276 
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insures  bigger  farming  profits — whether 
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HENRY  A.DREER 
Boston  Market  Gardeners’  Field  Meeting 
“The  most  practical  body  of  men  on 
earth,”  declared  the  speaker  of  the  day 
in  addressing  the  Boston  Market  Garden¬ 
ers  Feb.  5.  They  certainly  are  practical ; 
it  takes  that  kind  of  a  man  to  make  a 
good  living  in  a  business  like  agriculture, 
open  to  very  general  competition.  Their 
number  includes  men  receiving  incomes 
that  would  rank  them  with  captains  of 
industry  anywhere.  Truly,  the  success¬ 
ful  gardener  is  to  he  envied,  for  he  de¬ 
rives  liberal  income  from  work  that  is 
both  interesting  and  healthful.  Many  of 
the  gardeners  in  their  seventies  are  still 
robust  and  full  of  vim,  by  no  means 
ready  to  stand  aside. 
Early  in  the  forenoon,  the  gardeners 
gathered  by  hundreds.  There  were 
Messrs,  llittenger,  Allen,  Stone,  Moore, 
Lyons,  Skehan,  Shuttled’  and  other  lead¬ 
ers,  all  invited  guests  of  Charles  Wyman 
at  his  farm  on  Lake  Street,  Arlington. 
The  Wyman  farm  is  well  known  for  its 
fancy  hothouse  and  other  products.  They 
employ  from  60  to  70  men.  There  are 
five  acres  under  glass  in  the  13  houses. 
The  farm  comprises  78  acres,  and  pro¬ 
duces  a  large  output  of  root  crops,  cab¬ 
bages,  celery  and  other  specialties.  The 
mushroom  houses,  formerly  an  important 
line,  have  been  given  up  as  comparatively 
unprofitable.  By  starting  some  crops 
under  glass,  and  by  intcrplanting  the 
rows,  they  manage  to  get  three  crops 
from  some  of  the  laud,  lettuce,  spinach 
and  celery  for  instance,  and  two  crops 
from  most  of  it.  The  Wymans  are 
among  the  few  large  gardeners  here  mak¬ 
ing  use  of  motor  trucks.  They  use  one 
for  manure  and  one  for  vegetables.  A 
truck  does  the  work  of  half  a  dozen  to 
a  dozen  horses,  according  to  estimates  of 
gardeners  present,  and  appeared  to  be 
considered  a  success  where  there  is 
enough  work  to  keep  them  busy.  Each 
one  makes  three  round  trips  a  day  and 
carries  up  to  five  tons.  Other  gardeners 
who  had  tried  trucks  seemed  to  like 
them.  “If  I  lived  10  miles  ot  more  from 
market,  I  would  not  be  10  minutes  with¬ 
out  a  truck.”  declared  one  man.  Some 
used  horses  instead  of  their  trucks  in 
Winter,  merely  because  their  horses 
needed  exercise.  But  they  keep  fewer 
horses  over  Winter  than  before.  “Tim,” 
the  oldest  employee  on  the  farm  has  been 
here  47  years.  “All  my  own  life  and 
ever  since  my  father  was  that  high,”  de¬ 
clared  the  owner.  Tim  still  believes  in 
horses  and  especially  in  mules.  “A  horse 
will  do  more  than  a  mule,”  admits  Tim, 
“because  the  horse  is  heavier,  but  a 
horse  will  cat  as  much  as  two  mules.” 
Just  now,  lettuce  is  the  crop  in  sea¬ 
son  on  the  Wyman  farm  and  on  most 
others  iu  the  section  west  of  Boston.  A 
few  are  raising  tomatoes  or  “cukes,”  hut 
most  prefer  to  leave  these  high  tempera¬ 
ture  crops  until  later  when  there  is 
more  sunshine  and  shorter  nights.  John 
Lyons,  a  neighbor  of  the  Wymans,  has. 
besides  seven  lettuce  houses  a  couple  of 
houses  of  watercress,  and  he  reports  it 
about  equal  to  lettuce  for  profit.  ITe 
waters  the  crop  liberally  at  the  start  and 
uses  poison  spray  to  kill  the  slugs.  The 
market  is  limited,  he  says,  but  good  as 
far  as  it  goes. 
