8 VEGETABLE GARDENING 



round. This makes it possible to train the men so that 

 their services will become more valuable every year. 



The question of caring for the men demands careful 

 consideration. There is perhaps no better plan than to 

 provide neat, comfortable tenant houses. A highly suc- 

 cessful Long Island market gardener, cultivating 80 acres 

 in an intensive manner, gives 40 men employment 

 through the summer. They are Poles and all of them are 

 cared for in neat cottages. That is, perhaps a group of 

 10 men sleep and have their living quarters in an inex- 

 pensive but attractive house and the several groups meet 

 for their meals at a boarding house operated by the 

 owner of the farm. Prizes are offered to the groups of 

 men for the best kept house and dooryard. The men 

 are contented and come back from New York and Boston 

 year after year for the planting and marketing seasons. 

 Quite a number are retained the year round. The owner 

 is very much pleased with the system. 



A New Jersey trucker and fruit grower, operating on a 

 very large scale, provides inexpensive summer houses for 

 Italian laborers. Entire families from Philadelphia 

 spend the summer in this manner, all the members who 

 are old enough taking an active part in the farm work 

 and in harvesting and preparing the crops for market. 

 They are glad to get out of the hot, crowded city for 

 what they regard as a pleasant summer outing. The whole 

 scheme may be regarded as a fresh-air movement of the 

 highest type. The able-bodied men perform the heavier 

 work, while old men, women and children harvest and 

 prepare most of the crops for market, and do all sorts 

 of lighter work, mainly by the piece. With such a plan 

 the earning power of a family is much greater than in 

 the city, to say nothing of the benefits derived from liv- 

 ing in the country. 



In the South, colored laborers are used almost exclu- 

 sively. Regarding the negro's eiificiency, Oemler says he 



