CHAPTER IV. 



THE SMALL HOLDER AS A MARKET 

 GARDENER. 



Conditions necessary to Success Capital Required Physique 

 Industry and Concentration Up-to-date Methods Intensive Culture 

 Spade Work. 



THE ultimate success of the man who undertakes market 

 gardening as a means of obtaining a livelihood largely 

 depends upon his fitness for the work. It is an occupation 

 which calls for judgment, foresight, resourcefulness, untiring 

 industry, and unfailing optimism. If he is endowed with these 

 qualities his prospects of success will then depend upon his 

 aims, a thorough understanding of the manner in which he 

 intends to realise them, and the means at his command. 



Before embarking upon the serious business of cultivating 

 the soil for a living, a man ought to have in hand not only 

 enough capital to provide for rent, tools and appliances, 

 manure, seeds, and live-stock, but also sufficient for his family's 

 maintenance for at least one year. Although the average 

 returns from well-cultivated land may be calculated with a 

 near approach to accuracy when taken over a sufficient 

 number of years, the returns in any given year are very 

 uncertain because of irregular climatic conditions. If the 

 holding is a newly-formed one the first year's occupation of 

 it is sure to be beset with innumerable unforeseen items of 

 expense ; if fruit trees are planted upon a portion of the 

 holding these will be several years before yielding any appre- 

 ciable return for the capital and labour expended upon them, 

 and the cultivated land will probably require a season or two 

 to bring it into good condition. In addition, there is always 

 the possibility that the first season may be an exceptionally 

 cold or wet one, with the returns from crops much lower than 

 was calculated upon, and if this should be the case disaster 



