EARLY EXPERIENCES AND SEED-BEDS. IJ 



ignorant of every branch of horticulture, and yet with an 

 ardent love for it, I have always believed that the fair success 

 I have made was more due to that ignorance than anything 

 else. In those days there were very few market-gardeners on 

 Galveston Island, and those here were exceedingly jealous 

 of each other, so when I started out and went around for 

 a little friendly information on various points, I found them 

 literally a lot of know-nothings. This turned out to be the 

 very stimulus needed to throw me on my own resources, and 

 compelled me to inaugurate a thorough system of experiments 

 for myself. So, getting a very large blank-book, as every- 

 thing was to be learned, I made it a daily rule for fifteen years 

 to make full notes of the weather, and enter a complete 

 statement of all the garden operations performed each day, 

 which turned out to be a most delightful and instructive task, 

 for in a few years I could strike an average, and know just 

 when and how each operation should be performed, and prob- 

 able results. 



Taking Henderson's Market-Gardening as my guide, with 

 proper allowances for climate, I shall ever feel under obliga- 

 tions for the valuable information contained therein, espe- 

 cially his earnest advice as to a free, in fact almost extrava- 

 gant, use of manure. After thirty years in the garden and 

 orchard, I attribute whatever measure of success has crowned 

 rny efforts more to an apparently reckless style of fertilizing 

 than all else combined. Manure means both water and culti- 

 vation, for I have often seen excellent crops made, even in 

 grass and weeds, on very rich ground, while clean culture on 

 that only half fertilized gave a practical failure. Food in pro- 

 per proportions, not a glut of any one element, but a fairly 

 complete manure, and in abundance, is the one absolute 

 essential for the highest success, in the garden as well as the 

 orchard. Thirty years ago ttyis necessity for a complete ferti- 

 lizer was not recognized, and especially the need for potash, 

 for while its use on onions was generally recommended, the 

 idea seemed to be prevalent that somehow it suited that crop 

 better than any other. But while, as I have said, I will always 

 thank Henderson for his injunctions about manuring, he gave 

 2 HORT. 



