James Franklin Chamberlain

“ MARKET GARDENING
Think of the immense quantities of fruits and vegetables that are used daily on the tables of a great city such as New York or Chicago. As we travel up and down the streets of any great city, we see rows of buildings, sometimes built in solid blocks and sometimes a little distance apart. Some have trees and small lawns in front of them; others are without even this touch of nature. Nowhere, except in the outskirts, do we find gardens. ”

“ It sounds strange to speak of farming in the ocean, but there are many and large oyster farms all along our coast. Some of these farms are covered by water all of the time and some are uncovered when the tide is low. Oyster farms are far more profitable than are those upon which corn and wheat are raised.
This is a new industry in our country because civilized people have not lived here very long, but it is a very old one in some parts of the world. As long ago as the seventh century a Roman knight raised oysters for the market, and it is said that the business made him very wealthy. ”

“ What advantage is there in having the vegetables ready for the market very early in the season?
Vegetable farming is not easy work, although it is a pleasure to see things grow day by day as you care for them, and as nature supplies her sunshine and her rain. The fields must be cultivated almost constantly, to keep the soil loose, as well as to remove the weeds. Much of the weeding has to be done by hand, which is tedious work.
We want our vegetables fresh every morning; and as the truck farms are at some distance from the city, the farmer must load up his wagon the night before. ”

“ ON A COFFEE PLANTATION
Juan and Lupe live in a beautiful valley where palm and banana trees wave their broad leaves in the breeze. It is never cold there, so that many kinds of plants and flowers grow out of doors which we do not see in our country except in greenhouses. On clear days they can see lofty mountains far to the westward, which sometimes wear caps of white.
Juan is fourteen years old and Lupe is twelve. Their skin is much darker than yours, and they have bright black eyes and black hair. Their father owns a great coffee plantation in Brazil, not far from the city of Rio Janeiro. ”

“ You can hear the thump, [185] thump of nuts as they drop from their lofty perches in the walnut and hickory-nut trees.
Sit down quietly on that log and you will soon see the busy nut gatherers. With their tails curled over their backs, they race up and down the trees, or spring from branch to branch, carrying their precious burdens to their homes in the hollows of trunk or limb. Now one sits up straight, holding a nut between his paws, and turning it slowly as he cracks and eats it. If he sees you, he whisks out of sight, or scolds you from a safe place far above the ground. ”

“ Here are wells and springs, with little streams flowing in the shade of fig, date palm, and other trees. The people who dwell within these groves beside the cooling waters look out upon the desert as the inhabitants of an [156] island might look upon the boundless sea. Find some of these oases and learn why they are fertile. The people who live in these oases depend upon dates for their living. The dreary journey from the coast to the interior is made to procure quantities of this fruit, which are wanted by the outside world. ”

“ Rice is grown in great quantities in Japan, Corea, Indo-China, Ceylon, India, the Philippines, the Hawaiian Islands, and in our Gulf states.
Rice is the chief food of one half the people of the world. Although we raise large quantities, we produce only about one half of what we use. It is a kind of grain which will not thrive on the fertile Western prairies where corn, oats, and wheat grow. It needs a warm climate and a great deal of water. For this reason the rice fields are found on the marshy lands near the coast, and by the banks of rivers, where they can be easily flooded. ”

“ A chain of mutual dependence, too often unrecognized, binds together the members of the human family, whether they belong to the same community or dwell on opposite sides of the earth. The links of this chain are made up of the articles which constitute our daily food, our clothing, homes, fuel, light, our means of communication and transportation, and only by continuous coöperation are they kept together. ”

“ Fishing is the chief industry [62] in the towns along the coast of Norway. The air is full of the odor of fish, while drying fish, nets, and boats are everywhere in sight.
Although the supply of fish in the ocean is very great, it is diminishing, especially near the shore. Most countries now pay considerable attention to the raising of both fresh and salt water fishes, and they have passed laws regulating fishing. Eggs are hatched in great hatcheries, from which the young fish are taken where they are most needed.
The great ocean is free to all to sail over or fish in at will. ”

“ This was necessary, because during the day the sap buckets had to be attended to. The young people would sing songs, tell stories, and eat sugar.
Some of the "sugar bushes" contain but a few trees and some contain one or two thousand or even more. A tree will yield from one to six pounds of sugar during a season.
Our country produces great quantities of sugar every year, but we use so much that we have to buy much more than we manufacture at home. It was not always in such common use, however, because people in olden times did not understand how to make it cheaply. ”

“ No attempt has been made to treat every article of food. Those in most general use, as well as those which will best serve to develop a knowledge of geographical conditions and of man's relation to man, have been chosen.
A given industry is pursued in somewhat different ways in different places. It has not been thought wise to describe each modification in these pages. For example, the method of handling wheat in California is different from that employed in Minnesota. The value of the work will be increased if the teacher will bring out these points. ”

“ I have told you how close together the people live on the fertile plains of eastern China. There is so little room that many live on boats on the rivers and in the harbors. On this account their farms are not so large as ours.
The tea trees in the gardens are about five or six feet high. If they were allowed to, they would reach a height of twenty-five feet; but they are kept trimmed for the same reasons that the coffee trees are pruned.
The trees are raised from seeds, and are generally planted on land which slopes toward the south. ”

“ Cocoa and chocolate are products of the seeds of a tree called the cacao tree. It is a tropical tree and grows in both the Old and the New World.
Although the cacao tree grows wild, it is also cultivated in orchards much like fruit orchards which you have seen. The trees are seldom more than twenty feet high, but they are rather inclined to spread out. They require some shade, and so other trees are often planted between the rows to shade them. The trees begin to bear when five or six years old, and [122] continue to yield for forty years. ”

