CHAPTER 11. 



MARKET GARDENING AND TRUCK FARMING. 



GARDENING FOR PROFIT ONLY. 



" To produce is one thing, to sell another." 



)ONEY — and money alone — is the object of the 

 market gardener ; and the considerations of 

 pleasure, health and morality are necessarily 

 subordinate to that of profit. Business, not 

 pleasure — that is gardening for the man who 

 tries to support himself and family by growing 

 vegetables for market. To be successful it 

 often requires a rare combination of skill and 

 experience, with a thorough understanding of the wants of his 

 available market, and considerable tact, if not shrewdness, in the 

 sale of articles produced. It is no business for the careless, the 

 lazy, or the stupid. 



Neither is it a royal road to fortune, and I feel it my duty to 

 dispel the cherished delusions of people who wish to engage in 

 market gardening as an easy and sure way of making a comfort- 

 able living. Before me is a letter received some time ago from 

 a " preacher of the gospel," 35 years of age,who having been 

 compelled to resign his position on account of throat affliction, 

 has hit upon the idea of growing garden stuff for market. 



" Is it possible," he asks, "to make a living on three acres 

 of ground, 115 miles from Philadelphia? Soil good, and in town, 

 near railroad station. I am happiest when I am hard at work, 

 and oh ! I love to work in the soil ! This alone gives me renewed 

 vigor, and a degree of health. Yet I am not willing to become 

 a market boy, and I cannot peddle out what I raise off the soil." 

 Here, evidently, we have met with a wrong conception of 

 market gardening; but it is a somewhat common one. I know 

 of localities where three acres of good ground well-managed 

 would afford quite a respectable living to a small family, with a 

 market right at the door, and grocers in the near town willing to 

 take almost any good garden produce brought them at fair 

 prices. Advantage might often be taken of a local demand for 

 certain productions, as berries, onions, celery, etc., and such 

 articles grown on a larger scale, for sale to retailers, thus avoiding 

 the " peddling " feature. But kid-glove and silk-hat gardening 

 2 (17) 