The  gardeners,  in  general,  report  a 
fairly  good  year.  Lettuce  was  only  me¬ 
dium  in  yield  and  price.  Cucumber  grow¬ 
ers  were  bothered  with  blight.  The  gar¬ 
deners  are  not  complaining  much,  but 
are  not  so  enthusiastic  as  iu  some  other 
years. 
After  viewing  the  various  indoor 
crops,  the  gardeners  repaired  to  a  hall 
on  the  main  street  for  lunch  and  the 
usual  business  meeting.  Fully  200  were 
present.  Chairman  Moore  of  the  club’s 
legislative  committee  summarized  a  big 
batch  of  proposed  laws  affecting  inter¬ 
ests  of  farmers  and  gardeners.  The  gar¬ 
deners  seemed  to  know  what  they  wanted, 
and  acted  promptly.  They  refused  sup¬ 
port  to  a  bill  making  New  Tear’s  Day 
and  Lincoln’s  Birthday  legal  holidays, 
and  to  the  bill  including  farm  help  in  the 
employees’  compensation  law.  They 
liked  the  principles  well  enough,  but 
considered  the  rates  too  high.  They  also 
turned  down  all  the  old  age  pension  bills. 
*‘lf  taxes  keep  on  going  up,”  declared 
the  venerable  Estey,  “we  shall  all  need 
old  age  pensions.”  They  postponed  ac¬ 
tion  on  the  bill  for  seed  inspection,  wish¬ 
ing  to  hear  both  sides,  many  seedsmen  be¬ 
ing  opposed  to  the  measure,  and  they 
laughed  out  of  court  Mr.  Forbush’s  bill 
to  license  cats. 
On  the  other  hand,  they  were  unani¬ 
mous  iu  favor  of  the  bill  to  provide  a 
State  .  market  supervision  department. 
Speakers  asserted  that  the  general  plan 
had  proved  a  success  in  New  York  and 
was  equally  needed  in  New  England. 
The  hill  for  a  State  agricultural  census 
was  also  approved,  likewise  one  to  re¬ 
strict  list*  of  firearms  by  foreigners,  and 
one  to  hold  State  elections  every  two 
years  instead  of  yearly,  and  another  en¬ 
dorsing  a  plan  for  a  permanent  non¬ 
partisan  tariff  commission  as  a  part  of 
the  national  policy.  There  was  much 
enthusiasm  over  the  club's  pet  bill  to  es¬ 
tablish  a  market  garden  experiment  sta¬ 
tion.  "Our  association  has  a  member¬ 
ship  of  nearly  250  men,”  asserted  the 
committee  in  charge,  “living  in  52  cities 
and  towns  within  25  miles  of  Boston. 
The  majority  of  our  members  are  heavy 
tax-payers.  In  the  town  of  Arlington 
alone  are  27  members  of  our  association, 
the  assessed  valuation  of  whose  property 
amounts  to  over  $700,000.  A  conserva¬ 
tive  estimate  of  the  total  assessed  valu¬ 
ation  of  the  property  of  the  members  of 
our  association  will  amount  to  $2,500.- 
000.  At  least  a  million  dollars  of  this 
amount  is  invested  in  greenhouse  plants 
for  the  production  of  vegetables.”  The 
gardeners  have  many  troubles  which  ne¬ 
cessarily  receive  scant  attention  at  the 
Amherst  Experiment  Station,  and  they 
claim  their  product  selling  for  millions 
of  dollars  merits  special  efforts  for  its 
protection,  citing  in  support  the  good  re¬ 
sults  obtained  by  the  highly  specialized 
cranberry  experiment  station. 
