18 GARDENING FOR PROFIT. 



to become my neighbor ; that he had leased a place of 

 twenty acres alongside of mine for ten years, for $600 per 

 year, for the purpose of growing vegetables, and asked 

 me what I thought of his bargain. I replied that the 

 place was cheap enough, only I was afraid he had got too 

 much land for that purpose if he attempted the working 

 of it all. I further asked him what amount of capital he 

 had, and he told me that he had about $1,000. I said 

 that I was sorry to discourage him, but that it was better 

 for him to know that the amount was entirely inadequate 

 to begin with, and that there was not one chance in fifty 

 that he would succeed, and that it would be better, even 

 then, to relinquish the attempt ; but he had paid $150 for 

 a quarter's rent in advance, and could not be persuaded 

 from making the attempt. The result was as I expected ; 

 he began operations in March, his little capital was almost 

 swallowed up in the first two months, and the few crops 

 he had put in were so inferior that they were hardly 

 worth sending to market. Without money to pay for 

 help, his place got enveloped in weeds, and by Septem- 

 ber of the same year he abandoned the undertaking. 



Had the same amount of capital and the same energy 

 been expended on three or four acres, there is hardly a 

 doubt that success would have followed. Those who wish 

 to live by gardening, cannot be too often told the danger 

 of spreading over too large an area, more particularly in 

 starting. With a small capital, two or three acres may 

 be profitably Avorked ; while if ten or twelve were at- 

 tempted with the same amount, it would most likely re- 

 sult in failure. Many would suppose that if three acres 

 could be leased for $100 per year, that twenty acres would 

 be cheaper at $500 ; nothing can be more erroneous, un- 

 less the enterprise be backed up with the necessary capi- 

 tal $300 per acre. For be it known, that the rental or 

 interest on the ground used for gardening operations is 

 usually only about ten per cent, of the working expenses, 



