GENERAL DISCUSSION ON VEGETABLES. 103 



to go home and try and do better next time, no matter if you 

 had the best shown at the hist exhibition. 



In growing any crop tlie principal requirements to produce it 

 are air, heat, hght, and moisture ; the greatest is moisture. Over 

 70 per cent of moisture is contained in every crop grown. The 

 necessary air in greenhouses is acquired by ventilation. The 

 hght is obtained through the glass, or, if the nights are long as 

 they are in winter, the amount of light is increased by the use of 

 arc electric lights over the houses. The temperature is main- 

 tained by heated pipes placed in the house at regular distances, 

 and the regulation of heat is attended to through the boiler situ- 

 ated at the lower end of the house. One 60 hoi'se power boiler 

 will heat a house covering one-half an acre of land to a tempera- 

 ture required for lettuce through the winter, and ^vill run the 

 house for cucumbers after March 1st. 



There are oyer seventeen hundred market gardeners who bring 

 vegetables to the Boston market and over twenty-five hundred in 

 the state; and the number is growing lai'ger every year. None 

 of them get rich, but with hard work and economy obtain a 

 good living and have their usual dinner at Thanksgiving, no mat- 

 ter what the price of turkey may be. 



The time was when almost any crop of vegetables would pay 

 for growing, but today it is a problem what to grow ; and the 

 man must study the market, know how to produce a good crop by 

 the closest attention to details, and confine himself to a few kinds 

 with which he is most familiar and which are best adapted to his 

 soil and market. With the great improvement in machinery and 

 the application of special fertihzers adapted to the requirements 

 of each ci"op, with the use of greenhouses and the aid of electric 

 light, with the use of various kinds of appliances for the fumiga- 

 tion of crops and of sterilization for the j^urifi cation of the soil, 

 there is no reason why the market gardener of today cannot 

 grow a perfect crop and of such quahty that it will demand a 

 good price at any time it is placed upon the market. 



In response to a question as to the value and efficacy of electric 

 light in promoting the growth of vegetables, Mr. Rawson stated 



