The Bulletin. 43 



with most of the California fruits. It requires three summers for au aspara- 

 gus bed to reach maturity if grown from seeds. Still, when one considers 

 that when once established it lasts indefinitely, the cultivation and patient 

 waiting is worth the while. All asparagus for canning should be bleached 

 and all stalks should be of a uniform size and length. If your canned product 

 meets all market requirements, you should receive from $2.50 to $3 per dozen 

 for your asparagus. Select varieties of peach, apricot, pears and berries 

 commanding a good market at high prices, home-canned goods do not have 

 to compete with canning factories, for they are always preferable and com- 

 mand, therefore, a better price. But, remember, just any old stuff you sling 

 together doesn't find a waiting market. Grade everything you sell; use only 

 perfect fruits and vegetables either for the raw market or cans. Build your 

 reputation on perfection of flavor, cleanliness and honest weight. Specialize, 

 if you care to, on some one fruit or vegetable, but be sure it's one the market 

 isn't easily satiated with — fig preserves, sweet pickled fiigs, sweet pickled 

 cantaloupes or peaches — something of this kind. 



A Virginia woman built a factory from a tiny kitchen, and a fortune from 

 a paltry investment, not only because by intuition she discerned that "Pin 

 Money Pickles" would tickle the palate of a nation, but because every pickle 

 she afterwards produced partook in size, flavor and perfection of that first 

 delectable. Reputations are sometimes acquired by accident, but it's another 

 thing to live up to them, and the rule holds good in a commercial sense. 



In the profitable realm of the vegetable world there are waiting opportuni- 

 ties with the expenditure of a few cents for seeds, good earnest labor for cul- 

 tivation, hard common sense for markets, and the farm woman need be no 

 beggar. Earning one's spending money gives woman a confidence and added 

 respect in and for her own capabilities. There are each day avenues multi- 

 tudinous opening for the feminine farmer who would and will earn her way. 

 There are bee farms, flower beds, early transplanted plants, lettuce farms, 

 and home-made dainties galore. The "bide at home" woman has proven her 

 capacity, and her profession will continue to grow. 



It Pays to Think. 



LUCIE T. WEBB. 



The thinking farmer is the one who is making good today. It is he who 

 considers the effect of every lick; who studies his soil and by the use of 

 modern methods, with an equal amount of labor, increases the yield from 

 two to fourfold. It is the thinking woman who accomplishes in one day by 

 thought and system what her neighbor does in two. Yet how few of our 

 women think. They go into the day's work with an indistinct idea of the 

 myriads of things to be done, jumbled together, with no plan, no outline in 

 the mind's eye; no grouping of tasks so that two and three things may be 

 done at the same time; no regard for short cuts and easy ways; and, most 

 of all, with no consideration whatever for their own strength and physical 

 endurance. They stand through countless opportunities to sit and rest the 

 tired feet. They trot from one place to another in an aimless way, making 

 many trips where one should answer. All because they do not think. 



A woman's life on the farm at its best is hard; how hard no one but the 

 one who has lived it without hired help knows. Much of the drudgery can 

 not be eliminated, even by a world of system. There are meals to cook, 

 dishes to wash, beds to make, floors to sweep, milk to churn, vegetables to 

 gather, fruit to save, water to bring, and sometimes, I am sorry to say, wood 

 to cut, pigs to feed, and cows to milk. This is hardly a beginning of the daily 

 tasks that confront her; and when there are babies to care for I often wonder 

 , that she is alive to tell the story. Surely then, if there is any help to be had 

 in thinking, the farm woman needs to think. Else she can not greet her 

 tired husband when night comes with a well-kept home, good food, and, best 

 of all, a cheery smile. 



