360 ANNUAL REPORT 



berries dried out, so they made but very little growth the first year. 



Now I was somewhat discouraged, but I knew it was not 

 the fault of the plants, but the ignorance of the tiller. I soon came 

 to the conclusion that, to make a success of fruit growing, I must 

 subscribe for some paper and purchase some books that treated on 

 this particular subject. 



I sent for "Green's Fruit Grower," his treatise on "How to Propa- 

 gateand Grow Fruit," "Grape Culture," also for "Farm and Garden 

 and Farm, Stock and Home." I now commenced to read and also to 

 practice. My plants changed places; the grapes were placed on higher 

 ground, the strawberries were heavily mulched and kept moist. As 

 a natural consequence they began to grow and bear luscious fruit. 



This year on one- eighth of an acre I raised seven hundred and 

 fifty (750) quarts of strawberries, or at rate of six thousand quarts 

 to the acre. This at ten (10) cents a quart would amount to six 

 hundred (600) dollars per acre. I took just as "large berries into 

 the market as was brought from the southern states. Am at work 

 on a small scale yet, because I wanted to learn how to take care of 

 a small amount before planting a larger. 



I have now one-half acre of strawberries, and one acre of rasp- 

 berries. I have propagating beds of the following strawberries: 

 Jessie, Bubach number five, Manchester, Jumbo, Glendale, Cres- 

 cent, Jersey Queen, Windsor Chief, Park Beauty and Mt. Vernon. 

 Eed Kaspberries: — Cuthbert, Turner and Taylor's Prolific. Black- 

 berries: — Snyder, Ancient, Briton, Stone's Hardy. Grapes: — Con- 

 cord, Moore's Early, Brighton, Worden, Salem and Pocklington. 



If our president had requested me to write an essay on the pos- 

 sibilities of women as fruit growers; I should have exclaimed as 

 Moses, of old did, when the Lord told him to go and lead the child- 

 ren of Israel out from the house of bondage, "I am too slow of 

 speech !" When I contemplate the possibilities of ladies in this 

 direction I am lost. My mind is too slow and sluggish. Is it 

 strange that I, in my ignorance fail, when the greatest minds and 

 brightest intellects of our land can not comprehend? Nothing 

 short of the Great I Am, Himself, the One that sees the end from 

 the beginning can fathom the grand and glorious results that 

 might be attained by them in this direction. 



Some think this kind of work has a tendency to make them ap- 

 pear course and unladylike. Would to God this thick veil of ig- 

 norance might be torn from the eyes of our sisters! There is 

 nothing so refining, so purifying as the language of the plants. 

 AVhen I go out and work among them and watch their steady 

 growth, they speak to me of that "growth in grace" that ought to 

 be taking place in my heart. When I go out among these plants 

 in the morning and see the leaves turned heavenward to catch the 

 dew as it falls gently and silently upon them, they tell me my 

 heart ought to be lifted in silent thanksgiving to the great Giver 

 of all good, for the unnumbered blessings He is continually be- 

 stowing upon me. And when the fruit appears and I go forth to 

 gather it, they not only whisper but speak in language too plain to 

 be misunderstood, that the time is not far distant when the Master 

 will call for the fruits of righteousness at my hands. 



