Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-05-25

the driver, an old but rudy farmer. and
was soon perched on The seat amid cab
bages, lettuce and potatoes. The driver
was l0guacious. Kitchen gardening Is
going 20 the dogs" be said. ''rher" are
no more wagons than there were thirty
years ago. and yet New York and Brook
lyn have, | suppose, trebied IN population.
And then nearly att in the business grow
poorer year after year. One chief reason
is the rise in the value Of land Ny place
Is down in Flatlands. In the old days you
could buy good farm there tor SS0Hn acre,
and rent good soil for 81 an acre. Now
city folks buy country seats at big hgures
and put up handsome houses, and up goes
the land. | know farms now held at 5 boo
an acre, and that rent for 800 an acre
year, if you can get them. over in the
market the boys say the same thing about
their locations. Bushwic Ravens wood,
Manhattanville. Westchester. Jersey, HO-
boken and Bergen, all tell the same story.
THE great reason is the competition
from distant points. Freights are down
50 low that gardener is compelled 10
sell against gardeners in Delaware, Mary
land, Florida. the BermudAs, and even
Europe. SUmc of those steamers they
call ocean tramps' will now and then
run in with big load Of truck from Ire
land or Holland and break the market all
TO pieces. Several times in the last three
wears, when we We're hoping 10 make
little money on cabbages, they sent over
steamer loads from Holland and Hamburg
and broke us all up. They have got
things down sq'hne that the freight on
cabbage from Europe to Washington mar
ket s no more than the cost OF carting it
from Bergen Point.
The fast freight trains don't do us any
good either. You can buy lettuce, radish-
es and celery in Richmond, Va, and land
them quite fresh In New York. The
freight is about balanced by their adVan-
tages over oar growers. They have a
better sol and & Warner climate, and so
need less fertfiiztrs and less labor. And
what labor they do use is cheaper than
ours. Land down there and rents are ten
times as cheap as here. Fertilizers cost
much? Wen, / should say so. Every
market gardener uses each year from S25
TO $3.50 ON an acre. If he don't be can't
ripen his crops in time. Where we've
saved some is in our labor. In the old
days all our men were Americans, and
generally neighbOrs. Now most OF us get
our help from Castle Garden. You can
get good Germans and Swedes as low SIS
s. and their board.
There isn't much change in gardening.
Lettuce and celery grow more popular
every year, while radishes, spinach, Brus-
sells sprouts and artichokes are falling off.
There are very few improvements made
by the nurserymen. Lettuce and celery
are heavier and finer than they were
thirty years ago, aud that's about the
only change / know. Oh, yes. There's
another new thing. Up town in New
York and over in Jersey a dozen China
men have gone into the business. They
grow celery, onions, and some Chinese
vegetables, whose names | don't know.
rhpV anDaar IN he vary careful ora ri
They'll often put old blankets and eanvas
over hotDeds, and sometimes 20 out at 3
O'Clock in the morning with a lantern and
a watering pot 10 water young vegetables.
They grow q turnip that's about two feet
long. Everything they raise they sell to
their own countrymen, and so we don't
run across them much"