AN OUTLOOK ON VEGETABLE GARDENING 

 L. H. Bailey, Ithaca, New York 



I am glad to welcome the New York State Vegetable Growers* 

 Association to the College of Agriculture. This college offers its 

 facilities and forces to any organization that unselfishly works for 

 the advancement of rural life. 



Agriculture is not one thing. It represents a congeries of occupa- 

 tions. There are many kinds of farmers and there are hundreds of 

 kinds of farm products. Not all these farmers are represented in 

 organizations. The most effective work may be accomplished for 

 any interest when it has the benefit of combined organized effort. 



I felt a year ago that the organization of this vegetable growers* 

 association marked an epoch in the development of the business in 

 this state. This is not because I expect an organization of this kind 

 to overturn any industry or business, but merely because the best 

 results are secured when people work together; and whenever they 

 begin to work together they estabish an epoch of progress. Market 

 gardeners have not been as strong co-operators as have some other 

 kinds of farmers. These vegetable growers usually live in special 

 regions and mostly in very close relation with some large city or with 

 special direct means of communication. Their lines of work have 

 determined their lines of thought, and they have been more or less 

 isolated from the general large body of farmers. Even living close 

 together and in special areas, they have tended to maintain their 

 individualistic method of work, possibly largely because they are such 

 strong personal competitors. 



It is necessary not only that vegetable growers should organize 

 in their own special interest, but also that they should relate them- 

 selves to the general agricultural movement. On all the large 

 questions of policy their interests are identified with farmers in 

 general. All the technical and scientific problems, relating to soils, 

 fertilizers, crops, insects and plant diseases, farm management, 

 and the like are purely agricultural questions in which every man 

 who grows his living from the land is necessarily directly interested. 

 I think that the vegetable growers have not sufficiently realized how 

 much they may gain by close association with general agricultural 

 interests, partaking in the general movement for rural welfare. 

 On the other hand, I am convinced that the general agricultural 



