1883.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
59 
Shall We Try Market-Gardening? 
Every season furnishes its crop of unsuc¬ 
cessful merchants, or mechanics, who ask 
our agricultural editors if market-gardening 
does not pay large profits, and if there is not 
a good chance in this business for an indus¬ 
trious man to better his condition. Judged 
by the high prices the average citizen pays 
for his vegetables in the large cities, it seems 
to him there must be money in raising vege¬ 
tables. If he could remove to the country, 
say within an hour’s ride, he could attend to 
his city business without loss of time, and by 
hiring a good gardener, he could have cheap¬ 
er vegetables and fruits, and add something 
to his income by sending the surplus to mar¬ 
ket. Nothing looks more feasible on paper; 
nothing is more delusive in practice. Every 
business, to be successful, requires a respon¬ 
sible head, thoroughly acquainted with all 
its details, and giving it his personal atten¬ 
tion. There are many points in market-gar- 
■dening that can only be learned by experi¬ 
ence, and if a stranger to the business 
■undertakes it, he will pay Nearly for his edu¬ 
cation. Some three hundred dollars to the 
acre are needed as capital to carry on the 
Business to advantage, even when a man is 
practically acquainted with it, and knows 
flow and where to invest every dollar. The 
questions to be solved, are location in refer¬ 
ence to market; soil, what kind and how 
much; what crops to grow; what kinds of 
manures to apply to a given crop, and the 
quantity; what tools are wanted; what seed 
to plant; what teams are needed and what 
labor to carry on the business successfully, 
and have no waste. The cultivation of a few 
square rods for a family supply of small 
fruits and vegetables, might prove profitable 
and healthful, while market-gardening in 
the same hands would prove disastrous. Mar¬ 
ket-gardening is a remunerative business 
when a man understands it, but it is far from 
being an easy road to wealth for those who 
liave all the details to learn. 
Kieffer’s Hybrid Pear. 
It will be recollected that this variety is 
probably a hybrid between the very hardy, 
but inedible, Chinese Sand pear, and the Bart¬ 
lett. There was every opportunity for such a 
hybrid to be produced, and the pear itself 
bears strong marks of such a parentage. The 
Be Conte is another similar hybrid. Some 
■experienced fruit-growers near Philadelphia 
think that these new hybrids will revolution¬ 
ize pear culture, and have planted largely, 
especially of the Kieffer. Mr. William Parry 
writes us concerning an important point in 
relation to this pear, which, as it is now be¬ 
ing widely propagated all over the country, 
should be generally known. While this pear, 
worked upon pear stock, makes a tree of re¬ 
markable health and vigor, upon quince stock 
it is a failure. Not only this; if buds be 
taken from a tree upon quince stock and 
worked upon pear stock, the resulting trees 
will fail. Mr. Parry cites an orchard of 
5,000 trees, 3,000 on pear and the remain¬ 
der on quince. At the end of the first 
year, but one tree in a thousand of those on 
pear stocks needed replanting. Of those on 
quince, one hundred trees in each thousand 
bad to be replaced; the next year many more, 
and all that are left have a sickly appearance. 
It seems to be a well-established fact that the 
quince is poisonous to trees containing an 
admixture of the Chinese Sand pear. Those 
who propose to plant these hybrid trees, 
should stipulate that they shall be free from 
any contamination with quince. 
The Customs of the Market. 
The market-gardener, and every fruit grow¬ 
er for market, knows that when he has raised 
his crop, only half, and sometimes only the 
easiest half, of his work is done. The crop is 
to be sold. This requires skill of a different 
kind. If a novice in fruit culture in New Jer¬ 
sey, for example, should load his wagon with 
trays, or “ drawers,” each with a bushel or so 
of strawberries, and drive over to New York 
City, expecting to sell his berries by the quart, 
he would probably, at night, carry a large 
share of them back again. In some western 
CELERY PACKED FOR MARKET. 
cities, berries are sold in this manner, while 
in New York, people would not buy them. 
