No. 4.] MARKET GARDENING. 69 



time. We have tried to jump too fast, and he stands dazed 

 and discouraged at the rush of scientific research that is going 

 on about him. 



Back in the days when the shoemaking business left us we 

 were told by learned men — most of whom had seeds or 

 plants or fertilizers to sell — that the east would be better oft* 

 for the change, because it would be the garden spot of the 

 world. Where I live, in New Jersey, that prophecy has 

 nearly come true ; yet it is a grave question as to whether 

 the small freeholder or farmer has profited by it. Where I 

 live, the market gardening business has been highly devel- 

 oped. One of my neighbors sells thousands of dollars' worth 

 of strawberries at Christmas. Others are forcing cucumbers, 

 tomatoes and asparagus, so that they will soon fairly com- 

 pete with you. I think most of them, one year with another, 

 make money ; but they make it largely at the expense of 

 those small farmers who have neither the skill nor the capital 

 to compete with them. 



Just as our old shoe business was taken from us thirty 

 years ago, certain features of the market garden business 

 have been taken away from the small American freeholder 

 forever. Our little shoe shop went down before the mighty 

 factory in Lynn. Why? Because one engine in the base- 

 ment of that factory generated more power than one thou- 

 sand of our human arms could produce at hammering wooden 

 pegs. The little hand-hoed potato patch has been whipped 

 by the potato planter and digger, and, except in the most 

 favorable locations, the small greenhouse has been roasted 

 out by the acres of glass which you large gardeners have 

 acquired. 



I have no doul)t that you will truly say that this concen- 

 tration of glass and heat is destiny, true and well-advised ; 

 I have no doubt that it has been a good thing for the world. 

 No one can deny that this change has made what was once a 

 luxury used only by the rich a regular article of food, even 

 for the poor. It is a fact that Americans consume only 3.7 

 bushels of wheat per capita, while the English eat nearly 6 

 bushels and the French nearer 8. If we were to eat as much 

 bread as the English do, we would have practically no wheat 

 left for export. That we do not eat more wheat is largely 



