Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-06-18
Worth that we are raising more than we
can sell-certainly more than we can sell at

|
can sell-certainly more than we can sell at
| living figures. When our stuff first begins
| to come in We get good prices for II, but
soon it runs down to about nothing, and US
ually a goodly lot of it won't run at all.
Consumers grumble fearfully over the high
prices of our earliest sales, and may admit
that the prices are higher than they ought
to be, but we are forced to sell that way in
order to save ourselves from the losses that
must come of low prices, or no prices at all,
later in the season. How do you reconcile
this state of affairs with your advocacy of
greater production9 MARKET GARDENER
Fort Worth, Tex.
Nothing easier than to make that thing
fit on all right. In 1859 we spent 4 season
in the city of Baltimore. AT that time
market gardening affairs were almost an
exact showing up of what they now are
at Fort Worth. The gardeners were
selling their frstlings of the sea-
son at fearfully high figures, and
the people were cursiug them and
taking them like men are said 10 take
bad whisky. Later in the season the
gardeners were cursing the takers be-
cause they would not take what they had
at the cost OF gathering and hauling TO
Ii.
more Could it be the same place so far
as related to market garden interests
There was nothing left 10 indicate that
such was the fact. The early local pro-
ducts were upon the market at an entirely
reasonable figure, and about the same
figures continued through the season.
Market gardeners brought in what the
people needed and no more, and they
didn't at all seem TO care whether the
people needed anything or not. We never
saw more Independent set of men than
were those Baltimore gardeners, and every
mothers son of them was exerting himself
to raise all the stuff he possibly could.
Now, if YOU step into one of our grocery
stores and take a look over the canned
goods on sale, you will soon be able to find
a clear explanation of this changed state of
affairs at Baltimore, for a large proportion
of the goods will bear the Baltimore brand.
Of course here at Fort Worth you will find
a considerable sprinllling OF California
goods, but the further east you 90 the
stronger will be the Baltimore representa-
ton.
Most of our people will be ready to ad
nit that Baltimore works up into canned
or evaporated goods all the surplus of her
gardeners, thus making a good thing of it
for them, but they will sigh over the ex-
pensiveness OF great plants for the purpose,
and talk about the difficulty of getting cap
ital interested in that direction, especially
in a new and comparatively untried coun-
try like Texas. 'And thereby hangs
tale, y which is altogether a mistake. True,
there are some large canning, and evap-
Grating, and picking plants about Balti-
more, but fully three-fourths of all the
goods in their line now on the general mar
kets of the civilized world are put up on
their own farms by the gardeners them
selves. Almost every gardener working so
much as five acres of land has his own little
plant where he puts up his own surplus, if
surplus it could be called. The notion that
it takes very large amount Of money to
successfully run such an industry is all
without foundation. Nowadays it costs
no more to fit up truck farmers canning,
or evaporating, or picking arrangement
than it would cost to buy a moving ma
chine, and if the goods turned out by such
an arrangement are skillfully handled they
will go entirely at the top Of the market in
every respect. There is nothing off with
them in any way.
That's how it is about Baltimore. The
market gardener really has no surplus there.
He sells fresh products in the city so long
how ava rnI OF h11f
through all this time his canning factory is
running at home, and working up every
thing not wanted in the raw state beyond
the fence of the farm. The outside sales
cut no particular figure in the gardening
industry, for the products are raised for
the factory and when sold through other
channels it is more as local accommoda-
ton than anything else
Putting up garden products for sale at all
seasons is now regarded as part of the
gardeners trade about Baltimore. The
man hiring a skilled gardener there, expects
him to fully understand all branches of the
trade as now recognized in that locality,
and one of these is canning, etc.
There is no kind of good reason why
we should not put up products of the gar
dener and orchardist as well ut Fort Worth
as they are doing it at Baltimore. That we
could raise them as well admits of no ques-
ton, for our soil is far better than the soil
of Maryland, and our growing season is as
long-under irrigation it would be fully
twice as long So why not get at it, The
country is now ringing in praise of Fort
Worth packed meats and Fort Worth made
beer-why not add Fort Worth canned or
evaporated goods to the list of Fort Worth's
extremely good things!
OF course there is nothing to encourage
the market gardener of Fort Worth under
the old system, for a business that has
waste surplus left on its hands can never
prove overly profitable But under the new
system there is everything of encourage
ment. All needed is a fair start, for we
have many local advantages. If we could
get the gardening industry sairly started
here on the Baltimore plan we might soon
be supplying Florida with the immense
amount of "home grown early peas" she
uses, for instance. The people of the North
come down to Florida in winter to eat her
winter-grown green peas. They get the
peas, but they never get to see the pea
patches OF course the pea patches are