70 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



due to the fact that modern hardening; has made fruits and 

 vegetables so abundant and cheap that they have taken the 

 place of other foods. It is this concentration of force by the 

 corporations in market gardening that have made these things 

 possible. True, the world is better for them ; yet, as I said 

 of the old shoe lousiness, the world has lost much in inde- 

 pendence and I may say in character, in the wiping out of 

 the old business of the small freeholder. It would be better 

 if the American could have followed the trade to the large 

 garden as the old shoemakers followed their trade to the 

 factory. In our State he has not done so. Your average 

 American, at least the Jersey Dutchman, wants to stand up 

 straight at his work. His ancestors came to this country in 

 order to enjoy that privilege. Men from the other side, 

 whose people have been for generations on their knees, in 

 the dirt, not to say their prayers but to pick the tares from 

 among onions and lettuce, have left the American workman 

 standing idly upon his feet. 



Another thing that crippled many of our American free- 

 holders is the belief that certain fruits and vegetables cannot 

 be grown successfully without the aid of stable manure. The 

 result of all this with us has been to produce a class of men 

 who are neither lish nor fowl. The counties back among the 

 hills beat them in milk production ; the west beats them at 

 growing corn, wheat, rye and hay; and the market gardens 

 of Jersey City beat them to death on what is usually called 

 garden truck. What are these men to do ? That is the ques- 

 tion of the hour, and to my mind it is of far more importance 

 to the agriculture of this country than any effort to still fur- 

 ther concentrate the business of market gardening. The 

 trouble is that most of the discoveries and possibilities which 

 agricultural scientists have dug out hav^e gone to help the few 

 who have been able to organize capital and labor. In other 

 words, science has been of more benefit to the corporation 

 than it has been to the individual. 



The best and only answer that I can give to this question 

 is to tell you something of my own plan, and how it has been 

 worked out. I want to tell you just enough of my personal 

 aftairs to form a hook upon which you can hang discussion. 

 I have often wondered what my wife could do to support and 



