No. 4.] MARKET GARDENING. 35 



MARKET GARDENING. 



BY MR. HENRY M. HOWARD, WEST NEWTON. 



Producing several varieties of vegetables in large quanti- 

 ties is called market gardening. 



It is a business carried on chiefly near large cities or 

 towns in which the stuft* can be sold. According to the last 

 United States census, jNIiddlesex and Essex counties pro- 

 duced $1,875,000 worth of vegetables in 1899, while the 

 rest of the State produced only $1,325,000 worth, or about 

 two-thirds as much. The above figures do not include 

 potato and onion values. 



Truck farming is carried on in any section of the country 

 where the soil and climate are suited to the production of 

 any one vegetable. Railroads and steamboats have to be 

 used to bring this stufl" to market, and most of it nuist be 

 sold throuo;h commission men. 



With market gardening a greater variety of vegetables is 

 raised, and they are sold from the farmers' Avagons to the 

 dealers. The cost per acre for manure and labor is greatest 

 on a market-garden farm, the last United States census giv- 

 ing the cost of labor as $340 and manure as $76 per acre 

 for Massachusetts market-ii:arden farms. 



The most important essentials for market gardening are 

 land, labor, manure and a large market. 



The land used is that most convenient to the market, and 

 is not always first class ; yet by liberal use of manure, water 

 and labor it is made to produce large crops. 



Those farmers having a light, sandy soil are usually the 

 first in the market with early vegetables. This kind of soil 

 is suited for growing very early peas, beans, lettuce, spin- 

 ach, radishes, corn and tomatoes ; and again in the late fall 



