No. 4.] MARKET GARDENING. 45 



a careless way, and has to be sold at 8 or 10 cents a bushel, 

 — no care given to the harvesting or the putting up. And 

 other things are done in the same manner. 1 can remember 

 when there was a demand in Worcester for a good article, 

 and a fair price paid for it, but I believe that time has gone. 



Mr. Howard. The gentleman who spoke last seems to 

 think that when stuff is the cheapest it is the poorest, but it 

 is the very opposite. When spinach is plenty, the house- 

 wife doesn't have to pick it over at all. The farmers pull 

 it up ; it is never washed. One man can harvest 24 or 25 

 bushels an hour, and can land that spinach in Boston from 

 10 miles out at 4 cents a bushel. If the}^ can get 8 and 10 

 cents for it they are making money, and are glad to do it. 

 The people profit by it, and get their spinach cheap. And 

 when lettuce is the cheapest it usually is the best. It is so 

 with most of our vegetables, and it is a very good thing that 

 it is so. It stimulates people to buy more, and they get into 

 the habit of using the vegetables, and once forming the 

 habit, the}^ keep right on. Then if the price goes up, they 

 don't mind, — they have got to have it. It is a mighty good 

 thing we can produce them cheap. 



Mr. P. M. Harwood (of Barre). I am not a market 

 gardener, but I have been a good deal interested in this 

 address, which has been so ably given, and I have noticed 

 some things about it. It was full of meat. Now, evidently 

 Brother Howard is not a florist ; there was nothing flowery 

 about this address, — it was full of the necessities of life. 

 I feel almost like throwing him a few bouquets to help him 

 out. But I arose for the purpose of calling the attention of 

 this audience to the fact that they have before them the 

 greatest opportunity, I believe, that they ever had, and per- 

 haps as good an opportunity as they will have for some years 

 to come, to learn something. Now, this gentleman knows 

 what he is about. I have followed him for some years. 

 Brother Howard wrote that address to go into the report, 

 and if you want to wake him up, just fire questions at him. 

 You will find that you will get all you ask for. It is there. 

 I remember once askino^ one of the leadino- market orardeners, 

 in private conversation, to what he attributed his success, 



