The Canadian Horticulturist. 



335 



per annum, it would at least give a 

 most enormous income. Grain farm- 

 ing was therefore thrown overboard 

 entirely, for how could one afford to 

 devote to grain, land in which such 

 grand possibilities lay. The cows 

 were sold, for how could land be 

 given up to pasture, which might 

 yield $500 per acre ? Our fellow 

 fruit growers of experience will smile 

 at the recital, and imagine the result. 

 Difficulties of every kind arose. 

 Expenses without number proved 

 that the annual outlay required to 

 run a huntlred acre farm would bear 

 no comparison to that required to 

 run a fruit farm of the same extent, 

 and that one acre of strawberries 

 alone costs as much to cultivate 

 properly as a ten acre field of wheat, 

 and more. Instead of $600 off a 

 single acre of cherries, he found after 

 waiting many years, that rot often 

 took the whole crop, that some kinds 

 sold poorly, that some varieties bore 

 scantily at the best, and that al- 

 though he might now plant such 

 varieties as would come up to the 

 mark, ten chances to one that no 

 beginner will realize any such re- 

 turns. 



The fact is that no man can expect 

 to be successful in fruit culture or in 

 any other line, without experience 

 and a thorough knowledge of his 

 business. It is not acre for acre that 

 should be compared, but rather cost 

 of production ; and, when plants, 

 labor, manure, picking, baskets, etc., 

 are counted, the proceeds are often 

 very small. 



THE VENTILATED APPLE BARREL. 



The profits of apple growing are 

 very much reduced by the cost of the 



barrels. Thirty cents a barrel is 

 about the least sum for which the 

 ordinary barrel can be manufactured,, 

 and some less expensive package is 

 needed, especially when we consider 



Fig. 80.— Thh Ventilated Barrel. 



that there is no return of empties. 

 We have low-priced baskets for our 

 small fruits, grapes and peaches, and 

 we want a low-priced one for our 

 apples and pears. There has been 

 one recently invented in Iowa, a 

 sample of which has been shown us, 

 and which we hope will be the very 

 thing we want, for it can be manu- 

 factured at half the expense of the 

 ordinary barrel, and possesses some 

 advantages over it. It is made of 

 elm wood, peeled from the log by a 

 veneering machine, and cut into 

 narrow staves. These are woven 

 together with fine copper wire, as 

 shown in the engraving, in such a 

 manner that no hoops are required, 

 except the two at each end to hold 

 the heads in place, and one wide, 

 strong one around the middle, in the 

 inside, which gives firmness to the 

 bilge and keeps all pressure off the 

 fruit, caused by rolling or piling the 

 barrels. 



