8o 



•away the cost of production it leaves a net balance of 385.00 

 per acre as against $100.00 per acre in the other method of 

 production. Is not this worth trying for? 



Now just a word on varieties, for here lies the medium 

 between profit and loss. 



I am not going to recommend special varieties to you 

 for you must find out for yourself what will do best in your 

 climate and on your soil. In Marshfield, Mass., the Marshall 

 strawberry is grown and sold as high as fifty cents per 

 quart, yielding growers $1,200 per acre profit, yet in our 

 vicinity we cannot grow Marshall at all. AVe can, however, 

 grow Sample, Glen Mary, Senator Dimlap, Abington, and 

 Parson's Beauty. So study your individual conditions and 

 if you are growing for a near-by market where quality 

 counts for all, grow quality berries and grow them well. 

 If, on the other hand, you have to ship your fruit long dis- 

 tances, grow a firmer berry that will hold its shape and 

 color well. It is at the market end that we must expect our 

 profit, so look to this end more carefully. 



While the strawberry is the most popular of the small 

 fruits, the others in that class must not be lost sight of en- 

 tirely. "We may feel that there is a greater profit from a 

 crop which gives a quick return, but this is not always so. 

 The currant, though not grown as a commercial crop to any 

 great extent in our state, is yet one of the most profitable 

 of small fruits and can be grown as easily as any other in 

 i;his class. The expense of establishing a plantation of cur- 

 rants is greater than that in the case of- the strawberry, 

 principally because the returns do not come in so quickly, 

 but once established, the bushes are good for many years 

 and will yield a fair profit providing the market is all right. 

 At present our large markets are supplied with currants 

 from the west and, judging from the native small fruits 

 which appear on the market, it would seem that Massachu- 

 setts growers had given but little thought to any small fruit 

 ■except the strawberry. An acre of currants set four by 

 six feet, 1800 plants, to yield with good cultivation at least 

 "two hundred bushels to the acre, or at the rate of about 

 four quarts per bush. These should bring eight cts. a qt., or 

 yield at least $500 an acre, and after the establishing of a 

 plantation the cost of maintaining should be very small, not 

 *more than $100 an acre per year. The original cost should 

 ;not exceed $150 per acre the first year and $100 the second. 



