778 
NOV 24 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
Vasey’s Rhododendron (R. Vaseyi) is a 
new species recently discovered in the Carolina 
Mountains, which is now finding its way into 
cultivation. It is a deciduous species of the 
azalea section, and one of the earliest flower¬ 
ing of our native shrubs, blooming with us 
at the same time as does the Rhodora. We 
have found it hardy, easy to transplant, and 
the plants come into bloom when very young. 
Mr. Hoopes has it growing under a lath 
shading, and the flower-buds, although not 
expanded, are pretty well developed and show 
their rosy color quite plainly. Our plants on 
Long Island, which are grown in the open 
ground, show no signs of undue flower-bud 
development. 
HOW JOHN BECAME A MARKET 
GARDENER. 
OLIVER HOWARD. 
NO. III. 
Business one season called the writer to a 
pretty town of 2,000 inhabitants in Nebraska. 
Most of the people were either engaged in 
stock raising or railroading, and hence bad 
no chance to make gardens. During a stay 
of months the writer saw scarcely any vegeta¬ 
bles on the hotel tables save potatoes and 
cabbage; and only in one place in the town 
were lettuce, radishes, bunch onions and the 
like offered for sale, and there only at almost 
prohibitive prices, and in small quantities. 
Now, these 2,000 people had to eat every day, 
and it is more than likely that at least a two- 
horse wagon load of good garden vegetables 
could have been sold every day, for the people 
spent their money with true Western prodi¬ 
gality. Hundreds of wagon-loads of stable 
manure were drawn away and cast out as 
worse than useless every season, which would 
have served to enrich a dozen bottom-land 
farms. What returns a skillful market gar¬ 
dener could have got from a single acre 1 A 
single acre, John said, could be made to give 
employment to a small family, and a good 
support, too, if the head of the family only 
knew how; for it is skilled labor that gets the 
best pay and appreciation. 
John says it is his opinion that there are 
thousands of good openings about cities, 
towns and villages in the United States for 
market gardeners. Even the large farmers, 
he says, often come in and buy largely of 
the vegetables they do not consider they 
have the time to raise. Every village has 
its professional men and business men, in¬ 
valids and travelers, who consume vegetables, 
but do not raise them. And, moreover, he 
says it is curious to see now a gardener may, 
in the course of a few years,educate a commun¬ 
ity to use celery, spinach, lettuce, asparagus, 
rhubarb, kale, cauliflower and parsley, to say 
nothing of currants and berries. John ad¬ 
vises that this work be undertaken by single 
women and by widows and invalids. Out-of- 
door work will bring health and cheerfulness 
to many who are discouraged or ailing now. 
If the party has money all the better. Money 
is the universal lubricator. 
Take the case of a widow left with several 
children. Let it be supposed that she has two 
boys—good, steady, manly boys, such as bless 
a widow oftentimes. While the girls are, 
possibly, woi king-out and the mother sewing 
for dear life, over worked to-day, and anxious 
for the morrow; while the boys are earning 
such money as the sons of widows do earn at 
odd jobs, let the following be tried. Plan to 
have a few fowls, a cow and in some rare 
cases a pig. Scrupulously save all manure 
and waste of the place. Now plan for a 
garden; and let it be small at first, less than 
an eighth of an acre, or much smaller. 
Dress it abundantly with good manure. Now 
have it well plowed, harrowed and 
leveled by an experienced man. Obtain a 
good combined hand seed-drill and wheel- 
cultivator. Sow lettuce, spinach, turnips, 
onions, beets in long rows, either late in the 
fall or as early as possible in spring. Set 
out a few currant, gooseberry, raspberry and 
strawberry plants, also some asparagus and 
rhubarb. Set all in rows so that they may be 
easily cultivated with horse or wheel hoe. 
Obtain of a reliable seedsman or florist toma¬ 
to, cabbage, cauliflower, and pepper plants 
and prick them out in rows as the salesman 
will direct. Plant peas, beans, sweet corn. 
The expense of this garden will be inconsider¬ 
able. Let all the work be done by the moth¬ 
er, boys and girls as much as possible. Let 
them read books and papers on gardening; 
seek the advice of other gardeners, and ob¬ 
serve closely. Let the family lay out the 
plan of the garden on paper , before the real 
garden is made. If the garden as here sug¬ 
gested seems too elaborate, try at least the 
vegetables. 
Now for results:—The fresh air will prove a 
blessing though all else fail. The delight in 
seeing the garden develop will prove a 
healthful tonic to the mind. Very soon the 
family will have the first early vegetables of 
their own raising. They will think ‘‘Never 
were radishes as crisp as these, or lettuce so 
beautiful.” The table never looked so invit¬ 
ing as now. Neighbors will stop to say 
“What a beautiful garden you have, Mrs. So- 
and-so 1” The later vegetables will come 
crowding on. The table is likely to be so 
abundantly supplied that the yearly expenses 
will be very, very much reduced, far more 
than the cost of the garden. There will be 
considerable waste for the fowls, cow, and 
pig, or in the absence of these, the neighbor’s 
wife may be glad to exchange butter, milk, 
or eggs for the products of the garden. In 
the fall there may be carrots, parsnips, 
onions, cabbages to lay away in the cellar or, 
better still, in the out-of-door pit. Almost 
insensibly knowledge will come with the do¬ 
ing. The habits of plants will be understood 
and the reasons for frequent and thorough 
cultivation and severe thinning out. 
