Rensselaer Union, Volume 10, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 March 1878 — Market Gardens. [ARTICLE]

Market Gardens.

Of early grown crops, if one has a w arm soil, radishes make one of the most profitable, as demanding little expense except the bunching, which is necessary only when you are sure of your crop and a sale for it. It usually fends large sale at a good price if Very early, and is often raised as a stelbn crop. Another advantage is the quick returns secured, the crop being raised and marketed in from forty to. sixty days. Onipns, year in and year out, probably yield the most profit of any garden crop, but should never be undertaken in large amount at first, not even upon a small scale if the {'round is poor and woody. Now ground one or two years clean-tilled is especially favorable, and along with this, if the grower has an inborn hatred of weeds, lie is pretty sure of a crop. On cool soils and well tilled early pease are a good crop; but provision must sits tirade to have an abundance of pickers whenever wanted. It is also cleared from the ground to allow t»f pickling cucumbers, late cabbage, Ute Trias ting ears of corn or turnips, and-,-by planting between the rows, fine props

oi melons or squash can bo grown after them. Early oabboge pay well when well tilled on very rich ground, but most beginners err in attempting at first to grow largely of early cabbage and late celery, two of the most difficult crops to grow and demanding the largest outlay and risk. Early beets for bunching are usually in free demand and pay well, having no pests end safe for a fate crop should they miss the early market. But the grower must remember they are bulky, and it takes a groat many wag-on-loads to realize SIOO. Early potatoes in every market are sure of a demand, and one of our surest crops. Economically managed, it always yields a fair profit, and often a very largo one. Mulching with manure to be plowed under for the second crop insures a good yield, and, being all available for the other crop, really costs the potatoes nothing. Sweet corn usually pays well if brought into the market very early or very late, but it is so easily raised that in tno season the glut drives the price to a low figure. But it is a profitable hog and stock feed even while green, feed stalks and all, so there need never be any loss upon it. Melons upon sandy soil in good heart, if protected from their many pests, “can’t help but pay,” and the demand grows with the supply till we can almost say that no market has for any length of time been glutted with them. But “ eternal vigilanco is the price” of melons. ——- ■ - —-r—i Winter squash, especially Hubbard, have bGcome such a staple in the market that a large demand is always certain, and the grower of a large crop rarely fails to realize well. Failures are often due to insufficient fertility, but more frequently, by neglect, the bugs are allowed to destroy them. Tomatoes, if once well rooted, are the most tenacious of life, and loyally yield at least a fair crop, whether the season be a continuous drought or one protracted rain. Often it is imprudently marketed, and the market driven very low. But it has become such a standard fruit for immediate table use and for canning that, with tact in marketing or by canning all surplus, a fair price ought to be maintained. I annually market several hundred bushels, but never have sold a bushel for less than seventy-five cents, and more usually have obtained one dollar. On the wagon, ready for market, I do not think they cost me more "than -thirty cents at the highest. The root crops, beets, carrots, parsnips and rutabagas grown upon clayey loam, pay well in most markets; but the important items of expense are their culture and harvesting, and the most economic methods must be studied. — Root's Manual.

—Benn Pitman is warned by the Chicago Times that the man who cremates one wife can never expect to have another. Is this warning uttered for the purpose of making cremation populai ? — N. Y. Graphic. “ Ma!” screamed young Matilda Spilkins, the other moi ning, when she got the paper, “ Ma, Silver Bill has fust passed the House.” ‘ * Has he, my dear?” replied Mrs. S. from up-stairs. “Why didn’t you ask him iiiP” A Bridgeport man, arrested for striking his wife Mary, admitted that Mary had a little lam.