■Uhe  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
Figures  from  a  Massachusetts  Market  an<1  cabbage,  and  a  varying  acreage  of  carrots,  doing,  that  a  profit  of  20  per  cent,  of  the  gross  re- 
Garden  squashes,  dandelions,  roiuaine,  etc.  They  surely  do  turns  would  be  considered  doing  very  well  indeed, 
work  the  land  in  the  Boston  district,  and  they  have  one  year  with  another.  It  is  a  tied-up  life.  “I  have 
Compared  With  Live-stock  Farming  to  do  it.  for  it  is  worth  from  $200  to  ,$‘>,000  per  acre,  never  left  the  farm  for  so  long  as  five  days  since 
AX  INTENSIVE  BUSINESS— Is  it  chiefly  the  GREENHOUSE  RETURNS.— The  Wyman  Bros.’  I  was  married."  he  says.  It  is  work  and  worry, 
man  or  the  conditions  that  limit  the  success?  business  has  no  very  definite  figures  available  for  long  days,  and  the  evenings  too. 
Gould  the  hustling  market  gardener,  with  a  business  most  of  the  crops,  so  we  will  take  a  neighboring  POSSIBILITIES  IN  SWINE.— It  is  this  garden¬ 
ed  $100,000  a  year,  operating  a  plant  like  that  sug-  farm  of  about  the  same  size  and  just  about  the  er's  pet  idea  that  when  the  house-lot  limiters  crowd 
gested  by  the  photograph,  do  as  well,  everything  same  area  under  glass.  While  this  trucker  does  him  out,  he  will  go  back  to  his  real  country  farm, 
considered,  if  lie  used  the  same  degree  of  energy  not  wish  to  publish  his  name  in  this  connection,  he  20  to  25  miles  out.  and  make  a  fine,  large  income 
and  enterprise  in  live  stock  and  general  farming  on  .is  considered  one  of  the  leaders,  and  has  the  books  raising  hogs.  It  is  not  all  theory  with  him.  He 
cheaper  land  a  little  farther  out,  or  in  the  West?  and  the  figures  to  show.  The  total  income  of  the  keeps  some  breeding  swine  on  his  country  farm. 
At  least  one  <>f  the  leading  gardeners  in  the  Bos-  100-acre  place  which  he  operates,  runs  at  about  They  average  him  It)  or  11  pigs  per  sow,  and  the 
ton  district  thinks  if  could  lie  done.  and.  as  will  he  $100,000  a  year,  or  $1,000  per  acre,  including  three  pigs  bring  $2  to  $5  each.  City  swill?  No.  ho 
shown  later,  he  has  figures  and  experience  to  help  very  productive  acres  under  greenhouse  glass.  This  doesn’t  want  if.  1-Ie  compared  notes  with  a  neigh- 
back  him  up.  The  illustration.  Fig.  210,  a  scene  on  greenhouse  area  figures  up  a  little  over  12,:’, .000  bor.  here,  near  the  city,  and  the  neighbor's  pork 
(lie  Wyman  farm.  Arlington,  suggests  the  intensive  square  feet.  The  lettuce  and  cucumber  crops  the  was  costing  more  than  his  own.  as  the  neighbor  ad- 
farming  of  the  Boston  district.  Its  glass  houses,  past  two  years  have  averaged  30  cents  per  square  mitted  after  comparing  notes,  although  the  neighbor 
some  of  them  large  enough  to  drive  horses  inside,  foot.  That  is,  three  or  four  lettuce  crops  and  a  was  feeding  swill.  On  the  hack  farm  of  this  market 
are  producing  several  thousand  dollars  value  in  crop  of  cucumbers  each  year.  The  newer  houses  gardener,  he  raises  clover,  cow  peas,  etc*.,  and  “hogs 
each  of  the  four  or  five  crops  a  year.  Outside  is  run  up  to  the  required  50  cents  per  square  foot  them  off"  in  traditional  Western  style.  He  fed  a 
closely  planted  land,  which  as  some  gardeners  which  is  regarded  as  the  proper  standard,  hut  the  good  deal  of  steamed  clover  in  Winter  and  some 
reckon,  must  yield  at  least  $400  per  acre  to  show  old  houses  run  much  below  the  average.  In  fact  roots.  The  breeding  stock  requires  comparatively 
a  fair  profit,  and  some  of  the  land  is  made  to  pro-  an  old  greenhouse  is  hardly  considered  a  paying  in-  little.  lie  lms  a  little  skim-milk  for  the  young  pigs, 
(luce  three  crops  a  year.  vestment,  and  the  whole  cost  is  sometimes  charged  He  figures  the  cost  of  his  pork  at  less  than  four 
THE  BEET  CROP.— The  field  of  beets  in  which  against  the  crops  of  the  first  few  years.  Here  is  the  cents  a  pound.  “Why  can’t  I  heat  the  western 
the  women  are  working  was  filled 
with  plants  from  hotbeds  early  in  May. 
