A Honey-moon Strawberry Enterprise 



By Cora June Sheppard 



With llluslralions f rom Pholographs by the Author 



A SHILOH, NEW JERSEY, STRAWBERRY BED 



THE first money I ever earned was 

 by picking strawberries at two 

 cents a quart. That was when I 

 was a very little girl. Father had a patch 

 and hired pickers. My two older broth- 

 ers picked for pay and I wanted to do the 

 same. 



It was a cross to me in those days not 

 to be allowed to just pull the berries off, 

 instead of cutting the stems with the fin- 

 ger nails. I thought the pulling process 

 was the fastest and I wanted to make all 

 the money I could — a habit that has 

 stuck to me. Wasn't I happy when 

 there were several bo.xes full to carry up! 

 The record was kept on a shingle. Oft- 

 times my mother took the berries to mar- 

 ket The crates were loaded in the cov- 

 ered market wagon and a gentle horse 

 put in the shafts — she drove to the near- 

 est town, and from there they were sent 

 to the city by boat. 



Now that the dear mother has passed 

 away and I find myself in a home of my 

 own with all its problems to face, I 

 sometimes wish I could go back to those 

 happy, care-free days. 



At the old home on the farm we did 

 not tire of strawberries if we had them 

 three times a day, and mother would can 

 sixty or seventy quart-cans each season. 

 How eageily we watched for the first 

 berries each spring! iMy eagerness would 

 hardly allow me to wait until the berry 

 was red all over. 



I was married in June 1904, and one 

 of the first things thought of for future 

 pleasure and profit was a little strawberry 



patch. So in a small space between our 

 barn and the neighbor's 135 plants were 

 set out. While the work was being done 

 by the husband after his regular occupa- 

 tion was finished, I sat in a lawn swing 

 nearby and we laughed and talked. This 

 patch we call our honey-moon patch. 

 The next season it repaid many fold the 

 time and trouble of putting it out. Our 

 table was supplied all the season and 

 there were berries to spare. We did not 



let them waste, however, but gave them 

 away. A number of quarts were canned. 



Before we realized how nicely the 

 honey-moon patch was going to yield a 

 second patch of four rows was put out. 

 All our gardening is done after the regular 

 work hours. Getting one's hands and 

 feet in close contact with mother earth is 

 the best society we need; the contact is 

 healthful and life-giving. 



When Patch No. 2 was made I 

 dropped the plants — but not as a bare- 

 foot girl, as was my first experience on 

 the farm of my childhood. The dark 

 caught us and the last row was completed 

 entirely by feeling and not seeing. Not 

 a plant died. All grew and grew and 

 the people, as they passed, marveled at 

 their beauty. 



After the ground was frozen a covering 

 of manure was placed on them. They 

 are not now a thing of beauty, but we 

 are enjoying in anticipation the delicious 

 berries that will come forth with the ad- 

 vent of the warm l\Iay sunshine. 



To the Jersey man a strawberry patch 

 is like a good gold mine — it is very profit- 

 able. Why there are so many poor 

 people I cannot understand, when there 

 is so much land and money to be made 

 therefrom, if one will give a little time 

 and labor to the cultivation of the 

 strawberry. 



Shiloh, N.J. 



^ ^ 



THE vast possibilities of plant breed- 

 ing can hardly be estimated, says 

 Luther Burbank. It would not be diffi- 

 cult for one man to breed a new rj'e, 



PICKERS AND PACKERS IN THE FIELDS OF WALTER L. MINCH, SHILOH, NEW JERSEY 



P««e 85 



