THE STRAWBERRY JULY 1907 



growth of cities and no growth of work 

 can make up for loss in number and char- 

 acter of farming population. . . . The 

 bulk of people should work with both 

 head and hand. . . . Progress cannot 

 permanently consist in abandonment of 

 physical labor but in the development of 

 physical labor, so that it shall represent 

 the work of the trained mind in the trained 

 body. . . . We must have a higher 

 plane of efSciency and reward with conse- 

 quent increased growth of dignity for the 

 wage worker. . . . We must develop 

 a system under which each citizen shall 

 be trained as an economic unit. 

 The greatest of crops is the crop of chil- 

 ten. 



The address of President Roosevelt was 

 the climax to a week of conventions and 

 celebrations at Lansing ranging all the 

 way in importance from class dinners to 

 the twenty-first annual convention of the 

 Association of American Agricultural Col- 

 leges and Experiment Stations. These 

 various celebrations began May 27th, clos- 

 ing on the 31st with the address of Presi- 

 dent Roosevelt. The work being done 

 by the association above named is among 

 the most important now going forward in 

 the interest of scientific agriculture. That 

 the world outside our own country recog- 

 nizes the value of the work this associa- 

 tion is doing is indicated by the fact that 

 special representatives were in attendance 

 upon its sessions from England, Germany 

 and Italy, while many of our Canadian 

 neighbors were present to express their 

 sense of its importance. Five foreign 

 universities and one foreign agricultural 

 college sent special representatives, while 

 from American educational institutions 

 came representatives from thirty-eight col- 

 leges, twenty-iwo universities, twenty-two 

 experiment stations, twenty-four scientific 

 societies, and eleven agricultural journals. 



^ <^ 

 How One Boy Began 



By Edgar L. Vincent 



IT was rather hard work for the boy 

 to convince Father that there was any 

 room on the farm to spare for straw- 

 berries. 



"Got to have the land for things that 

 pay. The garden? We need every cor- 

 ner for potatoes and such things. None 

 too much now. They wouldn't amount 

 to anything, anyhow None of the folks 

 here raise strawberries. You can get 'em 

 out in the field — all you want of 'em. 

 Less work than to raise 'em, too." 



But the boy stuck to it that if Father 

 would only let him try a few he would 

 do all the work himself and he believed 

 it, would pay. Finally the father told the 

 lad, just to get rid of him, that he might 

 dig up a bed ten feet square out jack of 

 the meadow in the pasture. He It't sure 

 the boy would soon get sick of his ba-.^ain 

 to keep the weeds down. 



The boy had a dollar in his bank ai.^^ 



he went and got some wire netting and 

 put up a little fence around his lot. Then 

 he borrowed a few plants of a man who 

 was thinning his out, promising to pay 

 "when he made". He studied the papers 

 to find out all he could about berries and 

 kept them free from weeds and clipped 

 ofF the runners. This latter was the hard- 

 est of all to do. It does come a little 

 tough to snip ofF every blossom and cut 

 the runners, when all the time you are so 

 anxious to see what the berries — the pretty 

 berries that you have raised with your 

 own hands — will look like. But he did 

 it, and possessed his soul in patience till 

 the second year. 



It paid to wait. Father never went 

 near the little field. One day Mother 

 did and she and the boy had a nice visit 

 there all by themselves, thinking and talk- 

 ing about the surprise they would give 

 Father some day. 



It was a surprise, and no mistake. How 

 his eyes did stick out when he saw the 

 first little handful of ripe red berries from 

 his little man's field! They tasted as good 

 as they looked, too. 



And then one day the boy picked a 

 couple of quarts and took them down to 

 the village and sold them for twenty-five 

 cents. No king ever stepped higher than 

 he did then. That quarter was the big- 

 gest piece of money ever made. As he 

 turned it over and felt of it in his pocket 

 it was certainly as big as a cartwheel. 



Well, that was the beginning. After 

 that Father could not refuse a little bigger 

 piece of ground for the berries. And he 

 helped the boy some into the bargain. 

