THE STRAWBERRY FEBRUARY 1907 



ton market, and prevailed upon them to 

 try the experiment. The first year, which 

 was two years ago, they made a success 

 of it. This year they found it even a 

 better proposition. The probabilities are 

 that this business in strawberries will grow 

 until the local market is fully supplied." 

 There are opportunities without number 

 to the man who will. 



•^ ^ 



Cheer From a Professional 



By J. C. Nicholls 



HEREWITH find ,$1 to pay for 

 The Strawberry another year 

 Keep it coming; it's O. K. I 

 don't see any reason for its "running out" 

 as some readers feared. The average 

 strawberry man is the most enthusiastic 

 individual on top of the earth: and when 

 he has an opportunity to talk "strawberry" 

 he can scarcely find a place to quit off. 

 I take it for granted the management of 

 our litrle journal is no exception to the 

 rule, and that there is no danger of your 

 "running down." There is always some- 

 thing new in our business, and most of 

 the old ideas will bear repeating, if for no 

 other reason than for comparison. 



About seven years ago I ordered plants 

 enough to set about an acre of ground, 

 and I have been in the business ever 

 since. I know of no reason why I should 

 not be in it the remainder of my life. I 

 can conceive of nothing better for a man 

 in his declining years. I am a good ways 

 from that point yet, but I have had 

 enough experience lo convince me that the 

 strawberry grower should never change 

 his vocation. It is not always plain sail- 

 ing, but what other business is devoid of 

 trouble.' Let the strawberry grower's 

 motto be "better berries and more of 

 them." Blight and other fungous dis- 

 eases, grubs, drought, floods and late 

 frosts — all are mere incidents by the way, 

 and shoula cause but temporary discour- 

 agement at the most. 



The past season was the worst one for 

 grubs that I ever experienced. They 

 gave us trouble in both the new and the 

 old beds. While we will have about 

 eight acres to pick over the coming season 

 there is practically not more than six 

 acres of vines. 



If some of our methods will be of in- 

 terest to your readers I shall be glad to 

 detail them. I have learned that advice 

 that is good for soils in some other parts 

 of the country does not always do for the 

 black loam of the corn belt. When I 

 read of the difficulty that some of the 

 fruit men and farmers have in getting a 

 sufficient quantity of stable manuie, I 

 wish they had the opportunity that exists 

 here and in many central Illinois local- 

 ities. Residents in our village usually 

 are obliged to hire some one to haul the 

 manure away from their stables, and 

 sometimes the parties hauling it have 



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difficulty in finding a place to put it. 

 Farm land about here would be benefited 

 by having the manure applied to it, no 

 doubt, but when the agriculturalist can 

 raise from seventy-five to one hundred 

 bushels of corn per acre on a clover sod, 

 he isn't going to put in much time haul- 

 ing manure in the winter time. 



Mason County, 111. 



Certainly our readers will be glad to 

 know more about the methods of a man 

 who grows eight acres of strawberries in 

 the corn-belt of Illinois, and we hope Mr. 

 Nicholls will give them the benefit of his 

 experience. 



We can't help trying to imagine what 

 those corn-belt farmers would get in the 



Page 28 



way of corn yields if they did use their 

 barnyard manure in conjunction with 

 their crop-rotation plan. Certain it is 

 that if they can raise from seventy-five to 

 one hundred bushels of corn to the acre 

 without it, they could raise from one hun- 

 dred to one hundred and forty or fifty 

 bushels as a result of the proper use of 

 this manure. No man is ever so rich 

 that he can afford to throw away his 

 wealth. No more is land so fertile that 

 it can be cropped continuously without 

 replenishment. And the soil robber is 

 the worst of all robbers; for "he wno 

 steals my purse steals trash," but he who 

 robs the land destroys the heritage of 

 posterity and leaves the world poor in- 

 deed. — Edito' Strawberry. 



