52 



CROPS UNDER GLASS 



way to make up for the fall losses, but those same people said 

 nothing in the spring. These facts indicate that there must 

 be profits in it. In conversation this morning I heard a man 

 quote another to the effect that if we can use as large an 

 amount of capital in vegetable forcing as in other business, 

 there is just as good monej- in it as there is in manufacturing. 

 A greenhouse establishment is really a plant factory. It is a 

 lettuce factory, a cucumber factory, or some other kind of a 

 factorj^ and each year we are working more nearly under 

 factory methods. 



Greenhouses and the Labor Problem. 



Even though the area of glass is small, yet there is much 

 to be gained by it. I want to point out to you the importance 

 of vegetable forcing in the connection of business of the mar- 

 ket gardener. One of our most difficult problems is the prob- 

 lem of labor. Every one of you, I think, feels that problem. 

 You have a good man, say in April. By fah he has become 

 valuable to you. He is adaptable, he likes to please you, and 

 he likes to do things the way you want them done. October 

 comes, and what are you going to do with that man? You 

 are forced to let him go in October. The next April you are 

 looking around to see if you can get that man back again. 

 Just as sure as that man is a good man, he is not going to be 

 satisfied with the eternal shifting. How are we to solve that 

 problem? There are several ways. One way is to manage 

 our farm operations so that the work is as well distributed 

 through the year as possible. Even then there is almost sure 

 to be a period of a few months when we cannot use our help 

 profitably. Will not the glass house help us to solve that prob- 

 lem? Suppose in connection with our market gardening we 

 put up a little greenhouse. Do not try to put a whole acre 

 under glass at once, but enough to keep you busy and enough 

 to enable you to keep your one best man. Your day labor you 

 can afford to let go in the fall, but it is the man that can take 

 the lead, your best help, that you want to hold. With a little 

 glass you will be able to keep that man and make him and the 

 greenhouse together pay his salary during the winter. 



Suppose you have a nice trade built up in the city. You are 

 meeting men regularly with your goods. You drop out in the 



