EEPORTS OF LOCAL SOCIETIES. 373 



How long shall we remain with folded armes and closed eyes and 

 allow the rich profits of this great industry to flow to distant States, 

 to enrich the people and increase the prosperity of towns we have 

 never seen, and to impoverish our own that we profess to be interested 

 in. Gentlemen, this is a question like many others. It is for the few 

 to answer. And if you wish to see a change for the better let a few 

 here and there lead off and show our people what can be done, and 

 enough will soon follow. Some five years ago I sold two thousand 

 Snyder blackberry plants to F. McConn, of St. Joseph, who had them 

 planted in a plum orchard on his farm, and he informs me that not- 

 withstanding the fact that he gave them but little care, allowing them 

 to grow as they could in grass and weeds, that they have netted him 

 about eight hundred dollars. Many of his neighbors seeing them do so 

 well, have bought and planted them by the thousands — and so the good 

 work goes on and yet the demand for blackberries is on the increase. 

 St. Joseph and Kansas City did not get half what they wanted last 

 season, although offering from three to four dollars per case. 



A Mr. Hopkins, of Kansas City, a few years ago netted one thou- 

 sand dollars from one acre of strawberries, ^ow it requires but a 

 small piece of land to go into this profitable business. Enough vege- 

 tables can be grown among the berry plants the first season to pay ex- 

 penses ; after that the fruit will pay, and pay well. 



Don't fear overproduction, especially on blackberries and raspber- 

 ries. If you can convert a thousand acres of the farm lands adjacent 

 to Mound City into berry plantations it would increase the income 

 from the same ten fold and give profitable employment to every man, 

 woman and child in your city wanting work in the summer. At three 

 thousand quarts per acre (a reasonable estimate), it would yield three 

 million quarts, which at the low price of five cents per quart would 

 bring one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. This, together with vege- 

 tables and a canning, factory would give an impetus to your boom, 

 hardly yet dreamed of. 



What the people need in this direction is information, and I can 

 refer you to no better source than Our State, county and local )^horti- 

 cultural societies and the reports of the same. In these you find a 

 record of the actual experience of the leading, wideawake fruit grow- 

 ers of the country. 



No one should attempt to grow berries for market without first 

 securing reliable information as to the best varieties to plant, and then 

 buy first class plants true to the name from reliable men ; then plant 

 them carefully, give them good cultivation, and you will not be disap- 



