188 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 



successfully over a part of one of his fields the refuse from a 

 cane mill near by. It answen the purpose perfectly, contains 

 no weed seeds whatever, and he said the only objection in his 

 case was the distance they were obliged to go for it. In their 

 work they use two tons of straw per acre, or its equivalent in 

 something else. This, of course, is for mulching, to protect 

 the plants from heaving out in the winter, and to keep the ber- 

 ries out of the dirt in fruiting-time. 



The berries grown on this piece of 40 acres are mostly those 

 I have mentioned. Warfield, Haverland, and Bubach are sure 

 to be found ; then Parker Earle, Jessie, and Michel's Early are 

 grown more or less. 



I asked Mr. Cowan how often he shipped berries that sold 

 so low as to pay for only the packages, express charges, and 

 cost of picking. He said he had never come out quite as badly 

 as that, even on a single bushel, although he had heard of oth- 

 ers who had to advance money, besides the value of the ber- 

 ries, to pay the expense of shipping and marketing. I was 

 somewhat surprised at this ; but when I became better acquaint- 

 ed with the man I found that he was unusually bright and 

 wideawake. He is a hard worker himself, and he keeps right 

 along with his help, which, if I am correct, is mostly colored 

 people. 



There is a factory at Barnesville for making crates and 

 boxes for berry-growers ; and they have certainly got the prices 

 down very low. The cheap gift crates to hold one bushel, or 

 32 one-quart boxes, are furnished at Barnesville, nailed up, for 

 only!2^cts.; and as the nailed up quart boxes are sold for 

 $3 50 psr 1000, the whole expense of a package for a bushel of 

 berries is only about 23 cts. 



As we prepared to take our leave he informed me that, 

 when he started in the berry business some years ago, he had 

 only about $200 or $300 to make a payment on the farm. The 

 place was already pretty heavily mortgaged. It was only a 

 short time ago that the last dollar of the mortgage was paid ; 

 and now he can breathe a little easier while he plans to make 

 every yard of ground produce fruit of some kind. Besides the 

 strawberries he has considerable ground devoted to currants 

 and gooseberries, and these have always paid him well. In- 

 stead of paving large sums of money to nurserymen for plants, 

 he grows his own, makes cuttings from the currants and goose- 

 berries, and has a very pretty little nursery where they are cul- 

 tivated and cared for until they are ready to go out into the 

 field. 



