158 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



April, 



A Cheap Berry Crate. 



E. W. REID, BRIDGEPORT, OHIO. 



I have examined many baskets and crates 

 for marketing fruit and have come to the 

 conclusion that the one I now use is the 

 most complete and cheapest crate made. I 

 do not think it is used outside of Belmont 

 Co., Ohio. One small town in the county 

 above puts out hundreds of thousands of 

 bushels and this is the crate they use. 

 Many may think what is the object in this 

 cheap crate, and say I would rather have 

 a better. Were you placed as we are you 

 could see the advantages. 



In the first place it can be made at home 

 in the shop on cold and wet days in the 

 winter, and that much saved. It is a plain 

 piece of work; anyone that can drive a nail 



straight can put it together, I have them 

 sawed out at the planing mill in the winter 

 when work is slack and can have it done 

 right. I take a sample crate to the mill and 

 say " Here, what will you saw out 100 for ? " 

 They get so much and no more, and if they 

 can't do it for that price, I can get some one 

 that will. The strips used are made out of 

 the waste pile mostly and they can afiford to 

 do it cheap. I have just contracted for 100 

 bushel crates this past week, ready to nail 

 together, for -f30. I will give full cost of 

 everything. 



Lumber ready to nail for 100 bu $30.00 



Nails for 100 bu 3.00 



Leather for hinges and fastenings. . . 1.50 



1 gross of buckles, (144) '. 80 



1 man 4 da.vs, $1 per day to put to- 

 gether 4.00 



$39.30 

 The cost of these you will see is about 39)^ 

 cents each; to buy them ready made would 

 cost lue $0.5, besides the freight, which would 

 add not less than $.5 or .*10. How many 

 berry growers in the country to-day are pay- 

 ing from $0.7.5 to .$1.25 each for crates that I 

 would not trade for this 39 cent crate, and 

 how many are paying from $5..50 to $9.00 per 

 M for baskets when they can be bought for 

 *1.75 and $3.00 in the flat and made at home 

 in the winter! It is the little things that eat 

 up the profits; let us take care of them. 



These last years I have lost many crates 

 through carelessness of commission mer- 

 chants and the express co.; had I paid *1 or 

 .$1.25 for them there would have been no 

 difference, so you see I am ahead that much. 

 I will give dimensions of the crate, and 

 then illustrate the Figure. 



Length. Width. Thickness. 



End 16 in. 11 in. 1 in. 



Lid 341^" 12 " i4" 



Strips for siding and bottom : 



B iJ4Hin. 3 in. -Hin. 



4 S4^ " 2 " «" 



3 341^ " m" H " 



In looking at Fig. 1, A .shows you the solid 

 end with hand hole sawed with circular saw; 

 15, or lid, is worked on leather hinges and 

 fastened with strap and buckle; C shows 

 you three of the six strips on one side, 3 

 inches wide; D two of the four 2-inch wide; 

 E is for the three bottom strips; F shows 

 fastenings and hinges. A quart basket is 

 about 3J< inches in height, which places the 



top above strip C and gives room for the 

 slat and that no fi-uit can get out. The open- 

 ing is about the middle of the basket in each 

 tier, so that air can pass through every 

 basket, and also at opening in bottom. 



Fig. No. 2 shows you the slat that goes 

 between the baskets. Size: 



Length. Width. Thickness. 



3 strips 32Hin. 1% in. ^ in. 



1 strip 22H " 2H " H " 



5raUs 11 " ?i " tapered to 



14 at bottom. 1 in. 



G represents the two outside strips, H the 

 middle; this allows the basket to rest on 

 both and the air to pass from the bottom. 

 I represents the rails; the outside ones only 

 tapered on one side. The three inside rails, 

 taper from % to Ji' so as not to mash the 

 fruit, but to rest on edge of basket, as shown 

 in Fig. 3. 



There are many advantages in this crate. 

 One of the best is the slat; it is 1 inch high, 

 it enables us to fill the baskets rounding full 

 and will not mash. When package arrives at 

 destination they are not down in the basket. 

 All baskets are " topped " by pickers; what I 

 mean by topped is that all berries are turned 

 with stems down and nothing but the fruit 

 is seen. For large berries this has no equal, 

 for most other crates have from % to K inch 

 rails, which is too light. 



Next is a hand tray for gathering baskets, 

 as shown in Fig. 4; this is a very handy ar- 

 rangement. The pickers are given their 

 rows and not allowed to get out of them 

 until finished; the man that gathers the 

 baskets has full control of them. This tray 

 holds 8 baskets, so he is enabled to carry 

 one-half bushel each trip, and can see if any 

 one is not picking clean, or that no loud 

 talking is carried on while picking. Baskets 

 are furnished pickers in rows, and when 

 four are filled they receive a ticket, and 

 baskets taken to packing house from sun. 

