MARKET GARDENING IN NEW YORK STATE 
A. E. Wirtxrnson 
Extension Instructor, Department of Vegetable Gardening, Cornell University, 
Ithaca, N. Y. 
In order to thoroughly understand what 
is meant by market gardening, it will be 
best to define it: “ Market gardening is 
the intensive growing of vegetables, gener- 
ally on limited areas and very near mar- 
ket.”” It may be seen from this definition 
that one naturally expects to find market 
gardeners located around all our large 
cities, and this is true. There are, how- 
ever, one or two exceptions to this rule, 
where one may find market gardeners 
situated a considerable distance from their markets. A noted 
exception is the Hallock Farm at Orient, N. Y., where thirty- 
four acres are under the Skinner irrigation system, all being 
devoted to intensive vegetable production. 
Near New York City, on Long Island, are found a great mary 
market gardeners. The soil there is particularly adapted to 
the growing of vegetables under intensive systems. Most of the 
men there are Germans, Poles, Belgians, or from other European 
countries. Very few greenhouses are used; most of the forcing 
work is accomplished by using hotbeds and cold frames. It is 
possible to find men who have 3,500 to 4,000 sash on their small 
farms. The writer is acquainted with a market gardener who 
has a twenty-acre farm, three acres of which is covered with 
thirty-five hundred sash, the remainder of the land being under 
the overhead system of irrigation. Other men with only five acres 
have from 1,500 to 2,500 sash. 
All of the product raised by these men is marketed in Brooklyn 
or New York City, being carried there on wagons and sold from 
them at an early hour in the morning. The selling takes place 
in a public market, two of the largest being Wallabout in Brook- 
lyn and Harlem in New York. 
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