We have been led to believe that there is something very 

 mysterious about seed production, — that vegetable seeds could 

 be produced only in certain favored locations. That may be 

 true of some varieties, but I do know that you can raise, right 

 here in Massachusetts, as good seed of cabbage, tomato, onion, 

 beets or celery as can be raised in any other part of the world. 

 We have been raising — for a number of years — our own 

 cabbage, tomato, sweet corn and celery seed. This year I 

 raised 20 pounds of celery seed on less than one-thirtieth of an 

 acre. 



I thought it might be better to tell you something of our 

 crops, and methods of growing them, rather than theorize about 

 the business. I am not very long on the theory, anyway. I 

 have been working in vegetables all my life. As a kid I crawled 

 for miles and miles and miles, on my hands and knees, weeding 

 onions, with the summer sunshine playing tattoo along my 

 back. I know what it is to cut cabbage all day in the rain, or 

 to pull sweet corn with the thermometer at 110" and no air 

 stirring. And I know what it is to get up in the wee small 

 hours of the morning, and take the produce to market and 

 sometimes sell it for less than it cost to grow. And yet, after 

 all, there is something mighty fascinating about the business. 

 I would not trade jobs with the fellow in the bank who is 

 locked up in a cage and put imder bonds. 



We are situated in the northeastern part of Pennsylvania, in 

 the historic Wyoming valley. The soil consists of river bottom, 

 and varies from a light sandy soil to a heavy clay. We raised 

 this year more than a million early vegetable plants, mostly 

 cabbage, tomato and celery. We had 14 acres in asparagus, 27 

 acres in celery, 20 acres in tomatoes, 15 acres in early cabbage, 

 15 acres in onions, 6 acres in sweet corn, 8 acres in beets, 6 

 acres in spinach, 2 acres in carrots. 



Every market gardener should have, at least, a small green- 

 house and enough sash and cold frames to raise all the plants 

 needed for his own use. The soil used for plant raising should 

 be of a loose, porous nature, to allow perfect drainage. Leaf 

 mold is nature's seed bed, and probably the best substitute is 

 made by using sods and well-rotted manure. We usually put 

 down about a foot of sods, then add one-half foot of manure, 



