STRAWBERRY CULTURE 97 



looking baskets. The acme of success can never be reached when 

 berries of all sizes and colors, with and without hulls, overripe and 

 underripe are placed in the same box. 



Yields, costs, and profits. Would that it were possible to make 

 accurate statements in regard to productiveness, the many items 

 of expense connected with growing the crop and in addition to 

 these, all the items connected with harvesting and marketing the 

 crop, including the all-important item of selling price, so that 

 profits, alwa3^s alluring yet by far too elusive, might be determined, 

 or as sometimes occurs, the amount of loss determined. Were 

 all factors constant, the results would be a question of mathematics, 

 but unfortunately some items vary from year to year, others are 

 never alike on any two farms, while still other factors are entirely 

 beyond the control of the grower, making hasty determinations of 

 probable yields, costs, and profits largely guesses and at this time 

 we leave all such calculations to others. 



We are, however, concerned with averages, which will appear low 

 to many of the more successful growers, but they represent the 

 concensus of opinion among conservative observers. 3000 quarts 

 per acre is considered an average yield, while the average cost of 

 growing a 32-quart crate of berries and placing it on the market is 

 in the neighborhood of $1.00 per crate, placing a fair profit at about 

 $1.00 per crate, the amount of yield largely determining the amount 

 of the profit. 



What to plant. We come now to our last subject, by no means 

 least in importance, always one of the most perplexing and baflfling 

 of solution. With the best of climatic and soil conditions present, 

 with clear-cut ideas as to the best cultural methods to follow, and 

 with the knowledge that the best of markets is at our door, the 

 selection of undesirable varieties may from the very start spell 

 ultimate disaster and make all the difference between a profitable 

 or a profitless business. Were there but few varieties available for 

 selection and were the behavior of these varieties uniformly the 

 same in different localities, and under various environments and 

 in different soil types, this question would be simplified; but the 

 fact is altogether too apparent that varieties are amazingly unstable 

 in their behavior and the most profitable variety in one location 

 may prove worthless or of only mediocre value elsewhere. 



