PRIZE GARDENING FOR WOMEN IIQ 



SO that her profits were considerably more than the 

 figures indicate. 



The work in the prize garden began early in April 

 by trimming the berry bushes and sowing seed in boxes 

 and hotbeds the I2th. Hardy seeds, like onion, lettuce, 

 radish, peas and beets, were sown in the open ground 

 April 25. The principal vegetables grown were peas, 

 beans, sweet corn and cabbage, but considerable income 

 was also derived from cucumbers, lettuce, tomatoes, 

 melons and squash. The fruit furnished by far the 

 larger part of the revenue. 



Her gardening experience began fifteen years ago 

 with a piece of five hundred strawberry plants infested 

 with weeds. She eradicated the dock, dandelion and 

 other weeds, and got a yield of forty quarts a day 

 from the bed. She went to town one day to sell a crate- 

 ful, as her father was detained, and from this small 

 beginning she has worked up a nice trade, which goes 

 far toward making her independent. The farm pro- 

 duced at that time a succession of grapes, quinces, pears 

 and apples, and to these she added a stock of all the 

 desirable varieties of raspberries, some blackberries, 

 currants, plums and fortv grapevines. Writes Miss 

 Dibble : 



We had a fine crop of berries, picking about forty 

 quarts a day. We could not use them all and were 

 obliged to sell some. On the Fourth of July my father 

 said to me : 'There are twenty-four quarts of straw- 

 berries and sixteen quarts of cherries engaged to go to 

 Stony Creek to-day. I cannot go with them myself, 

 but if you will go you can have the money." I nearly 

 turned pale and trembled at the idea. Me go ? Why, 

 I was quite high-toned and had never done anything 

 of the kind in my life. My married sister was visiting 

 me and she encouraged me to go and said she would 

 go with me. We went. We found that by some mistake 



