24th March, A. D. 1892. 



ESSAY • 



BY 



CHARLES GREENWOOD, of Worcester. 



Theme : — ■ Vegetable Cultivation. For the Amateur. For the 

 Market Gardener. 



The cultivation of vegetables as a special business, though one 

 of the youngest of the many branches of farming has rapidly 

 grown to be one of the most important in the thickly settled and 

 manufacturing sections of the country. Although in the produc- 

 tion of the absolute necessities of life it may not rank with 

 dairying, the production of beef, pork and mutton, or the culti- 

 vation of the cereals, in the employment it furnishes to men and 

 teams, and the profit it yields to the skilful cultivator (in pro- 

 portion to the number of acres), it easily outranks them all. It 

 is true that a large part of the vegetables might be classed as 

 the uon-essentials of life, and were but a few years ago con- 

 sidered to be necessities, yet from their abundance and cheapness 

 they are within the easy reach of all, and this is as much to the 

 advantage of the gardener as though they were absolutely indis- 

 pensable. 



It has been said, T presume by some good sister who never 

 found a man's heart, or some who have and wish they hadn't, 

 that the way to a man's heart was through his stomach, and 

 every producer of fine farm products, knows that the way to his 

 pocket book is by the same route, for wliatever the " good book " 

 may advise to the contrary, it is a well known fact that man does 

 take a great deal of thought for the morrow, saying — what shall 

 I eat? 



The market gardeners have, I think, been a decided help to 