“ The streams of water carry the beets into the factory, where they are cut up into strips by machinery. The juice is then washed out in vats containing warm water, and is boiled down in great tanks. The raw sugar is refined much as the cane sugar is. After the sugar has been dried, it is run through spouts into sacks held open to catch it as it comes out. One hundred pounds are put into each sack. One workman sews the sacks up and another wheels them to the wareroom. Train loads are carried away to be distributed in the parts of our country that do not produce sugar. ”

“ They grow on all of the tropical islands of the Pacific Ocean, in the West Indies, and along the shores of most warm countries, but never far from the sea.
[140] When the cocoanut falls into the water, it is rocked and tossed by the waves and drifted about by the currents, but it is safe within its shell, for the salt water cannot penetrate this. When it finally comes to rest upon some strange shore, it is ready to give to the world another cocoanut palm, if the climate is like that from which it sailed. In this way nature has helped the trees to become widely distributed. ”

“ We can gather the nuts in many of the states of our own country, but the trip to a strange land will be enjoyed by all.
The chestnut trees, many of which are very old, spread their branches to great distances. The nuts, as you see, are inclosed in a bur or coat which covers the shell. There are generally two nuts in each bur.
When you eat chestnuts, you eat them as a sort of dainty, not as a regular article of food. This is not the case in the home of Jean, the boy who is helping his father fill those sacks. ”

“ If you were to make a journey in a desert country, you would find that you could not carry such articles of food as you would have if you remained at home. The sunshine beats down fiercely, the springs and wells are far apart, and the patient animals must not be overloaded. ”

“ The sugar that you find on and in the raisins is not put there by the people who dry the grapes. It comes from the juice of the grape.
Grapevines grow from both roots and cuttings. Of course cuttings are the cheaper. Often they may be had for the asking. Many think that it is better to set out rooted vines than cuttings.
They are planted in rows from six feet apart to twelve or fifteen feet. During the first year the young vines will grow several feet. In the fall, when the flow of the sap has been checked by frost, the vines are pruned. ”

“ We do not produce coffee in our country, but we are the greatest coffee drinkers in the world. A large part of our supply comes from Brazil. Trace the course of the ship from Rio Janeiro to New York. Juan has often done this, and his father has promised to take him with him sometime, when he goes with a cargo of coffee.
You naturally think that coffee of different names must come from different countries, or at least from different trees. This is not always the case. Several brands may come from the same tree. The name depends partly upon the size and the general appearance of the beans. ”

“ Sometimes the seed is sown broadcast, as wheat is, [73] and sometimes it is planted in regular drills or trenches about twelve inches apart.
The Japanese sow the seed in gardens, and when the plants are eight or ten inches high, they are pulled up and transplanted to the fields. The men work right in the water, for the fields are flooded at the time.
In our country the farmer floods the field as soon as the seeds are planted, allowing the water to remain five or six days. When the young blade of rice is a few inches high, the field is again flooded. ”

“ Yes, the bananas are green, I know, and they are always green when gathered. They will ripen in the storehouses when they reach the United States.
No, it is not a waste to cut down the stalks, for they die after bearing their fruit, and the smaller stalks about them will soon yield. Some of these stalks, you see, have but one bunch and some have two or three. How odd the bunches look with the "fingers" all pointing upward!
The banana leaves which the men are wrapping about the bunches are to protect the fruit. It bruises very easily and great quantities are lost on this account. ”

“ In the nursery they see men planting the coffee seeds in the rich soil. There are some [105] plants that have just come up, and some that are ready to transplant. They are set out in rows, six or eight feet apart each way, and sometimes more.
Fig. 34.—A Coffee Nursery.
The trees would grow much taller than those you see in the picture, if they were not kept pruned. Do you know why they are prevented from growing tall? Whenever you look at a coffee plantation, you see the dark green foliage of the tree, which is an evergreen. ”

“ The fires are built in small wire baskets. They make a smudge instead of a flame. The people in the raisin districts watch the weather reports pretty closely, for rain injures the drying grapes.
Growers have to spray or fumigate the trees to destroy the scale that I spoke of which is a great enemy of the orange, to kill the insects, and to wash off dirt. This is sometimes done by putting a great piece of canvas over the tree, forming a sort of tent which prevents the fumes from escaping. It was found that the ladybugs would eat the scale and so they were brought into California from the East. ”

“ Rice in the morning, rice at noon, and rice at night. Rice from the beginning to the end of the year. In the poorer families a bit of dried fish and some vegetables are usually eaten with it. Those who can afford such things have bits of preserved ginger, mushrooms, and barley cakes with the rice. Of course the rich people have other things to eat, but most of the people of China are poor.
In the fertile portions of China the people live very close together. Gardens take the place of farms. Workmen often receive no more than ten cents a day. ”

“ Two pounds is a good average crop for a tree.
Fig. 35.—Picking Coffee.
The children like to watch the pickers as they go from tree to tree. Many of them are about their own age. Some carry a sack slung over the shoulders, and others carry baskets or pails. The berries must be picked by hand, for [107] they do not all ripen at once. They are dark scarlet in color and look a little like cranberries. A good picker gathers about three bushels in a day. The pickers are given a check every time they fill a basket. ”

“ For miles and miles we see on every hand truck farms or market gardens. The main business of those who live in these districts is to furnish food for the people of the city, so that the latter may devote their time to their various occupations. ”