822 THE AMERICAN FARMER. 



crates. Pint baskets are sometimes used for marketing berries, but less commonly than those 

 holding a quart. 



Yield and Profits. From two hundred to four hundred bushels of strawberries are 

 sometimes obtained from an acre, although a more common yield is from fifty to one hundred 

 bushels per acre. The total cost of plants, cultivation, picking, etc., is usually from $75 to 

 $100 per acre. The writer knows of a case in which $110 worth of Jucunda berries were sold 

 from one-eighth of an acre, and another in which a crop of Boydens was sold at the rate of 

 over $1,500 per acre. Two ladies in Centralia, 111., are said to have raised and sold nearly 

 $850 worth of berries from an acre and a quarter of land. A gentleman in New Jersey not 

 long since raised one hundred and fifty bushels of berries from half an acre of land and sold 

 them for $500. 



Mr. William H. Earjfi of Mass.. says: &quot; If one takes interest in the business of strawberry 

 culture he will be surprised at the possible results. On about three acres of land I realized 

 a gross income of a little over two thousand dollars.&quot; 



The owner of a plantation of twenty-five acres devoted to strawberry culture, near 

 Norfolk, Virginia, says: &quot;My twenty-five acres would produce 3, 000 crates. Half of these,&quot; 

 said he, &quot;are lost by bad picking, neglect, or stealing. &quot;We will only count on 1,500 crates 

 sure, as coming from that amount of land. Each crate holds sixty quarts, which we sell at 

 ten cents a quart to retailers and commission agents in other cities. We get back in money 

 from the produce of that many acres the sum of $9,000. This is an actual average.&quot; 



The above results may not be the common average of growers of this fruit, but they 

 show what may be accomplished with suitable care and other favoring conditions. 



Diseases and Insect Enemies. The rust or leaf blight sometimes attacks the 

 strawberry plant. The grubs are also occasionally very destructive by feeding upon the roots, 

 causing the plants to wither and die. Common salt sown broadcast at the rate of three 

 or four bushels to the acre, or well mixed with the soil a week or two before planting will 

 sometimes eradicate them. The same quantity applied about the roots in liquid form might 

 hasten the effect in time of drouth. Another method is to dip the roots of the plant in Paris 

 Green at the time of planting. Soot, wood ashes, muriate of potash, or land plaster are also 

 highly recommended, but the ashes and potash should be sowed with caution in a sandy soil. 

 The strawberry worm is also very troublesome in some sections of the country, feeding upon 

 the leaves, which causes them to shrivel or curl and to dry up. Paris Green applied the same 

 as for the Colorado beetle in potato culture, once a week for three or four weeks before the 

 berries are set, will eradicate it. The solution should be made of one or two teaspoonfuls 

 of the powder to two or three gallons of water. It should never be used when berries are 

 in the vines, as it is a deadly poison. 



Raspberries. The raspberry is found growing wild in a large portion of both the 

 Eastern and &quot;Western Continents, but when cultivated, the fruit is much larger than that of 

 the wild growth, and the plants are also much more productive. New kinds have also been 

 obtained by hybridization and from the seed, which, together with the advantages obtained 

 from careful cultivation, have resulted in producing very fine varieties of this delicious and 

 popular fruit. The European and Asiatic varieties (Rubus idaeus] are of an upright habit 

 of growth, with bristles on the canes, which are mostly straight, and produce plants from sprouts 

 coming from the roots. They may also be propagated by planting root-cuttings. The 

 American Red varieties (Rubus strigosus) are thought by many to be a variety of the same 

 species, being of similar habits of growth, and also propagated from suckers. The black varie 

 ties belong to the Rubus occidentalis species. A few of the yellow and red varieties that are 

 propagated by the tips of the canes taking root in the soil are also closely allied to this class. 



The Rubus strigosus species frequently send up suckers so abundantly as to become trouble 

 some, filling the ground with young canes, which crowd the bearing plants and injure the 



