A GENERAL VIEW 
7 
and fertilizers, „s well as the cost of laboi, must realize 
that considerable capital must be available before engag- 
ing in the business on even a fairly large scale. 
io. Labor problems.— Vegetable growers sometimes 
think their hours are longer and their hardships greater 
than those of any other class of husbandmen. It is true 
that they often work 12 or more hours a clay and that 
they are sometimes exposed to unpleasant weather, but 
it is also true that there is usually good compensation 
for the long hours and the hardships, if they can be called 
hardships. Commercial gardeners, unless they use con- 
jideraide glass, are practically free to rest on Sunday, 
while this cannot be said of men following some other 
lines of farming. With skillful management the gardener 
should get a profit on every hour of labor. Then, why 
should he not observe the same hours a day as other 
classes of producers, hiring extra help when necessary 
and paying for all service rendered in excess of io hours 
a day? The best service cannot be expected for more 
than io hours, and for this reason longer days should be 
avoided as much as possible and additional men employee, 
to do the work required. Marketing by wagon often re- 
quires early rising and sometimes late retiring and sales- 
men should be well compensated for this work. 
The number of men to the acre is determined by (i) 
type of gardening, (2) tools available and (3) method 
of marketing. In the most intensive market gardening 
one man to the acre can be profitably employed. An 
eight-acre market garden on Long Island gives steady 
employment during the entire season to 13 men. In 
truck gardening one man may be able to care for 3 to 
15 acres, depending upon the kinds of vegetables grown 
and system of cropping. 
It is always an advantage to plan the work so that a 
good proportion of the men will be needed the year 
