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Gardening for Profit
A Guide to the Successful Cultivation
of the Market and Family Garden
by
first published in 1866, reprinted from 1874 edition
Chapter II
The Amount of Capital Required, and Working Force Per Acre
The small amount of capital required to begin farming operations, creates
great misconception of what is necessary for commercial gardening; for,
judging from the small number of acres wanted for commencing a garden,
many suppose that a few hundred dollars is all sufficient for a market
gardener. For want of information on this subject, hundreds have failed,
after years of toil and privation. At present prices, (1874), no one would
be safe to start the business of vegetable market gardening, in the manner
it is carried on in the neighborhood of New York, with a capital o f less
than $300 per acre, for anything less than ten acres; if on a larger scale,
it might not require quite so much. The first season rarely pays more
than current expenses, and the capital of $300 per acre is all absorbed
in horses, wagons, glass, manures, etc. If the capital be insufficient
to procure these properly, the chance of success is correspondingly diminished.
I can call to mind at least a dozen cases that have occurred in my immediate
neighborhood within the last five years, where steady industrious men
have utterly failed, and lost every dollar they possessed, merely by attempting
the business with insufficient capital. A few years ago, a man called
upon me and stated that he was about to become my neighbor, that he had
leased a place of twenty acres alongside of mine for ten years, for $600
per year for the purpose of growing vegetables, and asked me what I thought
of his bargain. I replied that the place was cheap enough, only I was
afraid he had got too much land for that purpose, if he attempted the
working of it all. I further asked him what amount of capital he had,
and he told me that he had about $1000. I said that I was sorry to discourage
him, but that it was better for him to know that the amount was entirely
inadequate to begin with, and that there was not once chance in fifty
that he would succeed, and that it would be better, even then, to relinquish
the attempt; but he had paid $150 for a quarter's rent in advance, and
could not be persuaded from making the attempt. The result was as I expected;
he began operations in March, his little capital was almost swallowed
up in the first two months, and the few crops he had put in were so inferior,
that they were hardly worth sending to market. Without money to pay for
help, his place got enveloped in weeds, and by September of the same year,
he abandoned the undertaking.
Had the same amount of capital and the same energy been expended on three
or four acres, there is hardly a doubt that success would have followed.
Those who wish to live by gardening, cannot be too often told the danger
of spreading over too large an area, more particularly in starting. With
a small capital, two or three acres may be profitably worked; while if
ten or twelve were attempted with the same amount, it would most likely
result in failure. Many would suppose, that if three acres could be leased
for $100 per year, that twenty acres would be cheaper at $500; nothing
can be more erroneous, unless the enterprise be backed up with the necessary
capital—$300 per acre. For be it known, that the rental or interest
on the ground used for gardening operations is usually only about 10 per
cent of working expenses, so that an apparently cheap rent, or cheap purchase,
does not very materially affect the result. It is very different from
farming operations, where often the rent or interest on purchase money
amounts to nearly half the expenses.
The number of men employed throughout the year on a market garden of
ten acres, within three miles of market, planted in close crops, averages
seven; this number is varied in proportion, somewhat, according to the
quantity of glass in use. I have generally employed more that that; fully
a man to an acre, but that was in consequence of having in use more than
the ordinary proportion of sashes. This may seem to many an unnecessary
force for such a small area; but all our experience proves, that any attempt
to work with less, wil be unprofitable. What with the large quantity of
manure indispensable, 75 tons per acre; the close planting of the crops,
so that every foot will tell; the immense handling preparatory for market,
to be done on a double crop each season, one marketed in mid-summer, another
in fall and winter, a large and continued amount of labor is required.
On lands within a short distance of market—say two miles—two
horses are sufficient; but when double that distance, three are necessary.
When three animals are required, it is most profitable to use a team of
mules to do the plowing and heavy hauling of manure, etc., and do the
marketing by a strong active horse. Every operation in cultivating the
ground is done by horse labor, whenever practicable to do so; but it must
be remembered that the crops of a garden are very different from those
of a farm; the land is in most cases (particularly for the first crops)
planted so close, that nothing will do to work with but the hoe.
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