Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-10-23
On Market Gardening.

No land is naturally rich enough to
! fully meet the requirements OF the market
gar ener, if he desires to make really
good thing out of his business Peter
Henderson, in his Gardening for
Profit a book now quite generally
accepted as standard, says, page 30, re-
ferring to market gardening about the
city of New York: "The Quantity,
quality and proper application of manure
is of the utmost Importance in all gar
deniug operations, and few outsiders
have any conception of the immense
quantities necessary to produce the heavy
crops seen in our market gardens. OF
stable or barnyard manure, from so to
100 tons per acre is used, being prepared
for at least six months previously, by
thorough turning and breaking up to pre-
vent its heating unduly. The usual
method is TO have the manure yard
formed in low part of the garden, but
if there Is no natural depression one may
be made by digging out from eighteen TO
twenty -four inches deep, and in
closing it with fence about
six feet high. The wagons are
driven alongside and the green manure
thrown into the Inclosure; hogs are
usually kept upon the manure in num-
bers sufficient to break it up, they being
fed in part by refuse vegetables and
weeds of the garden.
1.-The manure OF horses is most valued:
weight for weight it is worth about one
third more than manure from cattle, es-
pecially for stiff soils, which it greatly
benefits as q pulverizer. The refuse
from many kinds OF manufacturing es-
ADJUSTMENTS are also of great value as a
manure; as highest among these, per-
haps, stands the refuse of breweries,
etc.
Almost any good soil may be made pro-
fitable TO the market gardener under high
manureing and proper management, yet
the soil best suited to the purpose, ac-
cording to Mr.. Henderson, page %, is
ga rather dark colored loan soil,
neither what could be called sandy, nor
yet clayey-as deep as can be found but
not less than twelve inches.
When selecting land, do not be deceived
by anyone who tells you that if not
naturally a good land, the soil may be
made so by cultivation aud manureing.
These will help on poor land, of course,
but only as education improves the shall
low mind. Heavy crops can no more be
expected from thin and poor soil-no
matter now mucn IL Is cultlvateu-tnan
can be expected fertile ideas from a shall
low brain, educate it as you will
Mi. Henderson says that manureine,
even on the best lands, is absolutely
necessary, and it must be regularly kept
up from year to year. Says he, page 80,
81 never yet saw soil of any kind that
had borne q crop of vegetable that would
produce as good a crop the next year
without the use of manure. An illustra-
ton of this came under my observation
last season. One of my neighbors, q |
market gardner of nearly twenty years
experience, and whose grounds have |
always been a perfect model of produce |
tiveness, had it in prospect to run sixty |
foot street through his grounds. Think |
ing this street ground sufficiently rich to |
carry a crop OF cabbage, without ma |
nure, he concluded not to waste money |
by any application. On each side of the
proposed street he MANFRED heavily, as
usual. The effect was strongly marked.
The land MANFRED brought cabbage |
which sold for Sl400 per acre, while the
cabbage on the street strip, not MANFRED,
and which measured one acre, brought
only $500. So my friend actually lost
$1,000 in crop by Withholding $50 for
manure -