April 25, 1894. 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
313 
S market gardening, like the higher branches of agriculture, 
ceasing to pay ? The following letter, which a firm of seeds- 
1 received the other day, leads to an answer in the affirmative :— 
We are sorry to inform you that business is very bad. Produce 
being plentiful, the average prices of all kinds of vegetables have 
been much lower during the last three months than we have 
known them during the twenty years of our connection with the 
trade, and they appear likely to continue so for a considerable 
time longer. As an instance, note the following: We bought 
some Savoy and Kale plants of you last year, and we have not made 
as much of the produce from them as we paid for the plants alone- 
We have not sold a pennyworth of the Curled Kale, and are now 
about to plough the crop in. We believe that hundreds of tons 
of fresh vegetables have been sold this year—1894—for less monev 
than the cost of carriage and salesmen’s commission alone. The 
over-abundant supply of vegetables in the London markets is very 
extraordinary after such a dry summer.” 
We take the foregoing from a daily paper, and have no doubt it 
fairly represents the position. We have recently seen more acres 
of green vegetables than we should care to count that remain in 
the fields in which they are grown, for the simple reason that it 
is useless sending them to over stocked markets. “ Surely they 
might fetch something,” some reader may say to himself ; and 
they might ; but it is also certain they would cost something in 
carriage ; also, if sold through a dealer, there would be com¬ 
mission, and under these circumstances the owners of the produce, 
who are not men to miss a chance if they see one, conclude it is 
the cheapest, in view of the possible risk of further loss, to leave 
the “ stuff ” at home, good though it may be, or was when in 
the best saleable condition. 
The newspaper writer thinks it “ very extraordinary ” there 
should be such an over-abundant supply of green vegetables “ after 
such a dry summer.” It is possible that the growers, for the same 
reason, foresaw a scarcity, and filled up all the land they could 
with plants immediately the rain came. The earth was warm, 
“like a hotbed,” and the growth of the crops unusual'y rapid. 
The autumn was prolonged and the winter deferred. By the 
time the frost came the ground was covered for miles with green 
vegetables. Few of these were injured during the short and not 
severe winter, at least in the southern counties ; instead, then, of 
the abundance being extraordinary, it is but the natural result of 
the causes that produced it. The growers have sustained loss 
by their very efforts to reap profits—planting extensively, in view 
of a prospective scarcity, and the crops increasing in bulk under 
the long “growing ” autumn far beyond their expectations. Under 
these circumstances there could be no other result than over- 
, crowded markets in the spring. 
Many of them could, no doubt, ill afford that loss, yet not a 
few have added to it materially, if not immediately, by thoughtless 
inactivity. Long after they knew of the impossibility of the 
produce “making anything” in the market they let it remain on 
the land, taking as much nutriment out of it as would well support 
a succeeding crop. The practice of allowing obviously useless 
crops to cumber the ground for weeks is a mistake too common. 
It is visible in gardens and fields, the land becoming poorer daily 
through being drained of its virtues. Waste crops should be 
No. 722.—VoL. XXVIII., Third Series. 
regarded as weeds and promptly cleared away ; they are so cleared 
away by alert cultivators, who know the harm they are doing in 
exhausting the land. 
“ There is a great glut of Potatoes in South Lincolnshire at 
the present time. A Long Sutton correspondent states that in the 
marshes in that district there are miles of Potato pits, and that 
many farmers are almost giving their Potatoes away. They have 
been sold for as low at 6d. per sack, whilst large quantities are 
being given to the stock. It is not expected that farmers will put 
such a large acreage under Potatoes this year.” 
That is what we read in another newspaper, and the fact of 
the * glut cannot be otherwise than bad for the farmers. We 
are very sorry for them, and not surprised at the possible great 
reduction in the Potato acreage another year. Farmers and market 
gardeners, too, as a body are very much like sheep. They seem to 
think and move in droves—nearly all in the same direction. This 
is one reason for the alternate gluts and scarcity of something or 
other. But there are exceptions. One shrewd farmer who grows 
Potatoes extensively and well, when he found the yield would be 
so great sold early, and benefited by his action. His neighbours, 
who waited for higher prices, had to take considerably lower or 
none at all. They did not think far enough ahead ; nor will they 
again if the majority of them “ give up ” growing Potatoes. That 
is what many announce their intention of doing, and just because 
of this the man of longer thought intends to grow more. We 
shall see who is right, but the odds are on such thinkers as the 
grower last named. 
He reminds one of the methods of a famous London market gar¬ 
dener who heaped up riches by the shrewd policy that he adopted 
for many years, as well as by his excellent work. “ How is it, Mr. 
Blank, that you have prospered so much more than many persons 
who have no better land than yours ? ” was the question put to 
this brainy son of the soil. His reply was not elegant, and 
reminds of one of Thomas Carlyle’s rugged remarks, but there was 
force in it. “ Because,” said Mr. Blank, with a sly twinkle, 
“ so many persons are fools.” 
“ Do you mind saying why they are in that unfortunate con¬ 
dition ? ” was the next feeler. After a moment’s hesitation the 
old man—for old he was—said, “ No. I have about done growing, 
and have plenty ” (he meant plenty of money), “ but if I had to 
start again I should do as I did before—and live. It was in this 
way, you see. When I found the market glutted in any one year 
with any one thing, I went in strong for that very thing the next 
year, because I knew hundreds wouldn’t touch it.” 
That policy the very successful gardener pursued for nearly or 
quite half a century. If Kidney Beans, Mushrooms, Cabbages, or 
any other crops made little or nothing through overstocking the 
markets, he knew there would be a great limitation in the extent of 
those crops the following season, and therefore felt it his duty to 
make good the deficiency as far as he could and increase his 
banking account at the same time. Could he have done so well by 
acting in any other way ? It is not easy to conceive he could have 
done better. 
Instances are plentiful of the mistakes of too sudden changes 
in consequence of the peculiarities of one season. In the spring 
of last year persons could be named who forecasted a “ fall ” in 
Tomatoes and a “rise” in Cucumbers, therefore “went in” for 
the latter, and subsequently regretted it Mushrooms were “down’ 
last winter, and quick thinkers jumped at the conclusion that they 
would be down always, theiefore decided to “ let them alone,” and 
have lately been whipping themselves in view of the “good thing” 
their neighbours have lately been making from the crops. 
It is, no doubt, becoming more and more difficult to live and 
prosper by the produce of the soil, whether under glass or in the 
open, and it is only by the exercise of much thought, strenuous 
endeavour, and the most excellent work that the hoped-for 
success is in a fair measure attainable ; and possibly the methods 
No. 2378.— VoL. XC,, Old Series. 
