They have
modern facilities, such as trolley and telephone, and are as much
city men as any clerk in an office. They clear far higher profits
from an acre than the average farmer, raising never less than two,
and often three crops in a season. They employ several men to the
acre, and at certain times many more, working the men in gangs. Only
the difficulty of getting good help at their prices prevents them
from using twice the number.
However, the possibilities of putting capital into land at a profit
are still infinite.
What chiefly attracts the gardener to the great cities is stable
manure; this is not wanted so much for increasing the richness of
the soil--one ninth part of the manure used by the French gardeners
would do for that purpose--but for keeping the soil at a certain
temperature. Early vegetables pay best, and in order to obtain early
produce, not only the air, but the soil as well, must be warmed;
that is done by putting great quantities of properly mixed manure
into the soil; its fermentation heats it. But with the present
development of industrial skill, heating the soil could be done more
economically and more easily by hot-water pipes.
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