24 THE NEW HORTICULTURE. 



my gardening experience on Galveston Island, though I never 

 knew him by that name. 



When, in 1868, I first went into the gardening business, I 

 had but five acres at the corner of Forty-fifth street and Ave- 

 nue N, and knew absolutely nothing about the business. In 

 those good old days of little gold but lots of greenbacks, 

 nothing sold like melons, cabbage and cauliflower. Anything 

 less than $10 per dozen for good lots of either, if moderately 

 early, was not thought of, and when a few years later the 

 price dropped to $4 and 5 per dozen, we all cried out that 

 we were positively being robbed. Arming myself with Hen- 

 derson's ''Gardening for Profit," I determined to grow noth- 

 ing but melons in spring, and cabbage and cauliflower in the 

 fall, at least as long as I could. In May, 1868, I turned my 

 first acre, breaking that year only one block of two and a-half 

 acres. After plowing and harrowing several times, the ques- 

 tion arose as to the best manure for my first venture. I had 

 studied Henderson until I knew him by heart, and while he 

 had excellent words for pure bone flour (not coarse meal), 

 his recommendation of 1,200 pounds per acre of the genuine, 

 old-time, 12 per cent, ammonia and 25 per cent, phosphoric 

 acid Peruvian guano, struck my fancy most. When a boy I 

 had seen spring up, almost as if by magic, most wonderful 

 crops of wheat from the worn-out fields of old Virginia, when 

 only a few hundred pounds per acre were applied, and my 

 expectations were on tiptoe to see what 1,200 pounds would 

 do. So, without further debate, I ordered my seed from 

 Henderson, and the $100 gold per ton Chinca Island Peruvian 

 guano, the supply of which gave out years ago, from Mapes, 

 of New York. 



In August I measured off an acre that was well prepared, 

 scattered 1,200 pounds as evenly as I could, harrowed it in, 

 having already sowed my cabbage seed. Shortly after a 

 splendid rain fell, and taking advantage of it, about the first 

 of September I set this acre down with cabbage. Nearly 

 every plant lived, and though the green worms were bad, the 

 season was so favorable, and the growth so rapid, that little 

 damage was done, and in November I began to market a crop 



