MARKET GARDENING IN NEW YORK STATE 



A. E. Wilkinson 



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, X. 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 many 

 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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