MARKET GARDENING. 



R. H. GARRAHAN, KINGSTON, PENNSYLVANIA, 



Market gardening is the great American lottery. It is often 

 a case of "heads, you win; tails, I lose." 



To be successful in this business one should be a good loser — 

 he should be an optimist. A pessimist asks, "Is there any milk 

 in the pitcher?" while an optimist says, "Please pass the 

 cream." He is looking for the cream, and he usually gets it. 

 We have our troubles, to be sure; every one has; the manu- 

 facturer has his labor troubles, and the laborer has troubles of 

 his own. Conditions are such that we will be compelled to 

 make our operations more efficient. We must use labor-saving 

 tools wherever possible, and eliminate a lot of the unnecessary 

 risks that we are taking every year. 



Farming is not an exact science, and in the growing and 

 selling of perishable produce we must take a lot of chances. We 

 must take our own chance with the weather, with the seed we 

 use, and a long chance on the price we get for our produce. 

 But do we not often take a lot of unnecessary risks? We may 

 be preparing a piece of ground for a certain crop, and a few 

 hours' more work would put it in ideal condition, but we are in 

 a hurry and — well, that is good enough, let it go at that. We 

 know that Bordeaux mixture is a fairly good preventive of 

 certain plant diseases, but — it looks like rain, and if we put it 

 on it might wash oflp, or we have something else to do, and we 

 put it off for a more convenient season; as a result, that celery 

 develops a fine case of blight. 



On a great many market gardens there are opportunities for 

 irrigation which are neglected, — either a creek, pond or under- 

 ground water. Sometimes one good wetting at the right time 

 makes the difference between profit and loss. Then, again, we 

 are not always as particular as we might be regarding the source 

 of our seed supply. I have known gardeners to send a list of 

 their seed requirements to different seedsmen asking for their 

 lowest bid. They were looking for something cheap, and, as a 

 rule, they got what they were looking for. 