The  beets  will  he  ready  for  market  the 
first  part  of  June  and  there  will  he 
plenty  of  time  for  a  good  crop  of  cel¬ 
ery.  The  beets  at  five  cents  a  hunch 
should  bring  about  $N(ttl.  Sown  beets 
last  year  brought  onl\  a  cent  to  ,-i  cent 
and  a  half,  mostly,  or  say  $200  per 
acre,  and  hardly  paid  expenses,  while 
the  transplanted  beets,  coming  earlier, 
saved  the  day  for  several  of  the  gar¬ 
deners,  They  plow  the  land  in  the 
Fall.  In  the  Spring,  they  put  on  per¬ 
haps  $150  to  .$200  worth  of  manure, 
and  plow  again  with  a  two-horse  plow, 
turning  a  wide  slice,  and  use  at  the 
same  time  a  side-hung,  one-horse  cut¬ 
away  harrow  which  allows  the  horse  to 
follow  in  the  furrow  after  the  plow, 
not  tramping  the  soft  land.  Then 
they  rake  it.  mark  it  out  with  a 
toothed  wheel,  and  set  a  gang  of 
women  putting  out  the  plants,  three 
rows  to  each  worker.  A  gang  of  a 
dozen  Italian  women,  it  appears, 
would  set  :i  a  acre  a  day.  It  is  some¬ 
times  asserted  that  the  transplanting 
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Will  cost  hardly  more  than  thinning  a  Asparagus  Cutters  at  Work.  Fig.  315 
crop  of  the  sowed  beets.  But,  with  the  set  crop,  story  of  one  of  the  new  houses  built  only  a  year  oi 
farmer?"  he  argues.  “My  land  is  rich, 
smooth  and  level,  and  cost  only  $<ii)  an 
acre  out  there.  It  is  close  to  the  ship¬ 
ping  station,  less  than  25  miles  from 
Boston,  and  near  all  the  good  markets. 
Labor  is  as  low,  T  suppose,  as  it  i>  in 
tin'  West.  A  maker  of  fancy  sausage 
offers  me  a  cent  above  the  market 
price.  I  get  11  cents  when  others  are 
getting  10.  and  the  western  farmer 
still  less." 
BORIC  OR  GREENS.— The  contrast 
is  a  sharp  one.  between  producing  veg¬ 
etables  at  the  rate  of  $*20,000  an  acre 
under  glass,  compared  with  hoggin.: 
oil  green  crops  to  make  pork.  But  the 
farmer  has  tireless  energy,  capacity 
for  management  and  a  head  for  busi¬ 
ness.  Under  almost  any  set  of  farm¬ 
ing  conditions,  such  men  as  he  is 
would  feel  perfectly  at  home  and  ready 
to  make  money.  "It  isn’t  all  in  what 
you  get,"  he  says.  “Expenses  close  to 
Boston  are  enormous.  This  farm,  here, 
is  taxed  for  value  of  $2,000  an  acre. 
The  tax  on  one  acre,  $(>0,  would  just 
buy  an  acre  of  my  farm  in  the  coun¬ 
try.  We  buy  900  tons  of  coal.  There 
is  a  big  bill  for  city  water.  The  work- 
there  will  lie  a  good  beet  every  six  inches,  and  the  two  ago. 
