secretary's budget- 391 



of the blackberry) — with the glossy black color and hardy character ot 

 the last mentioned — has been obtained ; while as regards productive- 

 ness, etc., it will vie with the very best raspberry yet known." This 

 seems not, as yet, to have been alluded to by American journals. — 

 Rural New Yorker. 



WOMAN AS A FRUIT GROWER. 



A young lady brought up on a farm, though receiving between the 

 ages of 15 and 20 the benefit of a first class education in a distant city, 

 was suddenly bereft of both father and mother. After the settlement 

 of the estate she found herself possessed of a farm of thirty acres, a 

 team of horses and the implements of farm work, together with the 

 sum of one hundred and fifty dollars in cash, with which to begin her 

 fight with the world. After due deliberation she decided to retain the 

 small farm and work it. It so happened that about two acres had been 

 set to strawberries some time before, which would bear its first main 

 crop the summer following her removal to the small farm. She im- 

 mediately had this bed cultivated and manured, doing all but the heavy 

 work with her own hands. The crop netted her about one hundred and 

 ten dollars. The next step was to increase the plantation, adding 

 raspberries, blackberries, etc., until now, to make a long story short, 

 less than six years from the time the work was commenced, the orig- 

 inal farm of ninety acres has been purchased and paid for in cash, too, 

 and is being rapidly laid out into orchards ; a poultry yard of no mean 

 dimensions adds vastly to the income, and a snug bank account is 

 ready for a rainy day. More than all, she has developed from a depen- 

 dent girl into a strong, healthy, self-reliant business woman; and the 

 secret of her success is good sense, a lack of that bane to American 

 girls, false pride, and an indomitable will and a determination to suc- 

 ceed. — Farmer and Household. 



A Michigan strawberry grower practices straw-mulching of the 

 vines to keep the berries clean, and when the season is ended burns the 

 straw as it lies. The heat clears off the leaves and creepers from the 

 plants, besides destroying the seeds of weeds that lie on the surface, 

 as well as insects and larvae. After several years trial it has been found 

 that when rain comes new leaves start out from the crown of the plant, 

 which is uninjured by the fiery ordeal through which it has passed. 

 The vines are then cultivated as usual. The first burning over the 

 vines was an accident, but the result proving so good the practice has 

 been continued. 



