The Small Fruit Garden 329 



Now, I am afraid if I do not guard what I have said a little, 

 that it may lead someone astray. Here I have told of one- tenth 

 of an acre of strawberries, for example, costing but $12.80, besides 

 the picking, and hinted at getting some $70 worth of berries from 

 it. Some friend might figure this up and find that there was a 

 very large profit per acre in berry growing. So there is, if they 

 are large and fine, better than the ordinary, and sold fresh to 

 people who are willing to pay for something really nice. And I 

 have found there were plenty of that kind of people. But it 

 doesn't follow, my friend, that there is money in it for you, if you 

 are a farmer. You would probably lose if you tried to grow berries 

 to sell in connection with your farming. They need all your time 

 and attention to pick and market, just when clover hay wants cut- 

 ting, and potatoes and corn need constant tillage, and they cannot 

 be neglected at any time during the season, if you want a big, pay- 

 ing crop. Do not think such results as I have pictured, or obtained, 

 come without thorough attention. I had rather lead you to be more 

 thorough in what you are now doing than to take any more busi- 

 ness on your hands, which would have a tendency to make you 

 less thorough, only just to the extent of having berries enough 

 for family use. In some cases, where there are children who 

 could attend to the picking and marketing, with a little oversight 

 from the father, a quarter of an acre or so might be grown and 

 managed without trouble, but I would not do it unless the children 

 were given the money, so as to teach them the value of it and how 

 it comes. This from experience. Our children once sold $83 

 worth from one-fourth of an acre and had it all for themselves ; 

 but they also furnished us some thirteen bushels for eating and 

 canning. We have grown a half acre a year, too. The product 

 one year nearly reached $300. There was money in them, 

 although we live in such a frosty locality that it would be risky to 

 go into berry growing largely. But we found we had better not 

 divide our energies. Even with the few crops we raise, we can- 

 not afford to grow berries to sell. There is money in almost 

 anything that suits your soil and locality, if properly followed; 

 but there will not be money in anything, if you undertake to do 

 everything. That is what I want to guard you against. 



