Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1890-05-30
FARMING IN NEW YORK CITY.
Some of the Market Gardens You See as
You Ride on the Elevated Road.

Some of the Market Gardens You See as
You Ride on the Elevated Road.
Farming on land worth $3.50 square
foot seems an expensive luxury, doesn't it?
That is about $4,000 an acre.
1t is being done, though, and at profit,
by some score of thrifty market men within
the city limits as bounded by the Harlem
river and the Battery They are typical
horny handed sons of toll. Sun Drowned,
and seemingly impervious to wind or
weather, they leave the impress of their
knees along beds of celery, radishes, leeks
and oyster plant, "from the rising Of the
sun even to the going down of the same"
To them rheumatism and indigestion are
the prerogatives of wealth, and they worry
but little about either.
The few men and philosophers who are
at present in the business do not make
princely fortunes. AS Bernard Gerdes ex-
pressed it, there was only the difference OF
working for some one else at SIS week or
being your own boss on the same terms.
AS matter of curiosity, a visit to the
gardens, which extend from Ninetieth to
Ninety-fourth street, will repay the time
expended. The Boulevard serves as their
eastern limit, and the apex of the bluff
overlooking the Hudson holds the last
trench. AS viewed from either Motifs or
Dan Sckles' lane, nature and progress are
brought face to face. A six story fiat house
extends along two hundred feet of well
paved street with rear doors opening upon
the waving tops of marketable greens.
Straw filed frame covers" lean against
granite underpinning. Daintily dressed
women part lace curtains only to look out
upon their farmer sisters parting the weeds
from marketable produce. Who shall say
which is the happier?
Looking west from Ninety-third street
the gardens of half dozen embryo farm
ers can be seen rising in CLASSY undulations.
A few women are interspersed among top
booted men either wedding or gathering
the results of forcing process. As rule,
and one with very few exceptions, the pro-
prietors and help are impregnated with the
Rhine. A snatch from a German song
drifting from Ninetieth street will find a
chorus at Ninety-ff Rivalry there is
none. 1t means but a living at best, and,
according to their leases, precarious one
at that. There seems to be but one idea as
foundation upon which the colony rests
liberty. Approaching the instability of
their tenure they figure to get the most
out of it, not individually, but collectively.
Bernard Gerdes, who has been in the
business over fifteen years, is a broad
backed, blue eyed German American.
Strengthening himself up beside leek bed
near the top of the ridge that overlooks the
Hudson, he said:
s'Look at that block from Ninety-ffth to
Ninety-sixth street. There are fourteen
building lots underneath it. Would you
believe that a year ago they were raising
garden truck on that land? Well, they
WERE That's what we are all coming to. ]
can mention twenty old gardeners who
have been driven north of the river in ten
years.
cit takes some capital to run the business
when you come to figure on my rent at 5000
a year, without a guarantee that may not
have to move any time. Then there are
frames which cost $3.50 hundred if prop
erly made and set. I have to keep six men
to help me. Their pay runs from $40 to $40
a month, with board and washing. For
this take in a load of vegetables each week,
which will average but little over $50.'-
New York Press.