Cost of Production, Yields, Profits 223 



$40 an acre annually. The Japanese live in rough shacks 

 built in the middle of the strawberry fields (Plate XIX). 

 Much of the strawberry-growing in southern California is 

 by contract between American land owners and Japanese. 

 The land owner furnishes land, water, crates or trays 

 (to be returned), tools and all permanent equipment. 

 The Japanese furnish all labor after the berries are planted, 

 pay for one-half of the baskets and haul to the depot. 

 The land owner does the marketing and divides the net 

 returns equally with the Japanese every week ; sometimes 

 the Japanese receive two-thirds. 



Results under market garden culture. 



The estimates in the preceding paragraphs apply to 

 field culture. Under intensive market-garden culture, 

 the cost of production is much heavier and the possible 

 net profits correspondingly higher. It was reported that 

 T. C. Kevitt of New Jersey picked 27,000 quarts from an 

 acre of Glen Mary in 1901.^ These were hill plants spaced 

 one foot apart each way. The possible yield and profit 

 from an ideal acre under the so-called "Kevitt system" 

 are given by Mr. Kevitt as follows : ^ 



Cost the First Season 



21,780 plants $62.00 



Plowing and fitting 1.00 



Planting 10.00 



Manure in spring 25.00 



Manure in fall for mulching .... 25.00 



Cultivating and cutting runners . . . 60.00 



Extra labor 10.00 



$193.00 



» Rural New Yorker, 1902, p. 495. 

 2 Catalogue of T. C. Kevitt, 1908. 



