Small Fruits in Chicago. 191 



The acre of corn costs from seven to ten dollars to culti- 

 vate and market. It brings the farmer from ten to fifteen 

 dollars. The acre of garden costs him forty dollars to. cul- 

 tivate. The value of the product, at home, to eat, is worth 

 from 8100 to $150. 



Would this interfere with the profits of the regular mar- 

 ket gardener or small fruit growers? 



Not at all. 



Would it lessen or narrow the distribution of small fruits 

 from great trade centers, like Chicago? 



By no means. Most vegetables and small fruits perish- 

 able. If the farmer does not raise them, he does not have 

 them, as he ought to have them, in their season. But, hav- 

 ing acquired a taste for these things, witnessing, as he must, 

 their value in improved health and spirit and activity in the 

 family, he will buy more or less when out of the native sea- 

 son than he now does when trading at his village market. 



Small fruits in the Chicago market are indeed a wonder- 

 ful study. The strawberry season is now about at hand. 

 They come first from Florida and other favorable gulf state 

 points, and are intended for the palates of millionaires — at 

 fifty cents to one dollar a box. By the first to the middle of 

 April, the sun, marching north, has ripened its daily twelve 

 miles stride so far toward the great city by the lake, that 

 twenty-five cents the box is a fair value. Then the great 

 middle class can take their strawberries and cream. 



The fifteenth of May brings the strawberry season fairly 

 well into Illinois, and no man is so poor that he may not eat 

 occasionally, and the great laboring class may often find 

 them on their table. So day by day the strawberry crop 

 creeps nearer and nearer, until its season of ripening has 

 come to within 100 miles of Chicago. There it stops — so 

 far as sending car loads may be concerned. 



Why is this? Berries are ripening in Michigan, and 

 steamer after steamer pour the tribute of this great fruit 

 state into the market. Between the 100 mile limit and Mich- 

 igan sometimes comes a glut, and perhaps for a day or two 

 strawberries are peddled out, even down to five cents a 

 quart. But they soon rally. The laboring masses have got 



