THE STRAWBERRY OCTOBER 1907 



PICKERS AT WORK IN THE STRAWBERRY FIELD OF J. H. WELLS, LAKE VILLAGE, IND. 



large, as they did last year, there will be 

 big shipments. But the fruit now looks 

 as though it would be of fine size, and if 

 it should mature normally the iriarkets 

 will be fine. All over the country there 

 seems to be a universal desire on the part 

 of the growers to get the groves into the 

 highest state of cultivation. Never before 

 have I seen the orange groves so well 

 cared for. Clean culture is found every- 

 where, and this means better fruit as well 

 as more of it." 



Strawberry Success on Reclaimed 

 Swamp Land 



By Frank E. Beatty 



THE scene at the top of this page is 

 a photo-reproduction of the berry 

 pickers at work in the strawberry 

 field which forms a part of the fruit farm 

 of J. H. Wells at Lake Village, Ind., and 

 the large cover-page picture of this issue 

 shows his pickers at lunch time. It was 

 my pleasure to visit this fine fruit farm in 

 mid-September, and though it was too 

 late to get any strawberries, I was just in 

 time to get some of the finest and sweetest 

 watermelons I ever ate. 



This farm is located about fifty miles 

 south of Chicago in what were once 

 known as the Kankakee swamps, but 

 which, by a complete drainage system, 

 have become of incalculable agricultural 

 value and the center of very large horti- 

 cultural, general farmin-g and live-stock 

 industries. In connection with his berry 

 growing Mr. Wells also conducts an ex- 

 tensive truck farm. The day I was there 

 he, with a large force of men, was engaged 

 in gathering cucumbers for a local pickle 

 factory. About eighty bushels of cucum- 

 bers per day were then being gathered on 

 his place and made into pickles. 



The field of water melons on this farm 

 was indeed a great sight. The melons 



ranged from thirty to sixty pounds in 

 weight and laid so close together that one 

 actually could go over the entire field 

 walking on melons every step of the way. 



Mr. Wells' strawberries have become 

 famous, and he finds ready sale for his 

 entire output at ,$2 net for sixteen-quart 

 crates These are all sold in small towns 

 lying within near-by distances from the 

 farm. So successful has he been in the 

 raising of strawberries that he intends to 

 set a much larger acreage in the spring of 

 1908. 



We found Mr. Wells a genial and 

 courteous gentleman. Every visitor to 

 his farm goes away with the idea that he 

 is not only a most successful farmer and 

 fruitman, but an enterprising citizen as 

 well. He believes in feeding his visitors 

 well on the products of his fields, and this 

 generous ireatment is of itself an adver- 

 tisement of the highest value. The water 

 melon he cut for me was big enough, [ 

 thought, for a dozen, but there was little 

 of it left when I quit. 



1 was greatly impressed with the sec- 

 tion and its possibilities in a horticultural 

 way; and it certainly is a fine example of 

 reclaimed land and suggestive of what 

 may be accomplished by proper drainage. 



One Beginner's First Crop 



By Henry Clute 



THINKING that my first venture 

 in strawbeiry raising might interest 

 some of the readers of The Straw- 

 berry, I am sending you herewith a record 

 of my first crop. I am led to do this be- 

 cause I know how helpful and interesting 

 to me have been articles of this nature 

 from other growers. I find a number of 

 things in every issue of the magazine that 

 are of greater value to me than the entire 

 year's subscription. When I first thought 

 of trying the strawberry business, I was 



Page 203 



wishing that there was just such a publi- 

 cation, and when a friend told me of The 

 Strawberry 1 was not long in finding out 

 for myself just what a fine periodical it is, 

 and it has proved a great help to me and 

 a ready source of information for almost 

 anything I want to know about strawberry 

 production. 



I think the Correspondence School a 

 grand thing for all stra\\'berry folks. If I 

 am a little in doubt about any point, all I 

 have to do usually, is to refer to some 

 back number of The Strawberry, for I 

 keep them all, and am very choice of 

 them, too. 



Well, to tell my story: In the spring 

 of 1906 I made up my mind to set an 

 acre to strawberry plants and give them a 

 trial, and so fitted up the land and set it 

 out to Brandywine and Sample, and al- 

 though I had rather bad luck to start with, 

 I think that on the whole it has proved' 

 quite a satisfactory venture, as you will 

 see by the following statement of what I 

 raised and marketed from the acre this year: 



This statement includes only what was 

 grown and sold. What was eaten and 

 given away, and that was no small quan- 

 tity, for everybody that came to the yard 

 was welcome to all they wanted to eat 