Then  came  an  illustrated  address  by 
Prof.  A.  V.  Osman  of  the  agricultural 
college,  who,  after  explaining  something 
of  plant  structure  and  how  the  diseases 
obtain  hold  and  flourish,  devoted  atten¬ 
tion  to  a  pair  of  lately  troublesome  pests, 
the  celery  blight  and  the  cucumber 
blight.  For  celery,  he  recommends  spray¬ 
ing  the  seed  bed  with  Bordeaux,  and,  later 
in  the  season,  using  sulphur  with  a  dry 
powder  gun  before  Id  caching  and  after 
storage.  The  finely  ground  atomic  sul¬ 
phur  would  stick  to  the  plants,  but  could 
be  easily  washed  off  when  marketing  the 
celery.  Bordeaux  could  be  used  early, 
but  not  on  the  mature  crop,  because 
hard  to  wash  off.  Celery  blight  is  found 
as  far  west  as  Wisconsin.  It  might 
come  from  infected  seed  sometimes.  It 
was  most  likely  to  attack  the  tender 
growing  part  of  the  plant.  It  is  worse 
in  warm,  moist  weather.  Home  varieties 
seem  more  resistant  than  others.  Many 
growers  fail  with  spraying  because  they 
did  not  begin  with  the  seed  bed  where 
the  disease  often  makes  its  start. 
For  cucumber  blight,  on  the  outdoor 
crop,  spray  with  common  Bordeaux  mix¬ 
ture  every  10  days  after  the  plants,  be¬ 
gin  to  run.  A  high  pressure  spray  is 
better,  because  some  of  the  liquid  re¬ 
bounds  against  the  under  sides  of  the 
leaves.  Cucumbers  cun  be  saved  by 
spraying,  but  for  some  reason  the  melons 
have  not  been  saved  from  blight  by  tile 
same  treatment. 
Spraying  was  not  advised  for  cucum¬ 
bers  under  glass,  but  rather  the  control 
of  heat,  ventilation  and  moisture.  The 
presence  of  moisture  on  the  leaves  en¬ 
ables  the  seeds  of  blight  to  fasten  on  the 
plants.  Hence  growers  were  advised  to 
keep  the  leaves  and  the  air  as  dry  as 
possible.  Water  the  ground  only  when 
the  sun  is  shining  brightly.  Don’t  let 
the  temperature  go  below  64  degrees  at 
night.  Bottom  heat  helps  the  crop,  blit 
increases  moisture  in  the  air  and  danger 
of  blight  from  the  blight  spores  or  seed 
which  are  always  in  the  air  waiting  for 
favorable  conditions.  G.  u.  F. 
Market  Laws  for  Massachusetts 
The  State  law  requiring  large  towns 
and  cities  of  Massachusetts  to  establish 
public  markets,  went  into  effect  last  Fall, 
but  usually  there  has  been  a  hitch  some¬ 
where.  Most  of  the  towns  hardly  knew 
what  to  do  about  it,  and  made  half¬ 
hearted  efforts,  or  none  at  all.  No  public 
February  10,  1916. 
money  seemed  to  be  available,  and  no 
men  trained  to  handle  a  market  problem 
of  this  sort.  It  may  he  hoped  that  the 
State  Board’s  proposed  new  Chief  of 
Markets  may  be  able  to  include  the 
working  of  this  law  with  his  other  duties. 
So  far,  only  one  successful  public  market 
is  in  working  order.  The  city  of  Newton, 
with  about  40.000  people,  in  the  most 
Crowded  part  of  the  suburban  district,  has 
long  been  noted  for  the  high  cost  of  its 
food  supply.  It  was  too  far  away  from 
the  farms  to  encourage  visits  of  farm 
wagons  for  bouse  to  house  trade.  The 
people  are  too  prosperous  aud  discrim¬ 
inating  to  buy  from  ordinary  city  ped¬ 
dlers  and  so  the  high-toned  shops  had 
things  all  their  own  way.  They  took  or¬ 
ders  by  telephone,  delivered  by  auto,  gave 
credit  and  charged  good  round  prices. 
The  new  city  market  is  changing  all  that. 
