THE STRAWBERRY JANUARY 1906 



income, careful to see that his fruit is 

 piclced and packed so as to top the mar- 

 ket; it brings him into business contact 

 with the world, teaching him those les- 

 sons of social and commercial equity that 

 build up character and manhood. 



And the girls — the well-ordered straw- 

 berry patch is just the place for them to 

 develop a love for womanly independ- 

 ence and a way to attain it. Many of 

 our members who have made the most 

 notable successes are refined and cultured 

 women whose strawberry beds are the 

 delight of their eyes and the admiration 

 of their neighbors. 



You can't afford to be without your 

 own strawberry patch, if you have only 

 a back yard in the city to make it in. 

 The Strawberry will tell you what to do 

 and when to do it to make a big success 

 of the home strawberry garden if you 

 will try it. Each issue of the magazine 

 will contain just the practical instruction 

 needed for the month's work following 

 its receipt. Let us hear from you, and 

 let us help you. The Strawberry's mis- 

 sion is just that, and if its teachings shall 

 be the means of stimulating interest in the 

 home garden and of helping you to win 

 success in the strawberry patch, it will 

 have accomplished its purpose and served 

 the world a good turn. 



Success and Failure and Some Fig- 

 ures Showing "Why 



THE good book tells us, "There is 

 that scattereth and yet increaseth, 

 and there is that withholdeth more 

 than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty" 

 (Proverbs 11-24), and nowhere else is 

 this experience and philosophy of life 

 more frequently or clearly exemplified 

 than in the strawberry field. We have 

 in mind two friends of ours whose meth- 

 ods and whose results are so diametrically 

 opposed; one standing for "that which 

 scattereth and yet increaseth," the other 

 so given to that order of withholding that 

 "tendeth to poverty," that we shall use 

 their experiences to illustrate some im- 

 portant lessons in our chosen field. In 

 each case the strawberry beds cover four 

 acres in extent — an area none too large 

 for one intelligent, practical man to care 

 for through the season. 



Friend Simpson (that is not his name, 

 but it will serve the purpose of this ar- 

 ticle) we have known for the past sixteen 

 years, and we never yet have known him 

 to fail to produce a good big crop of 

 strawberries, no matter what the season. 

 Some years were better than others, of 

 course, for all the forces of nature con- 

 spire, some seasons, it appears, to retard 

 and defeat, while in other seasons they 

 combine to aid us in our work; but 

 never a failure, or even a partial failure — 

 always a fair return for time and labor 

 and money that Simpson expended. We 

 have taken one of his more modest sea- 



Some Thoroug'.ibreus in Minnesota 



"Good Enough" 



Is not Good Enough when it 

 Comes to Strawberry Plants 



Only the BEST '*'" P^^ 



Thoroughbred 



Pedigree 



Plants 



That is why 

 you should 

 plant the 

 KELLOGG 

 strain of 



THEY ARE THE BEST 



liei-ause thoy are Kflectod from Mother planks tliat 

 hnvr- won the world's greatest fruitint; record. 



lie<-jiuse they have been scientifically sprayed . which 

 insures you against destructive insects or fungous 

 spores. 



Because they are carefully mulched before freezine, 

 insurini^a well -calloused root and perfectly dor- 

 mant plant. Every one of them will grow if prop- 

 erly set out. 



Iterause they will produce more berries from one 

 acre than two acres will gi*ow from the "'other 

 kind." 



You cannot afford to give up your valuable 

 land and put a lot of liard work on poorly de- 

 veloped plants just because they are cheap. 

 The cheapest plants are those which have a 

 perfectbalancc in fruit and foliage— the kind 

 that produce the big pay ill j< crops. If you want 

 this kind of plants send your order at once to 



R. M. Kellogg Co., 



Three Rivers, Michigan 



The Patch and the Coop Naturally Go Together 



sons for a basis of comparison here, and 

 the following table of receipts and ex- 

 penditures are fairly representative of 

 what we may call his "off" years. 



EXPENDITURES 



Value of land, $100 an acre, 8400; interest at 



6 per cent 8 24 



Manuring the land ___ 60 



Plowing, harrowing and rolling 13 



High-grade plants, 7,000 to acre, 28,000 at $i 



per M _ 112 



Setting plants 20 



One good man's wages for six months, stead- 

 ily in the field, at gl.50 a day... 216 



Mulching 40 



Parting mulch from over plants in spring... 3 



Cost of 1200 crates and boxes 198 



Cost of picking 240 



Cost of foreman over pickers, 50 days at $2 a 



day... ICO 



Cost of packing 1,000 crates at 5 cents each... 50 



Cost of labels 6 



Cost of pickers' tickets 2 



$1,082 



RECEIPTS 



Sale of 250 24-quart crates of fancy select 

 berries per acre, or 1,(XX) from th«» four 

 acres, at $3 per crate, less express and 



commission— 60 cents a crate -net $2,400 



Sale of fifty crates to the acre of seconds, or 

 200 crates at $1.75 less express and com- 

 mission— 33 cents a crate net 280 



Total receipts $2,680 



Total expenditures 1,082 



Net returns from four acres. ..$1 598 



It will be observed that the net re- 

 turns here given are $399.50 an acre. 

 Counting what Simpson used in his own 

 household and those his generous hand 

 disposed to friends and visitors, it is not 

 too much to say a sufficient quantity of 

 berries was produced to bring the net up 

 to $410 an acre, while in his better years 

 we have known him to net as high as 

 $600 to the acre. You also will observe 

 that while every detail of good cultural 

 methods is practiced, there is no extrav- 

 agance. Simpson manures rather heav- 

 ily every year, the result being that his 

 land always is in tip-top shape and fully 

 prepared to grow big red fancy berries to 

 the full capacity of the strong and vigor- 

 ous plants to sustain them. Simpson's 

 methods in other words, while conserva- 

 tive, are really ideal, and we could not do 

 a better service to our readers than to 

 urge them to follow them in their own 

 work. Indeed it may be said that it is 

 the mission of this journal to teach straw- 

 berry growers just how to put into actual 

 practice the cultural methods of this 

 most successful grower. 



And the real test of Mr. Simpson's 

 success, from the commercial point of 

 view, lies in the fact that his uniformly 

 clean and finely flavored berries, as well 

 as the fact that he can be depended upon 

 each season to supply the reasonable 

 demands of his customers, have resulted 

 in building up a trade peculiarly his own. 

 Not only is it out of the question for a 

 rival to take away that trade, but his pa- 

 trons are glad to pay him a generous pre- 

 mium, and the commission men bid 

 above the market every season in order to 

 get his berries to handle. These circum- 

 stances are most suggestive, and we trust 

 will be fully considered by our readers 



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