94 Farmers' Miscellany. [July, 



LETTER No. 2. 

 In my last I spoke of regulating farming according to the cir- 

 cumstances in which a farmer is placed. In this I will not in- 

 clude the character of his soil, for he may make his soil what he 

 pleases. Yet this might be, and actually is a circumstance of 

 considerable importance. But I shall have special reference to 

 the farmer's proximity to market, including of course the value of 

 his land and the cost of producing. And these circumstances 

 alone should demand a serious consideration in the mind of any 

 man who makes the Hudson river the means of transporting his 

 produce to the market in the city of New York. It has been de- 

 monstrated, I think, that he can not grow wheat and offer any 

 reasonable competition to the west. He may live by rasing it, 

 and that he could do if he had no market. But his object is to 

 sell and make money, and he should not be content to do this at a 

 disadvantage. What then shall he grow? 



I must divide my answer in order to suit my circumstances. 

 And in the first place a large portion of the early vegetables 

 which are consumed in the city of New York are brought from a 

 great distance, compared with many places on the river, where 

 they might be grown to advantage. There is scarcely a little 

 village, or landing place, which has not its market vessels, run- 

 ning a week or oftener, to market with the products of the neigh- 

 borhood. Whenever, then, the place is in such proximity to the 

 city that vegetables can be gathered in the afternoon and sent to 

 market by day light next morning, a considerable portion of the 

 land and the industry of the inhabitants should be diverted to the 

 growth of such articles as are now raised in the gardens about 

 the city, to be sold as green vegetables. 



I know that some will open their eyes in alarm, and tell me 

 at once that I will have the market glutted and the produce all 

 thrown into the river. I will have no such thing. A contin- 

 gency of this kind may happen, that if all were to enter upon 

 this branch of husbandry at once, the first year might exhibit a 

 glutted market, for the population of our large cities are not pre- 

 pared for a sudden expansion in the quantity of any article of 