le  or  the  new  bouses  built  only  a  year  or  ing  teams  must  he  fed.  and  all  the  grain  and  hay 
It  was  started,  says  the  owner,  on  Feb.  bought.  Manure,  rotted,  stands  at  $7  a  cord,  deliv- 
price  per  lmnch  will  be  four  or  five  times  better.  2.  and  was  ready  for  planting  March  2,  which  looks  ered,  and  we  often  use  30  tons  to  the  acre.  About 
I.1. 1  II  (  E  LEI  WEEN  SPIXA(  II. —  1  hey  work  like  (puck  work.  Tt  covers  about  11.000  square  feet  50  hired  hands  must  he  paid  for  at  $50  a  mouth, 
all  the  land  hard.  Lettuce,  for  example,  is  planted  planting  space.  East  season’s  three  crops  of  lettuce  more  or  less,  besides  the  extra  help.  I  believe  as 
leiueen  spinach.  1  he  spinach  is  gone  by  tile  time  sold  for  $2,000  and  the  Spring  crop  of  cucumbers,  much  could  he  made  in  grain  or  live  stock  on  enough 
ihe  lettuce  needs  all  the  room,  and  after  the  lettuce  $1,950.  Total,  $5,550,  or  in  this  instance  just  about  acres  of  cheaper  land."  Could  he  do  if,  or  does  lie 
there  is  time  for  some  late  crop,  like  celery.  The  I  lie  required  50  cents  per  square  foot.  The  account  fail  to  appreciate  the  difficulties  of  the  general 
glass  is  used  many  times  over;  shifted  about  from  of  another  house  shows  how  returns  vary.  The  farmer?  Did  the  Yankee  who  went  to  the  Middle 
lettuce  to  heels,  or  from  romaine  to  tomatoes,  and  first  lettuce  crop  of  the  Winter  brought  only  $s00.  West  and  took  a  free  quarter  section,  choose  more 
so  on.  It  seems  to  he  a  point  of  pride  not  to  leave  the  second  sold  for  $1,S00  and  the  third  for  $2,400,  wisely  than  the  brother  who  stuck  to  the  farm  near 
the  sash  standing  idle  long  against  the  fence.  They  the  reason  of  the  jumps  being  that  lettuce  was  un-  a  big  Eastern  city?  Who  knows? 
need  to  work  the  glass  hard  to  make  it  a  good  in-  usually  low  at  one  time,  at  several  times,  in  fact,  LEAN  YEARS. — Two  vears  ago.  one  of  the  lur-- 
a  big  Eastern  city?  Who  knows? 
LEAN  YEARS. — Two  years  ago.  one  of  the  iarg- 
\ estment.  The  hotbeds,  including  frame,  posts,  and  unusually  high  this  Spring.  Lettuce  has  al-  est  of  the  Boston  gardeners  was  hoard  to  say  that 
sash,  mats,  shutters  and  protection  fence,  stand  at  ways  been  the  backbone  of  the  typical  Boston  green-  his  greenhouse  crops  that  year,  so  far,  had  failed 
a  cost,  reckoned  offlnand  at  20  cents  per  square  foot  house  business,  and  it  makes  a  big  difference  to  pay  for  the  coal.  It  was  a  very  had  year  for 
<  f  ground  covered,  compared  with  30  cents  per  whether  lettuce  sells  at  40  cents  or  at  $2  a  box.  prices.  As  a  rule,  it  is  on  only  when  the  South  gets 
square  foot  for  space  covered  under  a  large  green-  POSSIBLE  PROFITS.— What  per  cent,  of  the  in-  a  late  freeze  that  the  Northern  greenhouse  men 
liMiise.  occupying  about  one-third  of  an  acre,  and  the  come  of  this  100-aere  place  maybe  regarded  as  profit?  make  big  money.  It  is  no  business  for  a  shoestring 
wear  and  tear  of  the  liothed  is  greater.  It  varies  widely,  sometimes  as  high  as  25  per  cent.,  capital  and  limited  experience.  The  men  successful 
EXTENT  <  »F  CROPS. — This  SO-acre  farm,  besides  or  nearly  that,  sometimes  a  great  deal  less.  Last  in  a  large  way  have  grown  up  in  the  business. 
12  greenhouses  covering  three  or  four  acres,  carries  year  only  wliaf  the  management  calls  “good  luck"  Many  of  them,  including  those  mentioned  in  this 
a  great  assortment  of  outdoor  vegetable  crops,  with  a  few  special  outdoor  crops,  saved  any  profit  sketch,  have  built  upon  and  added  to  their  fathers’ 
There  are  four  ..r  five  acres  in  beets,  five  to  eight  at  all.  Some  crops,  like  sowed  beets,  cabbages,  etc.,  experience  and  capital.  The  general  farmer,  too, 
;cies  in  onions,  some  sowed  and  some  set,  two  showed  a  loss.  This  gardener  thinks,  to  judge  from  has  his  ups  and  downs,  but  his  is  a  safer  business, 
acres  of  parsnips,  30  to  45  acres  of  lettuce,  celery  liis  experience  and  his  estimate  of  what  others  are  c.  n.  f 
•  i  Ji 
A  Market  Carden  at  Arlington,  near  Boston,  Mass.,  Showing  the  Intensive  Farming  of  that  Locality.  Fig.  316 