At the end of the first year, if the under¬ 
taking has not been satisfactory, it may not 
be repeated, and no great loss be suffered. 
Everything will not prove a success in any 
one season. The weather that makes one 
vegetable first-class may injure another. 
However, do not be discouraged. If the first 
attempt has been reasonably successful, en¬ 
large the venture the second year. Secure 
one or two window sashes if you cannot afford 
to buy regular gardeners’ sashes, and after 
looking up the subject of hot-beds, make a 
small hot-bed in a sheltered place and try 
raising, about February 1st, some lettuce and 
some tomato and cabbage plants. When the 
tomato and cabbage plants have put forth 
the third leaf, prepare a frame to be covered 
with tenting or sheeting, and prick out the 
plants about two inches apart. When the 
nights are very cold the cloth must be re-in- 
forced with other covering. Skill in this 
branch of the business will come to the faith¬ 
ful in time. Not much that is worth having 
will come to the unfaithful anyway. This 
year the trial may be made for vegetables to 
sell. With this end in view, call upon one or 
two hotels or boarding-houses or well-to do 
private families and say something like the 
following: “ Last year we made a little ven¬ 
ture in gardening, and made something of a 
success. This yea» we purpose doing more. 
If we should be so fortunate as to bring you 
vegetables early and late, fresh from our 
garden, would you like to buy any, provided 
the prices prove satisfactory ?” 
The reply would be rather non-committal 
like the proposition, ending with—“ Anyway 
when you have vegetables send them around 
and we’ll look at ’em.” 
This year the gardening is done with a 
view to selling. A quarter of an acre will 
be plenty of land—probably a good deal too 
much. The elder boy can find constant em¬ 
ployment in this little garden. Sow several 
varieties of lettuce and radishes. Thick¬ 
necked onions, discarded by the onion- 
growers, have been planted in the fall, and 
make good bunching onions in the spring and 
sell well for flavoring soups and also for the 
table. It is an anxious day when the boys 
take their baskets of lovely vegetables and 
fresh eggs out to sell. Usually half a dozen 
radishes, onions, beets or turnips are tied in a 
bunch. A buncu is worth about five cents. 
Three bunches sell for 10 cents; six for a 
quarter and a dozen for 35 cents. Good 
lettuce retails at from 10 cents per head to 
15 cents per dozen heads, according to the 
season. In a few days the demand will 
greatly outrun the supply. In that case, 
perhaps some vegetables may be bought to 
sell again. Quite likely the baskets will soon 
have to give place to a hand-cart, a very ex¬ 
cellent vehicle to have about the place, and it 
does not consume anything except a little oil. 
The boys should not look with shamefaced¬ 
ness on their new employment. It is honest 
and helpful to all concerned, and not more 
humble than the first ventures of many men 
now looked upon as passing rich. Old 
merchants will look upon the boys with ap¬ 
probation, and think to themselves, “Those 
boys are bound to succeed; they are not afraid 
to help their mother.” Little by little the 
business may grow, and from these humble 
beginnings, a great market gardening project 
may grow, which, one day, will employ acres 
of glass and numbers of men and horses. But 
if the boys positively will not or cannot 
succeed in selling (and many of our best 
gardeners have no selling ability), some other 
way must be resorted to. 
The lamentable life-failures of so many col¬ 
lege graduates may be in part owing to the 
wholly literary, antiquated and unpractical 
character of their scholastic training; but it is 
still more owing, in most cases, to neglect or 
mistake in the more important home training. 
What is said by Prof. Willcox of his visit to a 
State prison, and what is alluded to by others, 
recalls a case of a graduate of an Irish college 
who was too helpless to make a living, and 
too honest to assume merits that he did not 
possess. He had a family, raised in great 
straits, but to their great ultimate advantage. 
The sons are now at the head of an important 
mechanical business and their profits enable 
them to provide comforts for their good but 
unfortunate father in his last years. “ w.” 
* 
%xd)\Hch\xt, 
A CHEAP COTTAGE. 
It is said by the Carpenter and Builder, 
from which our picture is taken, that the cot¬ 
tage shown at Figs 386, 387 cost but $400. The 
cuts show the buildiug complete and the 
ground-floor. 
ficlt) Crops. 
SOME POTATO POINTS. 
ANOTHER POTATO CONTEST. 
Mr. T. H. King, President of the Union 
Agricultural Society, offered a prize of $10 
“for the best acre of potatoes, one-half bushel 
to be exhibited just as they were dug.” A 
committee composed of three men of good 
judgment made the following report concern¬ 
ing the yield which took the prize. 
