PRACTICAL PAPERS—MARKET GARDENING. 151 
defstood their profession, by flooding the markets with fine 
vegetables, so that the prices in the cities and larger towns 
went below living rates. At the close of the same year, 
there was not in the whole country, perhaps, a class of men 
more thoroughly disgusted with their calling, than these same 
men, and they have steadily, ever since, been working into 
some other business. 
Now these men did not fail for a want of knowledge or 
ability to grow vegetables, but the failure was in the selling — 
and right here is where they were misled. Eastern gardeners 
in their books and writings always speak as though the pro¬ 
ducts could be sold, of course, and devote no attention to this 
matter, but spend all their energies in directions and rules for 
growing the crops. With them it is poor land at great cost, to 
be enriched with expensive manures; but after the crop is 
grown it finds a hungry and insatiable market, ready to pay a 
handsome price for everything. With us, on the contrary, 
lands are rich, manures cheap, and with ordinary industry 
crops certain ; but they go to a market overstocked, exacting 
and penurious. Hence the books and writings of these men, 
and especially their estimates of profits, should be taken with 
many grains of allowance, always bearing in mind that though 
an excellent crop may be grown, no money comes from it until 
it is sold. 
In company with an associate I began market gardening at 
Rockford in 1867. For this purpose we procured twenty acres 
of warm, early land, of sandy loam, which had been cropped 
nearly thirty years in succession, hence badly run down. But 
this we overlooked in consideration of its nearness to market, 
being within the city limits. If a gardener expects to do much, 
at his business, nearness to market is one of the most import¬ 
ant considerations. Take our own case: from May till late 
in November, from three to six loads of produce go to town 
daily, and during the remainder of the year, twice as many 
loads of manure come back. Now suppose w r e were one mile 
further out; then in a year our teams would travel 2,400 miles 
further, which would require the time of one team, if loaded, 
