. The Giant and 

 Victoria are both good varieties, having large, stout stalks, and 

 are both rapid growers. 



Asparagus is another vegetable, the demand for which has 

 rapidly increased during the last twenty-five or thirty years. As 

 one of our early spring crops, this must be reckoned as among 

 the most profitable. When well established, it can be cropped 

 for many years, giving good returns, as the demand is usually 



