“In a family garden 100 X 150 feet (which equals six New York City lots), the rows running the long way of the area, eight or ten feet may be reserved along one side for asparagus, rhubarb, sweet herbs, flowers, and possibly a few berry bushes.  A strip twenty feet wide may be reserved for vines, as melons, cucumbers and squashes.  There remains a strip seventy feet wide, or space for twenty rows three and one half feat apart.  This area is large enough to allow of appreciable results in rotation of crops; and i! it is judiciously managed, it should maintain high productiveness for a lifetime.”  (Bailey, “Principles of Vegetable Gardening."))

“The things to be considered in the home garden are:  (1) a sufficient product to supply the family; (2) continuous succession of crops; (3) ease and cheapness of cultivation; (4) maintenance of the productivity of the land year after year.

“The ease and efficiency of cultivation are much enhanced if all crops are in long rows, to allow of wheel-tool tillage either by horse or wheel-hoe.”

The experience of the Vacant Lot Gardeners (Chapter iv) shows that if the land be near a large market where the product can be peddled or sold by the producers or by those (as in Mr. Rowe’s case), with whom he directly deals, more than twenty-five dollars capital is not necessary, but Peter Henderson ("Gardening for Profit”) estimates that to get the best results, $300 capital per acre is required for anything less than ten acres.

Where the land is favorably situated a fortune may be made in cultivation of a few acres—­with brains.

Quinn says ("Money in the Garden”) that he knows a large number of market gardeners worth from ten to forty thousand dollars each, none of whom had five hundred dollars to begin with.

If one has not enough money to get all that can be gotten out of his plot, it is best to put part of the land into clover to fit it for later use or to use it for raising grass.

Results undoubtedly come from hard work; but it is not necessary, in order to cultivate a little land successfully, that you should work all day on your hands and knees; if you can raise fruit or nuts, this is not needed at all.

But for vegetables a certain amount of it is necessary—­when there is a large job of that kind of weeding to be done, you can hire Italians or other foreigners to do it better and cheaper than you can do it yourself.  Those who will read this book can earn more with their heads than their hands; but when weeding is needed after a sudden shower and there is no one else, you must do some of it yourself; the weather will not wait for you to “get a man,” and if you are not willing to do such things, your chances of success are greatly lessened.

Here is the experience of one who “got a man”: