310 GARDENING FOR PROFIT. 



double crop is taken, and of a quality superior to what it 

 would be were it allowed to grow without being thus 

 thinned out. About thirty years ago I was lucky enough 

 to discover the importance of this plan of doubling our 

 crops of herbs, and as I had not, in those days, begun to 

 tell " what I know about gardening," I kept my own 

 counsel for some years before my neighbors discovered 

 the plan. Herbs are regarded as a safe crop for the nur- 

 ket gardener ; they are less perishable than anything else 

 grown, for. if there be any interruption to their sale in a 

 green state, they can, if necessary, be dried and boxed up 

 and sold in the dry state, months after. The price now 

 is from $6 to $10 per 1,000 bunches, and we always pre- 

 fer to dry them rather than sell lower than $6 per 1,000, 

 experience telling us that the market will usually so reg- 

 ulate itself as to handsomely pay for holding back the 

 sale. The cost of getting the crop raised and marketed 

 will average about 8150 per acre, o.ne-half of the expense 

 being in tying it in bunches. But with many of our in- 

 dustrious German gardeners it does not cost half that, as 

 the tying up is usually done by their wives and children. 



There are but few varieties among Herbs, but of Thyme 

 there are several, and it is very important to plant only 

 what is known as the " spreading variety ; " an upright 

 sort, sometimes sold, is worthless as a market crop. The 

 Sage, known as the Broad-leaved, is the best. 



I am often asked, by correspondents at a distance, in 

 relation to the best way of selling herbs in Xew York 

 City. I will here say, that there is no certain sale that I 

 know of, unless they are in a green state. The season 

 for selling is October, November and December ; and if 

 shipped in open crates, so arranged by divisions of slats 

 that not more than eight or nine inches of a layer would 

 be together, they could be shipped at that cool season to 

 distances requiring fifty or sixty hours in the transit. 

 The average receipts per acre is now about 



