SOME PHASES OF MARKET GARDENING. 67 



ative aud inevitable. The less skilled portion of its devotees 

 Avill have to drop out, and only the fittest can survive. It is 

 time for us to warn those who, having made a failure of general 

 farming, clerking, store-keeping, or office-holding, intend to take 

 up gardening without previous training and experience. If our 

 eiforts to scare them off are successful, it will be a favor to 

 themselves as well as to those already in the business. It will 

 prevent undesirable competition for the latter, and save the 

 former certain disappointment and loss of time and money. 



Trash not Frofitahle. — That the production of trash does not 

 pay has been reiterated almost ad nauseam ; and yet the markets 

 are filled with trashy stuff that weakens and depresses the prices 

 of even the better grades of goods. Keally superior vegetables 

 may suffer in this competition, but they seldom fail to find a fair 

 demand and comparatively fair prices. In a few lines we secure 

 even our old-fashioned good figures. Possibly the depressed 

 condition of the market garden business may prove a blessing in 

 disguise, by discouraging raw recruits from coming into our 

 ranks, and by thus preventing a further increase of trashy pro- 

 duction. Possibly with the return of old-time general pros- 

 perity (another period of which seems now about due us) the 

 consumption of garden products can be increased to such an 

 extent as to give us again paying prices for the general line of 

 garden stuff and good profits to the skilled grower. 



To restrict Prodxict'wn. — Meanwhile it is in order to talk of 

 restricting the production rather than extending it, especially in 

 those lines which seem decidedly overdone, as, for instance, in 

 that of onions and tomatoes for the late summer and fall trade. 

 This is largely a local question. What special crops one can 

 produce with best prospects of profitable sales is a matter which 

 each individual gardener mixst settle for himself. It would not 

 be safe to point out special crops as promising better pay than 

 others, for that would only lead to a general rush and a breaking- 

 down of the prices of the products thus recommended for more 

 general culture. 



Cheapened Production. — The talk of reducing the cost of 

 production may have a '•' chestnutty " flavor ; yet I believe the 

 story has not been half told. It is true that the skilled gardener 

 appreciates and utilizes ever}' new implement put forth as saving 

 hand labor in the garden, from the newer style seed drill to the 



