224 Strawberry-Growing 



Cost the Second Season 



43,560 boxes $130.00 



Crates 100.00 



Picking, at 2 cents per quart .... 870.00 



Cartage and commission 440.00 



Total $1540.00 



193.00 



Total cost $1733.00 



** The total income from one acre planted by my system, 

 at 9 cents per quart, is S3645.54, leaving a net profit of 

 $1900.54 each season for one acre." This statement 

 would be more convincing if it were known that anybody 

 has been able to secure more than half of this estimated 

 yield to the acre, even under the most intensive culture. 

 Burbidge reports, "A celebrated English strawberry 

 grower said last year that his plants of British Queen had 

 produced eight quarts of fruit per plant." No such yields 

 have been secured in America. The net profit from an 

 acre of strawberries under market-garden culture fre- 

 quently runs over SIOOO. In 1901 Henry Jerolamen of 

 New Jersey reported that a single acre had given a net 

 return of SI 700 and that the average return from his four 

 acres was about $1000 an acre.^ 



It is probable that the bottom has not yet been 

 reached in the price of strawberries on the wholesale 

 market. Few consumers can afford to pay over eight 

 or nine cents a quart retail, which will net the grower 

 four or five cents a quart. In many cases it should be 

 possible to grow good berries for one cent a quart, and 

 pick them for one and one-fourth cents. The cost of 

 packing and delivery to the depot averages about three- 



iRept. Wis. Hort. Soc, 1901, p. 163. 



