No. 4.] MARKET GARDENING. 65 



Market Gardening with LiImited Capital. 



BY H. W. COLLINGWOOD, HACKENSACK, N. J. 



A plain story of a small enterprise. That is what I hope 

 to tell you this morning. The enterprise is small, because 

 it is not yet past the growing stage ; the story is plain, 

 because sad experience has planed off some of the theories 

 that might have led to a " big story." I have felt for some 

 time that those of us who pretend to be in any sense agri- 

 cultural teachers are failing to make our meetings as 

 valuable as we might, by shooting too high, and forgetting 

 that ninety per cent of our farmers are still in the primer 

 class as far as scientific improvement is concerned. I want 

 to get to close quarters and use fine bird shot. It may not 

 bore a hole through any of you, but it may sting up a dis- 

 cussion. I have no big stories to tell. I cannot figure out 

 any enormous profits, because I cannot put into cold figures 

 the fun, the happiness and the health our family has dug out 

 of the soil. My little place is only a converted sand heap 

 of twenty acres, — a little bit shaky in the faith still, but 

 growing stronger all the time by the grace of crimson clover 

 and cow-peas. Our little corner of the earth gives us a 

 home and health, and I take it that is all any man ever gets 

 out of the soil. A rich man in New York once gave a great 

 dinner costing twenty-five dollars a plate. The very earth 

 was scoured to produce rich and varied food for the guests. 

 In the midst of that splendor, he who gave the feast sat at 

 the head of the table eating — a bowl of bread and milk. 

 That was all he dared put into his stomach. He would have 

 paid five hundred dollars a drop for the water that comes 

 into our mouths, or one hundred dollars a smack for the 

 way our lips come together, when, tired as a dog, we come 

 near a plate of baked beans. Others may tell what can be 

 done by those who can control large blocks of capital, and 



