A Woman's Success With Strawberries 



By Miss S . M . Pollard 



SOME of my work as a strawberry 

 grower last season was wise, some 

 otherwise, although in most things 

 I followed your directions; but for days 

 and weeks, when they were grown, I re- 

 pented on hands and knees that I had not 

 followed them in all. The ground was 

 well manured in the fall and plowed 

 about six inches deep the next spring. 

 Then it was harrowed thoroughly and 

 smoothed with a plank float. Next I 

 marked out the rows, just twenty inches 

 each way, and set out the plants. I soon 

 started my Planet Jr. cultivator which I 

 used every few days during the summer, 

 thus keeping out all the weeds. In the 

 fall, when the ground was frozen suffi- 

 ciently hard to support a wagon, I covereJ 

 the plants about six inches deep with 

 straw and this was not removed until the 

 middle of the following May, the spring 

 being so late it could not safely have been 

 sooner removed. 



I started the cultivator again and kept 

 that going as before till the plants literally 

 shut me out from between the rows. 

 Then I realized for the first time what a 

 mistake I had made in not giving them 

 more room. I never had seen tame 

 strawberries growing and, as a neighbor, a 

 poor tumble-down fellow, always says. 

 If you would succeed you must put in 

 your judgment," I found I had not put 

 in quite enough judgment, and when they 

 began to bud and blossom I saw that I 

 was up against" a serious proposition. 



They were a sight to behold, buds and 

 blossoms everywhere, all through and be- 

 tween the rows, so that one could not 

 step without crushing them. Friends 

 called to see and give advice who never 

 had raised a berry, but were chock full of 

 knowledge about caring for the plants. 

 They told me that I must "pinch off" 

 one-half or two-thirds of the blossoms or 

 the plants would die; that they would 

 never amount to an\'thing, for no plant 

 could e\ er produce such an amount and 

 live. 



While I could only agree with them, I 

 did not have the heart to remove one of 

 those pretty flowers, and inasmuch as I 

 had got them for the purpose of experi- 

 menting, they must work out their own 

 salvation — live or die. But they did not 

 die; they kept right on growing; and when 

 ripe, many of them measured five and a 

 half to six inches in circumference. 



Such a time as we had to pick them! 

 VVe had to move the berries aside to get 

 a place to put our feet, and then stand 

 astride of the rows, our skirts brushing 

 over the blossoms. This I saw would 

 not do, so I rose to the occasion and 

 donned a pair of bib overalls to the mer- 

 riment of my city company, as I came 



from my room with hand aloft crying 

 "venia necessitati datur;" but I found my- 

 self dressed much better suited for the 

 work. 



We sold from a plot two rods wide by 

 four rods long a little more than forty 

 dollars' worth — besides what we put up 

 for home consumption, and quite a lot 

 which we gave to our less fortunate 

 friends. And the end was not yet. But 

 my companion having just finished a nine 

 months' term of school, wanted a rest 



MISS S. M. POLLARD 



and the time to attend the fair at Port- 

 land, Ore., before beginning her next 

 term, so I called a halt and mowed the 

 vines, more than satisfied with my first at- 

 tempt at raising strawberries. 



In this one year I have learned that 

 strawberry growing is a woman's work, 

 and anyone that can successfully raise to- 

 matoes or cabbage can do as well with 

 strawberries. She may in this way se- 

 cure a goodly supply of pin money and 

 escape the humiliation of asking "hubby' 

 for every cent. It is a business that 

 never will be overdone; the field is wide, 

 the demand growing. It is a business 

 that must be learned and attended to like 

 any other, but with a little experience, 

 combined with natural qualifications, such 

 as energy, common sense and persever- 

 ance, one is sure to succeed. 



The cost of plants and other expenses 

 for home use is not worth speaking about, 

 and those who wish to make a business of 

 raising for market will find the cost for 



fertilizers, tools, boxes and crates so small 

 compared to the profits that they will cut 

 no figure. 



I sold all my berries by the crate 

 (twenty-four quarts) at ten and twelve 

 and a half cents per quart, when I might 

 have gotten fifteen and eighteen cents 

 just as well, had I wished to sell by the 

 box. I could not begin to supply the de- 

 mand in a little town of from three to 

 four hundred people. I would no more 

 than get in sight when friends would 

 come to my carriage to see if I had ber- 

 ries and ask if they were for them or 

 when I would bring their crate! 



Orders came for my berries from 

 Crookston, a city twenty-five miles away, 

 and other towns where they had heard of 

 my strawberries, long after I had mowed 

 the vines. The majority of the straw- 

 berries used in the valley of the Red river 

 come from Hood River, Ore., two 

 thousand or more miles away; and by the 

 time they have jolted over the road in a 

 hot car for three or four days, they stand 

 no show with fresh berries right from the 

 plants at home. 



My success has determined me to 

 plant one-half acre in the spring of 1906, 

 and I shall continue to increase the bed 

 so long as I can get help to pick them. 



Woodside, Minn. 



MAINE strawberry folk do things in 

 a way that makes for success. Ad- 

 vices from Appleton in that state are to 

 the effect that in the season of 1905 Jo- 

 seoh G. Wentworth on three-fourths of 

 an acre raised 5,000 baskets for which he 

 received $500; picking the berries cost 

 him $75. Frank Kenney grew 2,775 

 baskets on half an acre, and sold his pro- 

 duct for $340. Cyrus Perry sold 4,500 

 baskets, receiving $470 for them, all 

 from three-fourths of an acre. These 

 are only a few instances of what was 

 done in that neighborhood; other growers 

 did equally as well. Which only goes 

 to prove the contention of The Straw- 

 berry that there is nothing that offers 

 larger opportunity to the man with small 

 acreage or limited means or both than 

 strawberry production. 



REMEMBER that the birds are your 

 friends. When their generous way 

 of helping themselves to your good things 

 makes you impatient and you go to get 

 your gun, stop and recall the service they 

 perform for the world in checking the de- 

 structive insect pests in fruit-garden and 

 orchard. According to Prof. H. P. At- 

 water, quails are of great advantage to the 

 farmer, as are also some other birds. In 



