THE STRAWBERRY JULY 1906 



only the best it is believed that more 

 money would be realized. It must be 

 remembered that very few people will 

 buy low-grade strawberries because of a 

 low price. The fruit is either good or 

 bad, and consumers prefer something else 

 to bad berries. 



The dealers complain that much of 

 the loss caused on their purchases has re- 

 sulted from their buying good stock and 

 having their orders filled with low grades 

 by growers and shippers. A good many 

 dealers who have heretofore bought assert 

 that hereafter they will not handle straw- 

 berries unless they can get them on con- 

 signment. They claim they have been 

 deceived too often to warrant taking fur- 

 ther chances." 



Some Lessons From Experience 



By John Middleton 



IT is about ten years ago since we began 

 growing strawberries. We secured 

 a few hundred plants from a friend, 

 who instructed us to "put them in a tub 

 of water over night." We followed his 

 directions and, of course, lost about half 

 of them. The remainder, which we plant- 

 ed, made only a feeble growth, but we 

 succeeded in selling about $10 worth of 

 berries the following spring. 



The succeeding fall we planted about 

 half an acre of Bubach, fertilized with 

 Sharpless, and the season being dry nearly 

 all the plants died. About $65 was se- 

 cured from the patch. Lip to this time 

 our manner of cultivation was nothing 

 like ideal. We plowed the ground and 

 harrowed it once or twice, marked it and 

 set the plants. Cultivation was given 

 three or four times during the summer, 

 and mulching was unheard 'of. 



Things were soon to take a change, 

 however. I think it was in 1898 or 1899 

 that "Great Crops of Small Fruits" was 

 sent for and studied from cover to cover, 

 then we discovered some of our mistakes. 

 During the winter we sent for plants of 

 different varieties among which was the 

 Crescent which was planted side by side 

 with the Crescent we were then growing. 



The result was simply marvelous. 

 People would ask what variety they were 

 and, when told and shown the two Cres- 

 cents growing side by side, could not be- 

 lieve they were the same variety. It was 

 certainly astonishing the way our new 

 Crescent kept piling up beautiful big, red 

 fellows, while the others were scarcely fit 

 to pick. 



About this time we were experimenting 

 with a number of varieties out of which 

 we selected the Brandywine which had 

 shown up well for two years in our trial 

 beds. We planted about one and one- 

 half acres of this variety and cared for 

 them in an excellent manner with this re- 

 sult: a dry season struck us, after a late 

 spring frost, and the crop proved a total 



failure, while a few plants of Sample 

 growing along side outdid the Brandywine 

 ten to one. 



The following season the Brandywine 

 again fell short of expectations with the 

 Sample leading all other varieties we were 

 then testing. This meant that the Sample 

 must now be our leader, and in a short 

 time we were growing berries that no one 

 could get enough of. 



At the same time the stock of other 

 growers wotdd be going begging while 

 buyers would be literally falling over each 

 other to reach our wagon. As the late 

 R. M. Kellogg said: "It was more fun 

 to sell strawberries than to play ball. 



As to yield I will say that in the season 

 of 1904 we had about four acres in fruit, 

 three of which being on low ground were 

 completely wiped out by high water, 

 leaving us only one acre, from which we 

 picked 465 bushels of as fine berries as I 

 ever saw. 



Last season from that same acre we 

 picked over 300 bushels and we are look- 

 ing for at least 200 bushels from this 

 same acre next season. Just think, nearly 

 1,000 bushels of berries from one acre in 

 three years at an average price of $2.50 

 per bushel (estimated for 1906). 



Now I don't tell this to every one. 

 My reason must be quite evident to the 

 publishers of The Strawberry, without 

 whose help I would still be a back 

 number. 



Our two money making varieties at 

 present are Sample and Glenn Mary, 

 although we also grow New York, 

 Aroma, Pride of Michigan, Klondike, 

 Wm. Belt, Climax, Excelsior, Dornan, 

 etc. 



I have not given our methods of culti- 

 vation as I have taken up too much space 

 as it is. 



Sunnyside Fruit Farm, Port Jervts, N. Y. 



' I "'HE question of free-seed distribution 

 •^ is once more brought to mind by the 

 action of the lower house of congress 

 recently in insisting that the practice be 

 continued. This was done in the face of 

 the fact that the majority report of the 

 committee on agriculture reported ad- 

 versely, and the discussion led to some 

 peculiar admissions. Driven to the wall 

 for an excuse for continuing this "cor- 

 ruption fund," one congressman said: 

 This is the one piece of graft of which 

 we can all get a piece!" Legislation 

 which is brought about under conditions 

 which call for such confessions of motives 

 appears to be beyond comment. But as 

 the matter is still to be acted upon by the 

 senate, we refer to it here in the hope 

 that readers of The Strawberry will write 

 to their congressmen and semtors, urging 

 that free-seed distribution be eliminated 

 entirely from the Congressional appro- 

 priation bill. Free-seed distribution has 

 done more than any one thing to bring 

 into contempt our great department of 



Page 142 



agriculture. Every secretary of that de- 

 partment for years has begged congress 

 to stop it. The people should insist that 

 it be stopped. 



Intensive vs. 



Extensive Strawberry 

 Culture 



By M. N. Edgerton 



ONE of the more common mistakes 

 made by those who make a start 

 in fruit-growing only to make a 

 failure of the undertaking is to engage too 

 extensively at the start. Small fruit grow- 

 ing is not a matter of arithmetical pro- 

 gression! Were it so, then we might say, 

 if one-fourth acre will give us a yield of 

 100 bushels four acres will give us a yield 

 of 1,600 bushels. 



The reports of the wonderful results 

 secured by some, and such reports are 

 usually correct, are very apt to mislead 

 the uninitiated. We read of some one 

 who has sold $500 worth of berries from 

 a single half-acre, and we say to ourselves, 

 why not get rich growing small fruits.' 

 Yes, why not! Very strange isn't it, that 

 we are all, or at least the most of us, 

 after money.' We want to get rich and 

 we want to do it quick! 



Well, we want to say that it is possible 

 to get (comfortably) rich growing small 

 fruits. That is to say, we believe it is, 

 for we have not as yet, in our own case 

 demonstrated the truth of the proposition. 

 However this may be, let us consider for 

 a few minutes the causes that lead to the 

 production of large yields, and the reason 

 why these yields do not increase in a like 

 ratio with the increase in acreage. 



The beginner should not fail to take 

 cognizance of the fact that the growers 

 who have been able to achieve these 

 record-breaking yields are experts in the 

 business and have, for the most part, be- 

 come proficient through the school of 

 experience. To be sure, there are those 

 who reach great results in a short time 

 and without any seeming efFort on their 

 part; but, my word for it, there is a reason 

 for their success and one that is not very 

 difficult of discovery or hard to under- 

 stand. If we should become intimately 

 acquainted with those who have made 

 such a (seemingly) phenomenal success 

 of the business of fruit growing, we would 

 find that they have a peculiar gift — a gift 

 for hard work and the intensive applica- 

 tion of the mind and energies to the work 

 in hand. What wonderful results might 

 we not attain to if we would but apply 

 ourselves to the business of strawberry 

 growing in that degree that characterizes 

 Edison in the application of his energies 

 to the science of invention! 



Here I have been engaged in the grow- 

 ing of strawberries for some fifteen years, 

 and the greatest results I can show is a 

 record of a paltry seventy-one bushels from 

 forty-one square rods of ground. Gross 



