THE STRAWBERRY JANUARY 1907 



some of the real old-fashioned strawberry 

 jam such as mother used to make," said 

 Mrs. Fielding. "I suppose Ning Poo 

 might have raised strawberries if only we 

 had ever thought about getting the plants 

 for him, but he has a good deal to do as 

 it is, and I'm glad the children feel like 

 putting in their spare time with straw- 

 berries." 



And put in their spare time they did. 

 In that climate the summers are dry, but 

 their strawberries did not suffer for water. 

 They sunk a large tank near the bed 

 and piped water from the windmill into it 

 and then by an ingenious device of their 

 own, consisting of a long, movable trough 

 with small holes bored at intervals, they 

 managed to keep the plants watered and 

 in fine condition. 



The next summer in strawberry time 

 Mr. Fielding came home to see a beauti- 

 ful sight in the old unused barnyard. 

 The long, straight rows of dark green 

 plants were simply loaded with great, 

 luscious, dark-red berries. There were 

 strawberries on the table every meal, and 

 Mrs. Fielding made up an enormous 

 quantity of jam. She kept strict account of 

 every quart that was picked and Mr. 

 Fielding was somewhat surprised when 

 the last quart was used and his wife asked 

 him for $40 to pay the children for their 

 berries. 



"Forty dollars!" he cried incredulously. 

 'And you expect me to hand over $40 

 for these children to fritter away.?" 



I expect that you are a man of your 

 word, Henry. You promised to pay 

 them for their berries or they would have 

 sold them elsewhere," replied Mrs. Field- 

 ing, quietly. 



Her husband handed her the money 

 without another word, but when Gretchen 

 and Dick were handed $20 apiece by 

 their mother he could not refrain from 

 saying: 'That's a big bunch of money 

 for you youngsters to squander. What 

 are you going to do with it.?" 



We ain't going to spend one cent ot 

 it. We're going to save it for a rainy 

 day," answered Gretchen promptly, much 

 to the surprise of both her parents. 



'Good!" said Mr. Fielding heartily. 

 "You just go over to Puyallup and put it 

 in the savings bank, and if you keep on 

 doing as well as you have with your 

 strawberries you will have a good bunch 

 when you come of age." 



The children kept their own counsel, 

 but that fall they asked Ning Poo for a 

 little piece of his potato patch to put into 

 berries. 



"Belly well," said the smiling Ning 

 Poo. "How muchee you wantee.? I 

 givee you flitty feet. You thinkee that 

 plenty.?" 



"Oh, yes, Ning; that will be plenty for 

 this year, and maybe you will give us 

 flitty' feet more next year." 



'Mebby so," answered the smiling 

 Ning Poo, and so the children set out a 

 new strawberry bed that fall. They did 



not neglect the old one, but hoed and 

 cultivated and weeded and kept it in fine 

 condition, and many were the secret con- 

 ferences they held together down behind 

 the old barn with no one but the straw- 

 berry plants for an audience. 



The next year their father would pur- 

 chase only a limited supply of the berries, 

 but nothing daunted, the children prepared 

 to market their crop. While attending 

 the winter term of school they made a 

 canvass of the little town of Skokomish 

 and contracted with many of the house- 

 wives to furnish them with berries the 

 coming summer. They also visited the 

 two leading hotels and contracted to sup- 

 ply them with all the berries they could 

 use. 



Then when school was out for the 

 summer vacation, Gretchen visited Mr. 

 Hill once more. She came home with a 

 supply of berry boxes which she and Dick 

 proceeded to set up and store away in the 

 loft over the barn. She had agreed with 

 Mr. Hill to have him market all her sur- 

 plus fruit on a very small commission, 

 and she and Dick were to drive to Puy- 

 allup with it in the cool of the early 

 mornings. And so they came to the 

 strawberry season with all arrangements 

 made for disposing of their crop. 



This year Mr. Fielding asked no ques- 

 tions beyond making sure that the chil- 

 dren were depositing their earnings in the 

 bank. The idea of his children thus 

 early in life beginning to follow his exam- 

 ple of laying up money for a rainy day 



pleased him immensely, and he facetiously 

 dubbed their field of operations "The 

 Rainy-Day Strawberry Patch," while 

 their mother looked a little sober over her 

 children's apparent penuriousness. 



The third year was a bumper season 

 for all fruit in the state of Washington. 

 The children had to hire some young 

 people from a neighboring ranch to help 

 pick their crop, but they were too saving 



BERRY BOXES 



and all kinds of Fruit Packages 



OUR SPECIALTIES: 



Quart and Pint B^rry Boxes, 16 and 24- 

 quart Crates, Picking Stands. Bushel 

 Crates for Vegetables, All Kinds of (irape 

 and Peaf'h Baskets, Bushel Baskets witli 

 or without covers, Half-bushel Pickinc 

 Baskets with strong handles, and many 

 other convenient packages for fruit and 

 vegetable growers: the most durable made 



Write for our Free Cat^alo^ue. It describes 

 and illustrates everything we mako 



GEO. B. THAYER & CO., Benton Harbor, Mich. 



Let Me Quote You a PHoe 



on the AMERICAN 



Manure Spreader 



We manuf Bctare and Bell the oelebrftted Amer* 



lean Manure Spreader to the consumer direct 

 from our factory — saving all lh« middle profits 

 m:iile by jobbers and dealers. These profits lire 

 left out of consideration in the prices tliat I wnnt 

 to mfike you direct from our factory on an Ameri- 

 can Manure Spreader. 



This means that you can buy from our factory at 

 factory iTicee— be a Wholesale Buyer. 



And that isn't aUI We don't ask you to pay cash. 

 Id adranoe. 



We sell the American 

 Manure Spreader 

 on Time- 



Spreader really pay for Itself as it eorna fnr you. 



We are the only concern in the United States 

 manafacturing and selling Manure Spreaders 

 direct to the user on time and on trial at low fac- 

 tory prices. 



The American Manure Spreader has 40 per 

 cent more exclusive features than any other 

 Spreader. It is hiL-h-clase in every respect— 

 made to last a lifetime. 



There Is no question about the American 

 Manure Spreader being the standard 

 Spreader of the world. 



liberal time payments — 

 givingour customers easy 

 terms to pay for their 

 Spreaders— 1 ett ing the 



30 Days' FREE Trial 



To prove all of onr claims for the celebrated 

 American Manure Spreader, we allow 30 days' trial 

 on every Spreader we sell. 



This permits the customer to use the Spreader 

 on his own farm for a full month to be eatJBfled 

 that it is just as represented. If not na represented 

 it can be returned tn us. We pay all freight both 

 wava— trial being FKEE. 



The low price 1 WLiut to quote you on an Ameri- 

 can Manure Spreader wUl be for the Spreader de- 

 livered at your station. 



We Pay All Freight 



This price will be for the Spreader on time— thii 

 price will bo for the Spreader on trial— and this 

 price will be a price that is lower than dealers are 

 charging for Spreaders that are not nearly so good 

 as the American. When you examine all the ex- 

 clusive features of the American you will agree 

 with me. 

 Write for my price— and write for my catalogue 

 and booklet. Tliey will tell you 

 all about the American Manure 

 Spreader nnd give you a 

 lot of fiood information 

 on the question of ferti- 

 lizing — a question that 

 every farmer is i nterested 

 in and wants to know all 

 about. 



Just write me today oa 

 a postal curd, 



I will see that you ^et 

 our book and my especial 

 price at once. 



W. W. COLLIER. Gen. Manager 

 AMERICAN HARROW CO. 

 4541 Hastings SI. DETROIT, MICH. 



Page 10 



