Practical papers—market gardening. 419 
talk to little purpose upon this point; but, gentlemen, I am in 
earnest, and I know that I am right. Here I must refer to my own 
system again. I do not do so for the sake of boasting, but be¬ 
cause it has proved a success; not as successful by far as I expect, 
and intend to make it hereafter, but still a grand success as com¬ 
pared with the system, or rather the entire want of system of the 
most of those about me. 
I have found, and with me the rule has been invariable, not a 
single exception to it, that the more I have spent per acre in cul¬ 
tivation (and in cultivation I include manuring), the greater have 
been, not only my gross receipts, but the greater has been the net 
profit per acre. With each succeeding year, I have spent more in 
cultivating than in any previous one. The invariable result has 
been not only a return of the investment, but a larger net profit 
from the garden than ever before. Last season, I cultivated about 
fourteen acres. In the spring, I commenced a more thorough and 
expensive cultivation than ever before. Soon, a most terrible 
drought came on, and lasted till I began to get frightened, and 
even, went so far as to consider the propriety of discharging some 
of the hands, but concluded to keep on and keep the garden in 
the best condition possible, so that it should get the full benefit of 
rain when it did come. I followed out this plan, and when light 
showers began to come, there was no crust on the ground to be 
dissolved before the rain could penetrate into the ground ; there 
were but very few weeds to divide the benefits of the rain with 
the crops. 
In a few days, the change seemed almost miraculous. The re¬ 
sult of it all was, that although it was one of the dryest seasons 
ever known in our part of the state, and that in cultivating and 
marketing 14 acres I spent $3,986, or $284 per acre, yet not only 
is the balance upon the right side of the ledger, but it is a nicer 
one than I have ever had before, and I now see thao my cultiva¬ 
tion during the drought was what saved me; and if I had carried 
it still farther in the right direction, I should have been hundreds 
of dollars better off than I was at the close of the season. The 
cost of manure must vary the cost of your cultivation materially. 
With our present imperfect knowledge of manures, stable ma¬ 
nures will be your standard, with the use of superphosphates, 
