14 PRACTICAL FLORICULTURE. 



As to the cultivation of fruits and vegetables, it ia 

 not my object in this volume to give detailed directions 

 "how to do it;" for these reference may be made to my 

 work " Gardening for Profit," new edition published in 

 1887. I merely wish to show that in small towns the 

 combined culture of fruits, flowers and vegetables can 

 be more profitably carried on than the culture of either 

 by itself. My first attempt at commercial gardening 

 was a combination of the business of market gardener 

 and florist, and even for the great market of New York 

 I believe it was more profitably conducted than if each 

 had been run separately, for on wet or stormy days, when 

 they could not work in the open vegetable grounds, the 

 men were turned into the greenhouses, where their labor 

 was just as profitable and valuable as in the open field. 

 But while arguing for the benefits to be derived from 

 this combination of the several departments of a kindred 

 business, let it be distinctly understood that it must be 

 done at one place, so that all can be under the eye of 

 the owner. 



Thirty years ago, after the successful culture of a gar- 

 den of some ten acres, combined with quite an extensive 

 greenhouse business, my ambition led me to think that 

 if I made $3,000 a year from ten acres, I might as readily 

 make $9,000 from thirty acres, so I undertook the culti- 

 vation of two other places, each some ten acres in extent, 

 but about a mile apart. A trial of three years showed me 

 that I had made a serious mistake, for I found that I was 

 actually making' less from my thirty acres than I had 

 made from my original ten, and yet I had experience, 

 capital, and, I believe, as much energy and business 

 capacity as the average of mankind. Had the thirty acres 

 been all in one spot, the result might have been different, 

 but it is probable that the profits would not have been in 

 the same proportion, as if ten acres only had been culti- 

 vated. This lesson to me was a salutary one, and I never 