“Distance apart, 3x1% feet; seed cut in 
two, three and four pieces. The size was 
small and medium. Former crop, Timothy 
and clover. Variety, Burbank. Manure, 10 
loads from barnyard in December, 1887. Cul¬ 
tivated four times; plowed once, and Paris- 
greened once. Yield, per acre, 559 bushels, 
17% pounds; 15 hills, 52 pounds.” 
The president told me, in a private conver¬ 
sation, that the weeds in some parts of this 
piece were as high as his head, and the plot 
was more or less weedy all over. That being 
the case, perhaps potatoes will do better if not 
cultivated so well; but such has not been my 
experience. a. h. c. 
Covert, N. Y. 
WOMAN AGAINST WOMEN’S MEN 
I am entered for the “potato contest.” I 
read and re-read the announcement. There 
is one part that is rather hard on “farmerines.” 
Of course, I ought not to say a word; of 
course, I shall be beaten so far below the 
average that my “plot” will never be heard 
from, yet I shall try all the same. I shall 
plant, hoe, “bug” and dig the potatoes, and 
prepare the seed and select the ground. My 
husband will only plow the ground. What I 
do not like is to have my work compete with 
a man’s, and of course be beaten by a man. 
For the Rural says “a lady need not do 
the work, only direct it.” Other ladies be¬ 
sides me will do the work themselves, while 
the majority will tell some man to raise some 
potatoes for them, while they sit in their 
easy-chairs. They will not soil their Angel's 
or tan their hands, and we working women 
that ought to get the prize, will be beaten by 
a man. C$n’t you see there is nothing fair 
about it? I am an old subscriber to the R. 
N.-Y. I took it tor years before I married, 
and have always been a “farm hand,” though 
a woman. Two years ago, last March, I mar¬ 
ried, and resigned some of my farm labors, 
yet I help my husband to plant, hoe and dig. 
Now, can’t you in justice give the ladies a 
chance by themselves, and the “ladies’ men’ 
one by themselves? 
Cortland, Co., N. Y. 
R. N.-Y. What do the contestants think 
about this? Let* us know what you think 
will be a fair arrangement. 
Here is my record: Beauty of Beauties, 27% 
pounds; Red Jacket, 24; No. 16, 32; No. 74, 
26%; Sunlit Star, 18; Rocky Mountain Rose, 
18; making a total of 141 pounds grown on a 
space 5% yards by 11 yards, 60% square 
yards, one-eightieth of an acre, or at the rate 
of 188 bushels per acre. I hope to do better. 
Wawa, Pa. J- P- 
THE WOMAN’S CONTEST. 
The suggestion in the Rural of October 20 
that the Rural’s lady readers should enter in¬ 
to a potato contest is a good one. I would 
make one suggestion, viz, that the contest be 
confined to either late or early varieties. By 
so doing comparisons not only as to the modes 
of culture, etc., but as to best varieties, could 
be better made, and I think more interest 
would attach to early than to late varieties. 
Wheeling, W. Va. t. j. 
AN APPRECIATIVE READER. 
I cannot finish reading the Rural of 
November 3, without a desire to thank it for 
its brave and persistent efforts to bring before 
the farmers of this country better varieties 
of grain and vegetables, and better methods of 
cultivation. I think I can comprehend, in a 
measure at least, the trials of one who works 
for years in the most disinterested manner for 
the good of others. A thousand-year-old 
truth in regard to human character is that 
no man can comprehend motives of a highei 
order than his own, and when 1 see comments 
on the Rural’s work such as appeared in the 
Buffalo Express my blood boils with indig¬ 
nation while there is also a regret that after 
two thousand years of Christian teaching men 
should be so mean. But the Editor should 
not be discouiaged. Twelve years of his 
work are worth a hundred years of common 
newspaper work, Sunday editions and all. 
The ignorant and selfish will not appreciate 
his work, but the wisest and best of all lands 
wherever the work is known, will rise up and 
call him blessed. 
Westfield, N. Y. 
THE TRENCH SYSTEM AGAIN. 
I am much interested in the able and 
straightforward Rural. I also take an inter¬ 
est in its Trench System of potato culture. I 
tried it myself this year on one-eighth of an 
acre, with hen manure for a fertilizer, and 
raised 25% bushels—twice what I usually get; 
100 bushels make about an average here. I did 
not plant deep enough for the drought, and 
the cucumber flea-beetles killed the vines before 
they were ripe. I shall try again, e. w. p. 
Ingersoll, Mich. 
I wish the Rural would try the New Queen 
potato in its next contest, for I think it a 
great yielder. I raised at the rate of over 400 
bushels to the acre from it. G. s. c. 
Clarke Falls, Conn. 
RAISING 700 BUSHELS OF POTATOES ON ONE 
ACRE OF LAND. 
I was much interested in the result of the 
Rural’s experiments seeking to produce 700 
bushels of potatoes to the acre, but I am also 
dissatisfied because the aggregate fell short of 
the desired number. I am confident that the 
effort will not be a failure, if the process is 
carefully managed, and no unforeseen disaster 
