SUMMER MEETING AT CHILLICOTHE. 57 



My wife and myself went along to pile the brush and burn them and see that 

 the boys did not injure themselves. We cautioned them not to work so fast ; said 

 to them, 'we have plenty of time; there are only twenty acres to grub and we 

 have nearly four montlis to do it in.' They would at times let up in their haste, 

 but they progressed finely. At the end of two weeks nearly an acre was grubbed. 

 This was encouraging, and by the middle of April about four acres had been liter- 

 ally demolished. [If they had cut all the grubs off close to the ground and used four 

 good mules to break it up they could have had forty acres instead of only four. — 

 Secretary.] Yoa would have thoug'ht a Kansas cyclone had struck and concen- 

 trated its whole force on that four acres. In early spring we began preparing a 

 small plat of ground, nearly one and one-half acres, for strawberries . The ground 

 was put in good order and the work of setting out the plants commenced with 

 great care. We had been studying the outlines of strawberry culture during the 

 winter evenings, and knew that it was the work of an expert. We used a long 

 butcher-knife for making the holes for the plants. The roots were straightened 

 •out in the shape of a fan, every root to a certain angle, and then placed in the 

 ground ; then one of the boys would stand off and take sight at the plant to see if 

 it was right. Sometimes we would take up a plant four or five times before the 

 proper set could be got. Many of the plants were completely worn out before we 

 could ^ get them properly set. In the course of time the plants were finished and 

 started out to grow finely. Our next work was the setting out one-half acre of 

 raspberries with the same care. We also the same spring put out one thousand 

 apple, peach, cherry and plum-trees. The apple-trees were one year old, and I 

 well remember hearing many say "Well, that man will be gray-headed before he'll 

 ever see an apple on those trees." They seemed to think an apple-tree had to make 

 nearly all of its growth while it was in the nursery, but they have got out of that 

 idea now. Those trees bore fine apples five years after setting. 



Now, Mr. EditQr, to be brief, 1 will say that we kept on increasing our small 

 fruit planting (with not quite so much science), and the fourth season we gathered 

 berries from 17 acres, 5| acres in strawberries and nearly 12 acres in raspberries, 

 the gross sales amounting to $3iS0 ; which after paying out $900 dollars for box ma- 

 terial and picking, left us $2500 for the crop. Besides this, the same ground was 

 all set to fruit-trees, and the sixth year 35 acres were set to small fruit and nearly 

 4000 fruit-trees, and the seventh year another 40-acre tract was added to the farm 

 and all set out in less than three weeks to apple trees, and the entire tract set in 

 strawberries, raspberries and blackberries. This tract had to be partially cleared 

 up. Our plantation now covers SO acres, 75 acres of this beicg planted in fruit- 

 trees, nearly 6000, and the same ground all set in berries, and from 50 to 225 hands 

 were employed in the berry field last season, 1891 ; $2600 was paid out for labor and 

 ■over 1500 for box material. This amount of money was paid mostly to boys, girls 

 and women that otherwise would have been idle, and these productions from land 

 that was considered to be of very little value when we purchased the land. We 

 were told by several that quite a number of former owners had starved out trying 

 to make a living on it. The express charges for carrying this fruit to market for 

 1891 would reach near $3000 from this plantation. The enterprise carried on at 

 the Gem City Fruit Farm has been the means of having cleared up hundreds of 

 acres adjoining and all set to fruit, beautiful homes of four, five and ten acres and 

 good buildings, now occupying land that was almost considered worthless before 

 the fruit industry was started. Since our first purchase was bought and cleared 

 up, over 100 acres of other land has been cleared, and nearly all of it been set to 

 fruit and again snbdivicted into small tracts and built upon. From our farm to the 