 The last I knew they were every year 

 selling a good many bushels and having 

 hard work to furnish all the people wanted. 

 They had plenty of them on the table, too, 

 and now and then they took a basket to 

 some of the neighbors or to an old and 

 sick lady not far away. 



And the neighbors began to set out 

 some for themselves. That is the way 

 it usually works; one man does something 

 and if it is a success, others want to have a 

 little of the success themselves. When 

 things are going our way the berry patch 

 moves down from the back lot close to the 

 side of the road, where folks can see what 

 we have been doing. It was that way with 

 our boy's berry patch. It was the biggest 

 thing on the farm. 



Binghamton, N. Y. 



PRICES for strawberries have been 

 higher this year than last, and growers 

 in the South and Southwest have done 

 well in the main. This is partly due to 

 the influence of organization. At Neosho, 

 Mo., where there are two associations 

 of growers, the season's sales aggregated 

 about eighty cars. From a local paper 

 we learn that "last year the growers netted 

 $1.80 per crate for their berries delivered 

 on the cars at this place, and this year it 

 is thought they will realize not less than 



Page 154 



$2.25. This will bring them about 

 $108,000, or $21,000 more than last year, 

 for the same quantity of berries. It has 

 been estimated that the actual cost of 

 growing, picking and loading berries on 

 the car is 90 cents a crate. So it will be 

 seen that at $2.25 the grower is making a 

 very handsome profit on his crop. From 

 a financial standpoint 1907 is certainly 

 the banner year for strawberries in the 

 Neosho field so far." Reports from the 

 Southwest indicate that the acreage set to 

 strawberries will be largely increased as a 

 result of the improved market and stead- 

 ily increasing demand for the fruit. 



Bees as Pollen Carriers 



RECENTLY the instructor in The 

 Strawberry School bad something 

 to say about the importance of pol- 

 lenation in successful strawberry produc- 

 tion, which brought out the following 

 letter from A. L. Boyden of Gleanings in 

 Bee Culture, himself an expert in matters 

 pertaining to the bee: 



Dear Mr. Beatty : I am considerably interest- 

 ed in your article on "Intensive Strawberry Cul- 

 ture" in the March number of The Strawberry 

 and the illustrations of the male and female 

 blossoms. Years ago I used to grow the Jessie 

 and have never forgotten the pleasure the grow- 

 ing of those berries gave me. 



I write to inquire whether or not you have 

 some experience or any information relati^'e to 

 the value of bees in fertilizing the imperfect 

 blossoms? I believe you did not mention the 

 agency of the bees in your article and I would 

 like tc have your opinion a= to what part they 

 play in the proper fertilizatic of these blossoms. 

 Yours ver5 truly, 



A. L. Boyden. 



To which Mr. Beatty made the fol- 

 lowing reply: 



"In regard to the value of the honey- 

 bee in distributing pollen, the work of 

 these industrious little fellows '~an hardly 

 be overestimated. When growing berries 

 at Covington, Indiana, I purch.''sed ten 

 hives of bees chiefly for the purpose of 

 distributing pollen, and they performed 

 their duties to my entire satisfaction. I 

 realize that in some seasons much depends 

 upon the honey-bee and other winged 

 insects to carry the pollen from one variety 

 to another. Recently while giving a talk 

 on strawberry growing to the class in r.or- 

 ticulture at Lansing, Michigan, the value 

 of the honey-bee was discussed. Profes- 

 sor Fletcher said that some experiments 

 with the honey-bee had been made and 

 that a large amount of pollen dust was 

 found upon the bees. 



"In watching honey-bees while at work, 

 I find that they never are still when tak- 

 ing nectar from the blooin, and in moving 

 about from the center cone of the flower 

 many of the matured anthers will burst, 

 and the pollen dust will settle upon the 

 bees, which of course is in turn carried to 

 the next flower they visit. By this meth- 

 od many flowers are pollenized which 