 When 8 of these 4 quart tickets are held by 

 picker they are exchanged for 1 bushel ticket. 



Should any tickets be lost by pickers it is 

 their loss. When the ticket is given it is the 

 same as money, and some one else will be 

 likely to find it. All tickets are collected at 

 night and account taken. They are paid 

 every Saturday afternoon, if so desired by 

 them. I pay !}{ cents per quart the season 

 through for all kinds of berries, but only pay 

 1 cent at pay day; the }{ cent is kept until 

 they finish, and if they quit before that time 

 they get but 1 cent. 



I find this the only way that we can com- 

 pel them to clean up the patches, and not 

 get the "headache" when berries get scarce. 



"Amateur" Work and Stepping up 

 Higher. 



JOHN M. STAHL, ADAMS CO., ILL. 



Doubtless not a few mechanics and other 

 city workers would better their financial 

 condition and live more independently were 

 they to engage in market gardening or small 

 fruit growing; and it isequally true that the 

 writers who have been of late so often ad- 

 vising the city worker to get out in the 

 country and go to work on a few acres, do 

 not know what they are talking about. Not 

 one city worker of each twenty could accept 

 or would do well to accept this advice. It 

 requires information and training to be suc- 

 cessful in rural occupations. Any tool can- 

 not farm successfully these days, nor can he 

 raise vegetables or fruits successfully or 

 profitably, though he may have experience. 

 True, some people, wide awake and earnest, 

 may, by reading horticultural and garden- 

 ing books and papers for some time, get 

 such information that they can be successful 

 without experience, but they are exceptions. 



Again, how is the mechanic, without 

 money, or with a very little of it at the best, 

 to get land and seeds and implements and 

 manure to make a promising beginning. 



They may very likely rent the land; but 

 many implements, a horse, and much 

 manure are to be got, and how can they be 

 got without money? It would be nice if 

 every dependent, hand-to-mouth city worker 

 could be a successful gardener, florist, or 

 fruit grower; but this is uiore than Utopian. 



Nevertheless, 

 there are many 

 who live in 

 villages and 

 towns, and 

 some who live 

 in cities, that 

 could not do 

 lietter than 

 take tip garden* 

 ing as an nd- 

 J ' '^ i • jvnct to their 



present work. He who has thirty feet square 

 to spare from his back yard, need not lack 

 vegetables of his own growing, at least. I 

 knew a man, a boarding-house keeeper, to 

 grow on a space scarcely larger than this, 

 all the fresh vegetables required for nine 

 people. Of course he kept up a succession 

 and used manure lavishly. Let the mechanic 

 who can, raise vegetables for his own family; 

 likely when he has done this, he will find 

 that he can do more with profit. If he has 

 children, they can do most of the work, and 

 will be all the healthier and happier for do- 

 ing it. They would better do this than 

 roam the streets and vacant lots. The curse 

 of city or village life is "nothing for the 

 children to do; " fiowers and vegetables will 

 take it away. 



Great oaks from little acorns grow; and 

 the largest business frequently had a small 

 beginning. Of every ten millionaires in this 

 country, nine were poor boys. I read yes- 

 terday of Mr. Cozad, who, until he took a 

 partner the first of the year, had the largest 

 nurseries owned by one man west of the 

 Mississippi, and the account said "he began 

 business in a small way." Of course he did. 

 That sounded natural. If he had begun in 

 any other way it would have been unusual. 

 Who can tell what the back-yard ^^llage 

 gardeners may not grow into? The mechanic 

 or accountant may not escape his present 

 occupation, but may not his son? It is bet- 

 to have the son a gardener than a knight of 

 labor. And it is not impossible that in a 

 few years the back-yard garden may have 

 proved so profitable and pleasant that the 

 mechanic goes outside the city and in due 

 time sells what he formerly bought. It 

 would be a change much for the better. 



This word " amateur " has grown trouble- 

 some of late. Once I thought I knew its 

 meaning, now I don't. But I believe the 

 back-yard gardening in the town or village 

 would be amatem- work; might be such after 

 it had expanded over vacant lots, to the con- 

 fusion of cows and goats. And it is the 

 sort of amateur work that I like to see. 

 For, while much rot and lush are written 

 about the pleas- 

 ures and profits 

 of gardening by 

 people who 

 think Cucum- 

 bers grow on 

 trees,and while 

 it is never 

 play to make 



A Picking Stand. 



profit out of the earth, yet it would be better 

 for the individual and for society if many of 

 our city workers got out into the country. 

 Foul air and beefy food have nuide them 

 discontented. Give them the fresh air and 

 vegetables and fruits of the country, and 

 they would be contented, and more than 

 negatively law abiding— positively law up- 

 holding. Enough mechanics and book- 

 keepers have found a better living and bet- 

 ter health on truck patches to demonstrate 

 that many more might be as they are. 



