Vol. LXI. No. 2719. 
NEW YORK, MARCH 8, 1902. 
$1 PER YEAR 
POSSIBILITIES OF A GARDEN ACHE. 
SMALL FORTUNES FROM SMALL FARMS. 
Cabbage, Lettuce, Radish and Celery. 
PROFITABLE TRUCK GROWING.—A vast num¬ 
ber of our truckers or market gardeners, with farms 
capable of producing large crops, are having a des¬ 
perate struggle for existence, while others, owners of 
small farms, or what might be called large gardens, 
are doing a more lucrative business than any other 
class of men with the same capital invested and labor 
employed. There are many vegetable growers within, 
say from five to 10 miles from the Greater New York 
markets, on 10-acre farms, who are supporting their 
families in what would have been called luxury but a 
few years ago, giving their children good, and in some 
instances liberal educations, keeping a horse and 
phaeton, and laying aside for the proverbial rainy 
clay $1,000 per annum. That a farm of 10 acres can be 
made to provide sufficient 
to support a family of 
eight persons, and have a 
surplus of $100 per acre 
seems to the ordinary 
farmer preposterous. It 
is nevertheless true. Take 
as an example, one of the 
small farms or large gar¬ 
dens near Greater New 
York, and observe the 
methods employed. We 
will take one acre of the 
10-acre farm already no¬ 
ted above. 
INTENSIVE CUL¬ 
TURE.—As soon as the 
last crop is off, say the 
middle of November, this 
acre is covered so com¬ 
pletely with well-rotted 
manure that the passer¬ 
by could not tell the 
character of the soil, 
whether light soil, loam, 
or heavy clay. Imme¬ 
diately thereafter, weath¬ 
er permitting, this acre is 
plowed, and as deep as 
the soil will permit. If 
freezing weather follows, 
disintegration goes on just 
the same; in fact, more 
rapidly; if not, after a 
brief rest, in goes the 
plow again, followed by 
the harrow. Although two plowings are quite satis¬ 
factory, if the January thaw comes late and is a dry 
one, in goes the plow again, followed by the harrow. 
t*ur farmer is now content and all nature appears to 
be. In February the hotbeds are prepared and the 
seed sown as soon as conditions are favorable, the 
first being cabbage and lettuce. Of cabbage the Early 
Jersey Wakefield and some one of the Early Flat 
Butch varieties are used. The two will keep up a suc¬ 
cession for the market of about three weeks, as long 
as the land can be spared for this crop, as it must be 
cleared by July 1, to be in readiness for the crops 
"hich are to follow. The first step taken for a good 
' 1 °P °f cabbage, and the all-important one, is to se- 
1 are good plants. To that end, as soon as the second 
leaves are about the size of first or seed leaves, they 
ar e Pricked out into frames of finely prepared soil, set 
about one-half inch apart in the rows which are one 
inch apart. Here they remain until the next pair of 
leaves are about a half-inch in length, when they are 
again pricked out, this time into flats or shallow boxes, 
the plants set one inch apart each way; these flats 
are put into cold frames and kept covered with sash, 
when necessary, until they are set in the field. It is 
well here to say that the soil in which the seed was 
sown and the plants grown is not particularly rich. 
Let the plants acquire a good, vigorous growth, then, 
when set in the field, they can assimilate all the food 
given them and rapid growth is the result 
CABBAGE, LETTUCE AND RADISHES.—The let¬ 
tuce plants are treated in precisely the same manner, 
but young lettuce plants are given a little more room, 
because of their more spreading habit. When the 
days of encouraging warmth bid welcome, and the 
field has again been plowed and harrowed until the 
loam has become as fine as river sand, the cabbage 
plants are taken to the fields in the flats in which 
they were growing, and carefully set where they are 
to perfect this growth. A small handful of shell lime 
THE YEARLY CATALOGUE COMMITTEE VISITS MR. FARMER. Fig 
is strewn around each, which is a preventive of club- 
root and stem-rot. The plants are set in rows three 
feet apart, 1% foot apart in the row, which gives in 
round numbers 11,000 to the acre. Between each of 
the cabbage plants is set a lettuce plant. Then, be¬ 
tween those rows is one row all lettuce set one foot 
apart in the row, which gives a total of 25,520 plants 
of lettuce. Between these rows, which are 18 inches 
apart, is sown a row of radish, which gives annually 
not less than 25,000 bunches. This will bring the rows 
of vegetables about nine inches apart, which some of 
the gardeners consider a waste of room, as they make 
their rows of cabbage but 30 inches apart, with rad¬ 
ishes and lettuce between, which would reduce the 
distance between each row to 7% inches. The rad¬ 
ishes are marketed within 60 days from the time of 
sowing, which makes room for the lettuce to perfect 
its heads, which will all be sold by June 1, and then 
the cabbage will take all the room, and perfect its 
heads. This crop will be ready by June 15, and the 
whole crop will be sold and the land put in condition 
for another series of crops by July 10. 
CELERY.—Immediately after the crops are taken 
off the land is cleared of rubbish, and given a liberal 
coat of manure, when the plow and harrow again do 
their work and do it well. Shallow trenches are made 
three feet apart for the celery plants, which have 
been grown with the same care given the cabbage and 
lettuce. The plants are set six inches apart in the 
trenches, which gives 29,040 plants to the acre. Be¬ 
tween each trench are set two rows of lettuce plants, 
which have been wisely provided, which will give 
29,040 heads. Let us now see what this acre has 
yielded, giving the average market prices, as the 
farmer gave them to me: 11,000 heads cabbage at five 
cents, $550; 54,000 heads lettuce at V / 2 cent, $810; 
29,000 heads celery at two cents, $580; 25,000 bunches 
radish at one cent, $250; total, $2,190. This gives the 
total value of products $2,190. The cost of production 
is about as follows: Ma¬ 
nures and fertilizers, 
$100; labor, $100; market- 
i n g (preparing vege¬ 
tables), $500; incidental 
expenses, $50; total, $750. 
Net profit, $1,440. 
This farmer has 10 
acres, and during the past 
10 years has cleared and 
safely invested $9,000. 
This you will understand 
is the net profit support¬ 
ing a family of eight per¬ 
sons, giving his children 
a liberal education, and 
living in all respects in as 
good style as the average 
merchant or professional 
man. All his land is 
worked on the same plan. 
It may not be all worked 
at as great a profit, from 
the fact of his having a 
regular set of customers, 
strictly first-class retail 
dealers, for whom he is 
obliged to grow some 
crops that do not pay as 
well. He usually grows 
two acres of potatoes, and 
expects to get 400 bushels 
per acre, and does unless 
blight or drought de¬ 
stroys, which thus far it 
has never done. The po¬ 
tatoes are a first crop and are followed by celery, 
beans, corn or some other crop that pays equally well. 
But every acre, every rod of this garden or farm, is 
worked on the same intensive plan. 
THE SECRET OF SUCCESS.—You may ask wherein 
lies the seciet of such productiveness and correspond¬ 
ing profits, when the ordinary tiller of the soil can 
hardly subsist. The answer is an easy one. First, 
success is mainly due to the fact that nearly all the 
tilth is given before the seeds are sown or the plants 
set, after this work is done no horse e^'er enters the 
field until there is a crop to be carted off. About the 
only implement used is a narrow hoe, which just 
skims over the surface so frequently that weeds can¬ 
not grow, and moisture cannot escape by evaporation. 
Talk about blight, rust and insect enemies—all com¬ 
bined are the gardener’s friends, when compared to 
the damage done by the wheel cultivator when driven 
deep between the rows, cutting or tearing off the 
roots, which are as essential to the plant’s existence 
