220 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICUI.TURAL SOCIETY. 



garden ; but by the expenditure of time and strength one may be 

 prepared in the manner indicated, at the rate of about two square 

 rods for a day's work, and at fifty cents per day, which is the pre- 

 vailing rate for Avages, the cost of the thorough preparation of the 

 soil for the highest culture would be about S40 per acre. 



Owing to the facility with which this limestone rock is quarried, 

 it is cut out in square blocks and the floor of the quarry is easily 

 left with a fair surface and but little unevenness. This, of course, 

 is covered with the pulverized rock and debris — the result of 

 working the stone — which soon forms a mellow soil that is readily 

 put into the finest' condition for the orchard or the garden, so that 

 in some of these worked-out quarries can be found a luxuriant 

 growth of fruits and vegetables. In such situations the growth of 

 vegetable life may be made perennial. One can supply the table 

 every day in the year with every desirable vegetable, but it Avould 

 be essential to constant!}^ renew the supply of seeds from the north, 

 owing to the natural tendency to deterioration, the inferiority of 

 the vegetables seen in the market, compared with those of the same 

 sorts to which we are accustomed at home, being quite noticeable. 



This market was a study and a revelation. It is well situated on 

 the main street and extends to the harbor. The stalls are put u]> 

 at public auction at intervals of three months, and the renter may 

 sell everything except hardware, crockery, dry goods and liquors. 



Outside of the market, around the passageways and on the 

 wharf, persons, mostly women, are allowed the privilege of selling 

 poultry, crabs and vegetables upon the payment of sixpence per 

 day — about twelve cents. These people will walk in a mile and a 

 half or two miles from Grant's Town, which is peculiarly the negro, 

 community, at a very early hour of the morning bringing their little 

 stock of vegetables in a basket borne upon the head. On arriving 

 at their allotted space at the market, they spread their goods upon 

 a box, a board, or the head of a barrel. A few potatoes or yams,. 

 onions, tomatoes, martjmias — a few beans, beets, turnips, radishes, 

 or some little sticks of sugar-cane — are grouped together in small 

 lots to the value of a ha'-pennj'^, a pennj^ or a check, which is a 

 penny and a half. One parcel that was noticed particularly, con- 

 sisted simply of one small tomato and half an onion and was valued 

 at a ha'-peiniy. The purchaser, generally a negro, lays down the 

 coin, sweeps tlie allotted portion into the basket without uttering a„ 

 word, and passes on. 



