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GARDENING AT WHOLESALE. 
A Mammoth Connecticut Industry. 
HALF A CENTURY OF ‘ STRAWBERRY GROWING,” 
An “Industrial Army” of Pickers. 
In readinff the articles in The R. N.-Y., descriptive 
of a Long Island market garden, it occurred to me 
that there might be something worth learning in 
Connecticut methods, so I started out one morning 
last summer to look up some of the 
gardeners in the vicinity of New Haven. 
A little northwest of the city, and just 
outside its limits, lies a level tract of 
light, alluvial soil which, years ago, was 
known as “ Pine Rock Fields.” Here are 
now located the “Crescent Gardens” of 
Mr. Arthur N. Farnham. I found here a 
scene of surprising activity. It was the 
busiest day of the strawberry season, 
and over 300 pickers were crowding the 
packing booths with the produce of 30 
acres of the finest berries I ever saw; 
12,500 baskets were picked and sold that 
day, and enough ripe ones were left un¬ 
picked to increase the number to 15,000 
baskets. Mr. h’arnham’s total crop must 
have reached at least 100,000 baskets. 
The varieties were Bubach, Sharpless, 
and an unnamed seedling, with which 
Mr. Farnham is especially pleased. The 
larger part of the crop was Bubachs, 
and they averaged larger in size and gave 
more fruit to the plant, than in any other 
field I ever saw. Many of these berries 
were sold from Crescent Garden wagons 
in New Haven Ansonia and Waterbury ; 
but a large number of crates were daily 
sent North from New Haven to points in 
Connecticut and Massachusetts, mostly 
to Boston. Of course, the cost of hand¬ 
ling such an enormous crop, under the 
perfect system employed, was propor¬ 
tionately less than that of handling 
small lots, and though the pickers earned 
some ^200 to $250 per day, and a great 
many berries were wasted in picking, 
yet the crop must have realized a hand¬ 
some profit. A large field of raspberries 
gave promise of an excellent crop, and 
currants, blackberries and grapes are 
also grown. 
Some Startling Crop Figures. 
“ How long ago was this business 
established ? ” I asked. 
“ My father was engaged in gardening 
here, in a small way, back in the fifties. 
More than 40 years ago he sold straw¬ 
berries in the New Haven market in 
porcelain bowls holding about one-half 
pint, and berries have been sold from 
this farm, as a crop, every year since. At 
his death, in 1868, my brother, Capt. 
William Farnham, took the place, and 
ran it until I took charge in 1878. The 
business at that time employed 8 or 10 
men, and we cultivated some 20 or 25 
acres. Now I cultivate 350 acres with a force of 160 
men, exclusive of pickers, and 65 horses. I early 
learned that to grow vegetables to sell I must grow 
all kinds the market demanded, or devote my energies 
to one or two specialties. I decided to grow an as¬ 
sortment, and in large quantities, and now grow 
every kind of vegetable that will do well in this 
climate. I do not grow many varieties of one speeies; 
the market usually calls for some well-known and 
popular sort, and I am governed by the demand, but 
try most new sorts of promise, and introduce new 
things whenever I think they are an advance upon 
old varieties.” 
“How many acres of each kind of vegetable have 
you under cultivation this season ? ” 
“ I am unable to tell you exactly without reference 
to the books, but approximately I have of potatoes, 
28 seres; onions, 20; turnips, 40; sweet corn, 50; 
lima beans, 7 (24 000hills); cabbage, 22 (150,000 plants); 
beets, 15 ; tomatoes, 14; lettuce, 3 ; radishes, 3 ; rye, 40 ; 
grass, 30; celery, 12 ; cucumbers, 10; C , pickles, 6 ; 
C , sash, early, 3 ; rhubarb, 5; kale, 10 ; spinach, 8 ; 
peas, 50 ; string beans, 8 ; carrots, 12; parsnips, 8; 
horse-radish, 6 ; summer and winter squash, 14, and 
other vegetables in smaller quantities. You will see 
that the number of acres in each crop, when added, 
exceeds the total acreage, but 1 feed the land, and ex¬ 
pect it to do its best. I get two and three crops 
from some of it, in a season. As soon‘’a8 the early 
crops, peas, spinach, etc., are off, I follow with 
something else.” 
Dumb Friends that Work Well. 
“ Have you any side issues ? ” 
“ No ; while I handle other things than vegetables, 
it is all a part of the business, and each branch re¬ 
ceives the same careful attention. I have some 2,000 
pigs, which furnish a great deal of our fertilizer, and 
about 2,000 fowls in the breeding pens, 
besides 300 ducks and geese. I am now 
fitting up a barn in which I shall put 
some 40 milch cows to utilize the coarse 
fodder which would otherwise go to 
waste.” 
“Do you keep your poultry for eggs 
mainly, and what varieties have you ? ” 
“No; all the stock is thoroughbred, 
and I sell eggs for breeding purposes 
only. I have Rose-comb White Leg¬ 
horns, White Wonders, Langshans ard 
Andalusians; Toulouse and Embden 
geese, and Cayuga, Aylesbury, Pekin 
and Muscovy ducks.” 
“ What shall you do with the milk from 
your 40 cows ? ” 
“ I do not intend to have a great deal. 
I shall buy springers, and sell them 
when they become new milch. In this 
locality there is always a brisk demand 
for them, and while using up my rough 
feed, and making a comfortably large 
manure pile, I expect to realize a hand¬ 
some profit from the difference between 
the buying and selling price.” 
How all this Stuff* is Disposed Of. 
“How do you manage to sell all this 
vast amount of produce ? ” 
“Oh ! that is easy. My wagons go to 
every prominent dealer in New Haven 
and vicinity every day, and they go early; 
they are loaded with everything in the 
way of vegetables that is on the market, 
and if he doesn’t want one thing he is 
sure to want another. Then, again, he 
knows the wagons will be there, and 
that he can depend on them ; thus I get 
a fair share of his trade. I send one 
wagon daily to Ansonia, and often send 
the surplus to Waterbury and other 
places. My motto is, “ Quick sales and 
small profits; ” and, I believe it pays bet¬ 
ter than to do less business—very much 
less—and to sell direct to consumers. Of 
course, I could save one profit, but the 
expense of that method is so much 
gi eater, and its possibilities so much 
less, that I prefer the present system. 
I also sell a great deal of produce directly 
from the gardens to small dealers and 
peddlers who come here for it. I prob¬ 
ably supply from 15 to 25 wagons daily 
in the best of the season. This is a cash 
trade, and it uses up a good deal of 
second-grade stuff that would otherwise 
be wasted.” 
“ Such a business as yours must take a great deal of 
bookkeeping.” 
“ Well, no ; not so much as you may suppose. My 
method is to charge to every driver the contents of 
the load he takes out: so many bunches of this, so 
many dozen of that, etc., at market rates. On his 
return, he is credited with all unsold goods, with cash 
turned in, and charged with what he has trusted out, 
or with any difference in the selling price. The driver 
is thus made responsible for bis load, and the system 
Sprayed, Not Sprayed. 
What Bordeaux Mixture Did for a Potato Field. 
Fig. 86. 
Device for Spkay'ing Potatoes. Two Rows at a Time. Fig. 87. 