Somebody  persuaded  the  city  to  appro¬ 
priate  a  little  money  to  ensure  a  right 
start.  A  competent  man  canvassed  the 
situation  and  found  out  about  how  many 
buyers  would  trade  at  tile  public  mar¬ 
ket,  and  be  secured  a  number  of  farm¬ 
ers  who  would  send  teams  regularly,  pre¬ 
pared  to  sell  in  small  quantities  at  fair 
prices  and  according  to  legal  require¬ 
ments  of  weight  or  measure.  These,  by 
the  way.  are  quite  strict  now.  Inspec¬ 
tors  are  here  and  there  watching  the 
peddlers.  Those  vegetables  which  the 
law  requires  1o  be  sold  by  weight  must 
not  be  measured,  and  the  scales  must  be 
of  a  certain  general  type,  and  officially 
sealed  as  correct.  Many,  perhaps  a  ma¬ 
jority,  of  old  scales  and  measures  fail 
to  pass  the  tests. 
The  Newton  public  market  went  very 
well  from  the  start.  Two  places  were 
set  aside,  and  there  has  been  an  average 
of  18  market  wagons  every  market  day. 
Farmers  are  selling  out  good-sized  loads, 
and  consumers  are  getting  more  and 
fresher  produce  for  their  money  than 
when  the  store-keepers  controlled  the  sit¬ 
uation.  Not  all  large  towns  were  so 
badly  off  as  Newton.  Often  the  problem 
is  pretty  well  met  by  the  teams  which 
come  from  nearby  farms  and  peddle  from 
house  to  house.  Plainly  the  farm  ped¬ 
dler  would  not  care  to  wait  for  customers 
at  The  public  market  while  his  competi¬ 
tors  were  capturing  trade  from  house 
to  house,  and  like  the  consumers  would 
prefer  the  produce  delivered  at  the  door 
rather  than  to  he  bothered  with  going 
to  market  and  bringing  home  the  food. 
But  a  well-established  public  market 
might  lie  able  to  undersell  the  farm  ped¬ 
dlers  because,  given  plenty  of  buyers, 
sales  would  he  rapid  and  large  loads  dis¬ 
persed  with  little  loss  of  time.  Here  is 
where  the  work  of  the  market  manager 
counts.  He  must  drum  up  plenty  of 
buyers,  and  must  see  that  they  are  well 
served,  if  the  market  is  to  continue. 
Providing  the  farmers  with  market  in¬ 
formation  would  be  another  important 
line  of  work  for  a  State  market  depart¬ 
ment.  It  would  interest  shippers  every¬ 
where  if  as  proposed  by  Secretary  Wheel¬ 
er  the  managers  were  to  issue  a  daily 
bulletin  of  prices  and  other  facts  of  prime 
importance,  such  as  crop  and  weather 
news  and  the  conditions  of  supply  and 
demand  in  various  markets.  It  may  be 
hoped,  too.  that  the  new  department 
would  soon  find  its  place  as  a  kind  of 
referee  between  the  distant  shipper  and 
the  city  buyer,  whenever  there  is  cause 
of  disagreement. 
The  Boston  Produce  Market 
The  produce  market  is  not  working  out 
so  well  as  it  might  just  now.  The  dealers 
are  puzzled  to  explain  the  situation. 
Times  are  good,  according  to  the  news¬ 
papers,  and  the  public  ought  to  be  able 
to  buy  liberally.  Home  dealers  rather 
doubt  whether  times  are  so  prosperous 
after  all.  or  at  least  whether  the  results 
have  sifted  down  yet  to  a  consumer. 
Others  say  over-production  is  the  cause 
of  the  trouble.  Almost  all  lines  of  pro¬ 
duce  have  been  hard  to  move,  and  in 
many  lines  prices  are  no  higher  than  they 
were  last  Fall,  and  some  lines  are  even 
lower.  Apples  are  hard  to  sell.  Coun¬ 
try  shipped  re-packed  Baldwins,  and 
other  leading  kinds  are  $2  to  $2.50,  and 
this  week  it  seems  harder  than  ever  for 
dealers  to  get  $2.50.  Dealers  who  bought 
apples  for  dry  storage  in  hopes  of  mak¬ 
ing  a  speculation  have  not  seen  any  great 
profits  yet;  in  fact,  have  hardly  more 
(Continued  on  page  278) 
