36 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



the light soils can be depended on to grow stuff as well if 

 not better than the loamy soil. 



Farmers having loamy soils do not have to use so much 

 manure and water. Their crops come a little later than on 

 sand, and are usually a little better in quality. During mid- 

 summer farmers having heavy loams are the ones who bring 

 in the best stuff. I have never vet found a farmer amono- 

 market gardeners who does not imagine that the other farmer 

 with a different soil has a little better opportunity because 

 of a better soil . 



Those farms located nearest to the market are often the 

 most desirable. The expense for transportation of manure 

 and vegetables is very much less than on a more distant 

 farm. Labor can be more easily obtained, and advantage 

 taken of fluctuations in the market. 



A load of 57 barrels of cabbage has l^een taken with one 

 horse from Revere to Boston, a distance of about 4 miles. 

 A one-horse load from East Watertown, about 4 miles out, 

 has had on it 214 bushels of spinach. No such loads could 

 be hauled a nmch longer distance with one horse. A single 

 load from 10 miles out would be about one-half as much as 

 that put on from farms 4 miles out. 



The nearer the farm is to the market, the smaller we are 

 apt to find it in area, and the more intensive its style of 

 business, with a large proportion of its area under glass. 



One of the smallest places is one in Methuen, Mass., where 

 there are only 1^/^ acres, but from which the gardener, with 

 the aid of two men, sells nearly $2,500 worth of vegetables 

 a year. 



A small farm of ^Va acres in Belmont has produced far 

 greater results. This place is mostly covered with green- 

 houses. This farmer is an expert grower of lettuce, cucum- 

 bers, radishes, water cress, parsley and tomatoes. Accord- 

 ing to his own statement, he has made $40,000 profit in ten 

 years. There is another farm in Belmont about the same 

 size as this one, which has as much glass on it ; and this 

 farmer has been even more successful than his neighbor 

 liefore spoken of. These two little farms are only 4 mikvs 

 from Boston, and the salesmen are in the market every day, 



