CHANGE IN THE MARKET. 187 



all at once, two or three or half a dozen car-loads of cabbages 

 came in from Portland, knocked the price down at once, and 

 shocked the market in such a way that it never recovered. A 

 few years ago, the squash crop was one of our main depend- 

 ences. We were sure of a good market for any amount that 

 we could raise ; but of late years, the farmers of Michigan 

 and other Western States have been raising squashes, and they 

 frequently send them into Boston in such quantities as to glut 

 the market, and are obliged to sell them for what they can get, 

 which sometimes is so low that little or no returns are made 

 to them, and making the market very uncertain to us. So, 

 at the present day, it is almost as important to discuss what 

 shall we farmers grow, as it is, how shall we grow it. 



This year, as you well know, we have all suffered very 

 seriously from drought. Many of our crops in Essex County 

 have been cut off entirely, and yet the price has not advanced 

 in proportion, because in other parts of the country the supply 

 is abundant, and for that reason there is no chance, as it 

 seems to me, for us to get the opportunities that we once had, 

 so that we must consider especially the wants of our home 

 •market. How best to supply that is the question. We must 

 wait, it seems to me, for future developments before we can 

 determine to what crops we may devote our energies to the 

 best profit. A few years ago, you farmers will remember, 

 it was quite important to get early potatoes into the market, 

 and early pease, but now it is useless for us to attempt to grow 

 either earlier than we can get the largest product with the 

 crop. What I mean to say is, that we must not endeavor to 

 put our crops in so early as to sacrifice quality for the sake of 

 getting them a little earlier, for the reason that early potatoes 

 and all early vegetables are coming in from Norfolk and the 

 South, and so along, following the shore, much earlier than 

 we can possibly raise them, and potatoes can be introduced 

 into our market ripe, and in first-rate condition before we can 

 possibly bring in our unripe and ill-grown early potatoes ; so 

 that it is not much use for us at the present time to attempt 

 to grow these things very much earlier than will enable us 

 to produce the best and greatest results. 



I will say one word in regard to the potato. I am very 

 sure that, by high cultivation, — that is, by using an abundance 



