THE STRAWBERRY 



A MONTHLY MAGAZINE DEVOTED TO THE INTERESTS 

 OF STRAWBERRY PRODUCTION IN ALL ITS BRANCHES 



Volume I No. 12 



Three Rivers, Mich., December, 1906 



$1.00 a Year 



GLUME ONE of The Strawberry is con- 

 cluded with this issue, and the occasion properly 

 may be taken advantage of to review very 

 briefly the past, and to forecast quite as briefly 

 the work of the coming year. We need not 

 say that the extraordinary success which 

 has met this periodical is matter of gratification, not entirely 

 unmixed with surprise, on the part of its publishers. That it 

 really fills that proverbial "long-felt want" it was given us to 

 know as soon as the first issue was in the hands of the public. 

 From Maine to California, and from the Florida keys to Puget 

 Sound, came instant recog- 

 nition of the youngster as 

 the prophet of a better 

 day in strawberry produc- 

 tion and the guide, coun- 

 selor and friend of every 

 man and woman and boy 

 and girl engaged in the 

 delightful and satisfying 

 work of growing strawber- 

 ries. Some wrote that it 

 was too good to last. "It's 

 fine, splendid, just the 

 thing — but — ah — can— can 

 you keep it upr" they said, 

 just like doubting Thom- 

 ases will. Well, now let 

 us ask in return, Have we 

 kept it up? How does The 

 Strawberry of December, 

 1906, compare with the is- 

 sue of January, 1906? We 

 believe that the doubting 

 Thomas has no longer any 

 good reason for doubting. 

 But there were not many 

 doubting Thomases, and we must say that in all our experience 

 and observation we never have known a publication that en- 

 joyed the hearty good will and the warm words of commenda- 

 tion that it has been our good fortune to enjoy during the year 

 just closing, and if ever there was a moment's doubt in the pub- 

 lishers' minds it must have vanished as quickly as it came in the 

 sunshine and glow of such friendliness and helpfulness as it has 

 been our happy lot to receive at our readers' hands. 



The Strawberry stands not only for more strawberries and 

 better strrawberries; for better methods in growing, packing and 

 marketing them. It stands for good morals and clean literature, 

 for home influences that are uplifting and for business methods 

 that can endure the most rigid scrutiny. In its advertising 

 matter it has endeavored to be as choice as in its reading matter. 



••'^k. 



THIS illustration shows a Dornan plant, measuring 22 inches across 

 plant was set last spring by Fred M 



In the initial issue of The Strawberry we promised that no 

 liquor advertising, no "get-rich-quick" advertising, no patent- 

 medicine advertising, should be allowed in the pages of The 

 Strawberry. With respect to the last-named we have had oc- 

 casion to congratulate ourselves, as well as our readers, upon 

 that plank in our advertising platform. The revelations which 

 have been made within the past few months concerning many 

 of the most popular and widely used "patent-medicines" show 

 them, in many instances, to be composed of poor whisky for the 

 most part; that others are composed of opium in various forms, 

 and that children's remedies are found to contain sufficient 



poisonous matter to ruin 

 the health of innocent lit- 

 tle ones, often proving 

 fatal to them. We need 

 not attempt to characterize 

 the men who engage in 

 this nefarious traffic. If it 

 were merely fraudulent, it 

 were bad enough; but to 

 attempt to demoralize a 

 whole people by palming 

 off on men and women 

 "sure cures" composed of 

 whisky and opium; to feed 

 ittle babes rank poisons in 

 the name of soothing and 

 harmless remedies — m e n 

 who do that are worse than 

 the murderer who slays his 

 fellow in cold blood. We 

 are indeed glad that The 

 Strawberry never has en- 

 couraged these physical 

 and moral destroyers by 

 permitting them to reach 

 the eyes or the pockets of 

 its readers through its advertising columns. It hardly will be 

 necessary to renew our pledge in this respect. 



As a demonstrator of practical methods in every department 

 of strawberry production The Strawberry has been accorded 

 first place by the consensus of opinion of the strawberry world. 

 Old growers have written us that they had learned new and 

 better ways of doing things — ways that had led them to win 

 success in 1906 where failure had been their portion in other 

 years in which the same conditions existed. Beginners have 

 written us that the result of their first year's work had been lit- 

 tle short of the marvelous; and they attributed their extraordi- 

 nary achievements to the fact that they had followed the meth- 

 ods laid down by this publication. The Correspondence School^ 

 department has been in very truth a school of instruction 



This 



Burton of Halifax, N. S., and is a 



fair illustration of the success achieved in that land of the North, when only 



first-class plants are used and first-class cultural methods are rigidly observed 



