THE STRAWBERRY FEBRUARY 1906 



full instructions for making an inexpen- 

 sive stand, and under Cut No. 4 instruc- 

 tions for making a more substantial carrier. 

 Then there are the smaller, but no less 

 important, conveniences that ought to re- 



cur 4--A SUBSTANTIAL CARRIER 



'THE cut herewith shows a simple, strong and con- 

 venient carrier. We prefer this four-box carrier 

 to the six-box form because they are more quicltly 

 filled and thus the berries are the sooner taken in out 

 of the sun. 



ceive your attention at this time. You 

 ought to have a neat and attractive label, 

 for you should build up a trade pecul- 

 iarly your own, and a label is a great aid 

 in that direction. Letter heads, envelopes, 

 pickers' tally tickets, punches — these are 

 essentials to economy of time and large 

 success in conducting a strawberry farm. 

 Then the cultivators, tools and all the 

 farm implements should now be receiving 

 your attention. 



During the winter days that are fine 

 that pile of manure which was left in the 

 barnyard last fall should be hauled out to 

 the patch and spread at the earliest pos- 

 sible moment. And if you haven't 

 mulched yet, cover your plants now, both 



CUT 5 -AN INEXPENSIVE CARRIER 



"TO make this carrier, or pickers' stand, take a 

 board one-half inch thick, ten inches wide and 

 fifteen inches long. This will form the bottom. 

 Common lath nailed to each side and ends will serve 

 nicely to hold the quart boxes in place. Now take 

 two-inch strips one-half inch thick and five inches 

 long for the legs. A piece of common barrel hoop or 

 basket handle will give good service as a handle. 



for protection from freezing and thawing 

 and in order that your ripening berries 

 may have a sweet clean floor upon which 

 to mature. Your customers will appreci- 



ate the cleanliness of your fruit more than 

 any other one thing about them. 



And finally, now is the time to study 

 your catalogues and determine what you 

 will do when it comes time to set your 

 plants. If you know what varieties you 

 prefer, and desire to secure just the right 

 ones, you will make a serious mistake if 

 you do not get in your order for plants at 

 once. No matter how fine condition 

 your land is in, or how favorable the sea- 

 son, if you don't have plants at setting 

 time, and good plants at that, you will 

 find all your work of little avail. More 

 folks fail at this very point than at any 

 other. Good plants of desirable varieties 

 lie at the very foundation of successful 

 strawberry production. 



COMMERCIAL strawberry growers 

 who make large shipments of the 

 fruit to distant markets are watching with 

 keen interest the probable action of Con- 

 gress upon private-car line and general 

 railway-rate regulation. Congressman 

 Shartel of Missouri, in a recent interview, 

 indicated that he had been studying the 

 question from the strawberry man's point 



Z^.-.^-' 



CUT 6— A SIMPLE MARKING DEVICE 



T^AKE a wheel sixteen iuches in diameter and 

 tack two cleats on the rim directly opposite each 

 other. Every time these cleats come in contact with 

 the surface of the ground they make a dent in the soil. 

 Vt'here a sixtcen-inch wheel is used these dints will 

 come every twenty-four inches in the track made by 

 the wheels. This simple device is a great help in 

 getting your plants set exactly the same distance 

 apart in the row. A glance at the above cut will show 

 that the wheel is set in a frame with hinge. This 

 frame is bolted to a two-inch board, which should be 

 seven feet long; one wheel frame bolted to each end 

 and one directly in the center mark three rows 3 1-2 

 feet apart at a lime. The hinge is to allow the wheel 

 to adjust itself to any unevenness of the ground, and 

 thus make a continuous mark to follow in setting. 

 The best way to draw this is by means of shafts, and 

 a man will draw it straighter than can be done with 

 a horse. 



of view. He said: "We are most de- 

 cidedly in favor of the regulation of 

 private-car lines. Down about Neosha 

 in my state we have one of the greatest 

 strawberry districts in the country. Last 

 season we sent out no less than 150 car 

 loads, and on one occasion sent a solid 

 train load. The best rate we could get 

 from the private-car lines was $90 per 

 car to the nearest market, the charge 

 inade for icing. We discovered it cost 

 the company just .$25 for that ice, and 

 yet we had no way to reach it and force 

 a reasonable charge." Since those words 

 were spoken President Roosevelt's annual 



Piie 28 



message has dealt this monopoly a telling 

 blow, and the whole subject has come 

 before the public in a way likely to force 

 congressional action. 



Making Fertilizer "Without Cost 



ONE way of making valuable fertili- 

 zer without cost is suggested by a 

 New Hampshire preacher, an itin- 

 erant Methodist, whose travels over that 

 portion of the earth bounded by his con- 



CUT 7 -MAKING BOXES WITH THE STAPLER 



ference limits has taught him a thing or 

 two worth knowing. He tells in Farm 

 and Home how, when he moved to his 

 present abode, "the sink drain ran out on 

 the garden to the west of the house, and 

 in warm days the odor could be readily 

 distinguished from attar of roses. 



"I had a tile drain laid from the sink 

 spout to the barn cellar and last spring, 

 when ready to plant garden, I had a one- 

 horse farm cart si.x times full of well 

 rotted leaves, meadow hay, vegetable 

 tops, weeds which had not gone to seed, 

 etc., which I had made in that barn cel- 

 lar by allowing the sink water to drain on 

 it and the chamber slops to be turned on 

 the pile each day. 



"I made no special effort to see how 



CUT 8-.-HEAD STAKES 

 Indicating way to mate plants to insure pollenation 



