Norwich bulletin., 1915-01-02

sometime ago grave up what is called general farming for gardening asks which I consider the more profitable.
 Dear me! That's q little like ask ing whether oranges ara a better crop than apples.
 l. all depends
 r the climate Of Florida say, is more conductive to orange groves than apple orchards, it would seem simple good sense to go in for oranges there. ElIt one would hesitate long before ad- NisIng q Maine aonle grower to sub stltate orange groves for his orchards He's too near the North Foie Or, he's not near enough, td the equator.
 Fob esin with, I can't quite allow this friendly correspondent to get away with the assumption which runs all through his letter, that gardening is not farming, but soTletninS differ ent,
 According to weoster's, Farming" is noun which means "The business Of cUltiyatng land.'
 have a neiehbor who runs 8 horse farm. He raises some oats and little com and 8 few. potatoes and a. lot Of hay But his chief and real business is the raising of colts. Everybody calls him 8 farmer. He calls himself a farmer.
 have another reigIlbor who keeps dairy. All the cdltivating of land which he does is simply incidental to h3s stables. He sells milk and butter, never any hay or grain or potatoes Everybody calls him farmer He calls himself one
 Ten or eleven miles from me lives hog grower. He doesn't even pretend 70 raise the log-feed he fats them on, but buys it all in carload lots from the western n1ilIers. Everybody. though, calls him a farmer. He calls himself one.
 I, on the other hand, raise asparagus and peas and sweet-corn and beans and lettuce and celery and tomatoes, etc. etc. If there's any dependence to be put on WebSterS definition, Pm a good deal more farmer than the men who raise colts and calves and pigs For I surely do more ''cultivating tand' in proportion than they door than almost any of my neignbors who go in for general farming" for that matter.
 I have to. don't cultivate so m ny acres, but those which I do take every bit as much time and work and, I sus- poet, rather more care and worry. The man who has an acre in lettuce or onions or celery has to cultivate,-- and cultivate,Aand cultivate. And And then cultivate some more. don't know any other land in town which is cultivated so frequently and so a1sid- uously as that i1 my gardens.
 according to Webster? And isn't Wooster good enough authority:
 Then arises tfe question eseut which my correspondent is concerned; Does this particular kind Of farming prove more profitable than horse farming. or pig-farTning, or cow-f farm Eay-and oats farming or other forms of so-called general farI1ing?''
 To this there isn't any universal answer. It all depends
 It depends upon the sort of land you have. It depends upon the amount of rnanureS you can obtain and their cost Ii depends u-on -7yh ether you can get occasional extra help when special crops call for additional labor: pea picking time for instance. It depends whole lot upon you, yourself; whetf- CT J-Ou have a natural liking and tact for it. or whether it offends 5-our big ideas and inpresses you as .'fussi- ness' and small potatoes. AE6ve all, 1t depends upon your market, whether you can raise the sort of stuff which "Our customers want, when they want .t and Q q cost less than they're will
 r-to pay.
 furthermore. it depends a good deal
 the competition you have.
 
 Kalamazoo is great celery country. The climate seems to suit and the soil IS perfectly adapted to the crop. Yet, If lived in Kalamazoo. the Very last -roD I'd try Io raise would be celery. I'd turn my land into bush, and sell bean-poles and hoops, first.
 simply because the competition is sJ keen there and the prices have thereby been driven so low that no one with American ideas of life and iiying could afford 1t. The work is largely in tle hands of foreigners who accus- Iofned at home to poorer living than we give our. paupers and to longer hours oE work than we impose on our couFictS, continue to live right there lTl the heart of America on ratiens hardly fit for American pigs, and work rom earliest dawn to long after sun siet. Also they all work. Fathers and mothers grub fourteen to sixteen hours js day. side by side without rest or intern1ission. And with them work children and grandchildren and grand mothers and sometimes agreat-grand- = mothers, Even suckltng babies are brought out lnornir md dropped about the fields g 3 save their mothers the need rIec1ine their work to, suckie ther>- -, horne.
 People who live an. work that WAY can do and do undersell competitors with higher ideas Of living Ila some cases, warehouses, jails and prisons have gardens attached, which are, cared for by the prisoners. OF ce1yrse cofl1petlt1on from. such sources cuts SsVefeiS into the profits of any who nave to earn or Day wages for like
 Furthernore, it may very well hap. Pen,-often does happen, that the r1erA distance from market may be a bar to successful trucking. Last spring. [ 1ad rather unusually good supply Of quite nice head lettuce. There was more of it than my local market could use. ! tried the Iobbers in the near esc two city markets, and got their. prices. found that they would pay. me only about quarter of what was Settlng regularly. per head though the retail price If lettuce to the consumers n both those cities was more than 3ouole what was charging my local custoHners. Taking out freight and commissions and cost or packa ges and time required for nutting up and haul lng to the railroad, found that my returns from these generous city gen. t1ener1s would have left me just about 3-f6 of a cent per head, to pay for fertilization and cultivation and il.ri- yation and other Deliberations essen .ial,to raising the crop.
 Now, there may be people WiIIina S5, False. l1ead-lettuee for e-re aF .er1t, head. But T own up that the