The same rule holds good with vegetables. A 
short time ago we saw, at a city commission 
house, large boxes of celery; the heads were 
very fine, but they were tied in round 
bunches, as in fig. 1. These plants came 
from a point in Michigan, where soil and cli¬ 
mate are favorable to the production of su¬ 
perior celery. The manner in which the 
celery was put up made it of slow sale, and it 
could only be disposed of at a price much 
less than that of inferior celery, put up in the 
regular style. Celery for the New York mar¬ 
kets is bunched in a showy manner. After 
the heads are washed and the outer leaves 
trimmed off, they are put up, according to 
size, three to five in a bunch. The solid root, 
left nearly its full length, is first cut square 
and slightly tapering; then a groove is cut in 
the root, as in fig. 2, at the same distance 
from the top in all. A string is placed in the 
groove and tied; another root is tied to the 
first, and a third one to that, the string pass¬ 
ing on both sides of the root, and the last one 
is tied in very securely. This will cause the 
whole bunch to spread; the leafy portion will 
be fan-shaped, as in fig. 3, and is kept in form 
by another string across the leafy part. It 
will be seen that the same number of stalks, 
bundled as in fig. 1, will make a far less at¬ 
tractive appearance than when bunched as in 
fig. 3. A knowledge of the customs of the 
New York market would have been worth a 
handsome sum to this Michigan grower. Had 
his celery been put up in the proper manner, 
it would have sold for more than that raised 
near by, while it really sold for less. This may 
seem like a trifle, but “ there is money in it.” 
Seasonable Proverbs. 
The old English proverbs in regard to Feb¬ 
ruary are not altogether without significance 
for a considerable portion of the United 
States. A ‘ ‘ fair ” February was the bane of 
the country people, and the wisdom of many, 
crystallized into the wit of one, found ex¬ 
pression in lines like these: 
“ February fill the dyke, 
Either with the black or white ; 
If it be white, it is the better to like.” 
“Black” stands for rain, and “white” for 
snow, and in the popular faith, February was 
invoked to preserve its wintry character. It 
was sad, indeed, if the month failed to main¬ 
tain the reputation with which it was cred¬ 
ited. In Wales, the proverb was to the ef¬ 
fect that “the Welshman would rather see 
his dam on her bier ” than miss a February 
of the old - fashioned sort. 
Welsh family attachments 
are so proverbially strong that 
this “wise saw” may be re¬ 
garded as an exaggeration. 
It, however, gives expression 
to the intensity of feeling with 
which the farmer regards the 
possible destruction of his 
crops, or the failure of the 
promise which the season 
makes to him. It is only by 
slow and patient endeavors 
that the preparation for the 
crop is made, and then comes 
the period of hopeful waiting, 
in the calm confidence that the 
laws of Nature will be duly 
enforced, that the established 
regularity of the seasons will 
not fail, and that the harvest will prove 
a substantial reward both of labor and of 
trustfulness. It is a great struggle with 
drouth and storm, with heat and cold, and 
with the unending variety and untiring at¬ 
tentions of those hordes of insect life, which 
are, in these latter days, the plague of the 
vegetable world, each plant having its own 
peculiar torment and trial, and some of 
them receiving the special advances of many 
sorts of active bores and borers. By-and-by 
the proverb maker will formulate his wit and 
wisdom concerning insects, into terms more 
emphatic and more truthful than those that 
exist in many of the sayings of the elder days. 
What Varieties of Pears to lMant. 
—For home use, or for market either, above 
all things avoid choosing too many kinds, 
but confine the selection to a few of the best, 
well-known sorts, and those which are for 
general cultivation. The Bartlett, as a stan¬ 
dard, or half-standard, and the Duchesse as a 
dwarf, or half-standard, are the very best for 
general use or for market, as they are good, 
regular bearers, of fine, salable fruit. To 
these might be added the Belle Lucrative, the 
delicious Seckle, as a standard, the Onondaga, 
half standard, the Buffum, dwarf, and quite 
a host of others, of varying degrees of excel¬ 
lence or desirability. But enough varieties 
have already been named to supply any home 
plantation with fine, desirable pears, and to 
enlarge the list, would only add greatly to 
the amateur grower’s confusion, and lead him 
to select such as would be shy bearers, not 
suited to his locality or needs. It is always 
best for the beginner to start out with a 
few well tried sorts. 
