1889 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



553 



cares, and making me look worried. It 

 would be a little sad if strawberries should 

 be the means of adding wrinkles to my face 

 that is already pretty well furrowed. Some 

 of you may say, " Surely A. I. Root would, 

 at such a crisis, have taken his cares and 

 perplexities to the kind Father ; for, in fact, 

 he taught just that in his book, 'What to 

 Do,' " and with all the advice thatthisworld 

 can furnish in regard to what to do in per- 

 plexities, is there any thing to be compared 

 with that beautiful injunction, " Cast thy 

 burden on the Lord "? As soon as I thought 

 it, however, I began to be a little ashamed 

 of myself. If I were a poor man, on a little 

 homestead, with a mortgage hanging over 

 me, and 1 were depending on my berries to 

 help to lift the mortgage, then I might com- 

 plain about getting only 5 cts. a quart. If 

 sickness and death were near, and money 

 were needed to pay the doctor's bill, then 

 might I prav God to help me to get better 

 prices. As' it was, I actually felt ashamed 

 to ask the kind Father for any help at all in 

 that direction. 1 did ask him, however, to 

 help me to feel happy and glad because I 

 was able to give nice fresh berries to my 

 friends and neighbors for only 5 cts. a quart. 

 Well, the prayer was answered very speedi- 

 ly. I became glad and happy "straight- 

 way," as Mark says. My daughter Con- 

 stance (Blue Eyes, you know) has been 

 taking me to task for using the word got. It 

 came in once or twice in my last Home talk, 

 and she says it is not "good grammar." 

 Well, whether it is good or bad, I "got" 

 happy. I really enjoyed selling berries for 

 5 cts. Then what do you think happened? 

 Somebody, I really don't know why, sud- 

 denly concluded that the berries might not 

 get any lower, and ordered half a bushel at 

 5 cents a quart. Then another neighbor 

 thought they would take the chances, and 

 take theirs for canning at 5 cts. And pretty 

 soon somebody suggested that the berries 

 would come up very soon. Now, you may 

 think it strange; but within an hour we en- 

 gaged more at 5 cts. a quart than we had to 

 spare; and pretty soon the young man who 

 superintends the children who are doing the 

 picking, told me they were not going to 

 have as many as they had been getting. By 

 the way, this young man is one of the 

 printers. It is a rather dull season just now 

 in the composing-room ; and as he had often 

 begged to get outdoors we gave him this 

 post. You ought to see how we have tanned 

 him up during the last ten days. He seems 

 to prefer to be outdoors, however, for all 

 that. Well, after we had taken as many or- 

 ders as we dared to at 5 cents, we took some 

 more at (>. Meanwhile the people had "got" 

 an idea that the price of the berries w r as run- 

 ning up again, and everybody was in a hurry 

 to buy. Up they went to 7 and then to 8 ; 

 and then came the state of affairs where we 

 charged one man 8 cts. for his berries, and 

 the other (i or even 5, because they were to 

 fill an old contract, made when the berries 

 were low.* This taught us not to make any 



*At one time, to fill our contracts we tried to buy 

 some berries of a neighbor; but the best price he 

 could make to us was 6 cts., therefore we should be 

 obliged to pay ti and sell for 5, because we were so 

 thoughtless as to make a contract beforehand, for 

 the delivery of berries the next day. 



more contracts. So the men on our wagon 

 told the customers, " We will pick and de- 

 liver them any time you wish, but we can 

 not agree on any particular price. You can 

 have them now for 7 cents; to-morrow they 

 may be 5, but they may also be 8 or even 9." 

 This little transaction has tended to give 

 me more charity for people who change 

 prices often. In fact, it gave me my first 

 insight into this matter of fluctuations of 

 the market, and it led me to see that it is 

 proper to change the price not only daily, 

 but, under some conditions, and under some 

 circumstances, hourly. When the prices 

 were low, it was really pleasant to see peo- 

 ple coming with all sorts of utensils for 

 strawberries ; and 1 believe now that I en- 

 joyed selling them as much (or even more) at 

 5 cents as I did selling them at 15. All that 

 prevented me from being pleased and happy 

 on the "down grade" was because I hadn't 

 got enough of the text, at the head of this 

 little sermon, in my heart— "Thou shalt love 

 thy neighbor." And I confess that, when 

 prices began to go up, and the children and 

 some poor people who could afford them at 

 5 cents, but could not at 10 or 15, 1 began 

 to feel sad for their sakes. My friend, when 

 your neighbor's interest is so much in your 

 heart that you forget self, and rejoice or feel 

 sad at his loss or gain, you are getting pret- 

 ty near to the kingdom. 



Well, we got on swimmingly, and I enjoy- 

 ed harvesting the berries very much. I en- 

 joyed this matter of demand and supply, 

 and fluctuations in the prices, and especial- 

 ly the positive proof that Medina could not 

 only take care of 15 bushels of strawberries 

 a day, but perhaps twice or three times that 

 amount, until Saturday night came. We 

 had had some little experience with Satur- 

 day night, but not very much. The weath- 

 er was favorable, and, oh how the berries 

 did ripen ! Before we got through the patch 

 once they were riper where we commenced 

 than they had been when we started. Some 

 of the boys talked toward night of picking 

 no more if I could not sell them ; but I told 

 them that the berries must be picked, and 

 that they must be sold or given away. The 

 wagon went all over town, and visited eve- 

 ry customer of ours ; but after the men re- 

 turned late in the evening, there were four 

 or live bushels of berries yet to be disposed 

 of. As our baskets all became full, the pint 

 boxes full of berries were scattered every- 

 where along the rows, and little patches 

 here and there were seen in groups up by 

 the fence. In fact, bright, beautiful luscious 

 strawberries stared at us everywhere. There 

 had been such a hurry to get them picked 

 before night, that they were set around 

 everywhere, and nobody knew what was to 

 be done with them. There was some talk 

 of carrying the pint boxes by hand, because 

 the baskets were all full ; but I suggested set- 

 ting them on one of the shutters of the hot- 

 beds. Finally Mr. Wright, the printer, got 

 hold of some of the shallow trays we use 

 for celery-plants. To refresh your memory 

 I will give you a picture of one. 



Each tray holds l!4 pints. They were 

 wheeled up to the factory on our Daisy 

 wheelbarrows, and then they were set along 

 the front of the door, on a stand that was 



