CHAPTER III. 



SMALL FRUIT FARMING AND ITS PROFITS. 



A FARM without a fruit garden may justly be regarded as proof of a 

 low state of civilization in the farmer. No country home should be 

 without such simple means of health and happiness. For obvious reasons, 

 however, there is not, and never can be, the same room for fruit raising 

 as there is for grain, grass, and stock farming. Nevertheless, the oppor- 

 tunities to engage with profit in this industry on a large scale are increasing 

 every year. From being a luxury of a few, the small fruits have become 

 an article of daily food to the million. Even the country village must 

 have its supply, and the number of crates that are shipped from New York 

 city to neighboring towns is astonishingly large. As an illustration of the 

 rapidly enlarging demand for these fruits, let us consider the experience of 

 one Western city Cincinnati. Mr. W. H. Corbly, who is there regarded 

 as one of the best informed on these subjects, has gathered the following 

 statistics: "In 1835 it was regarded as a most wonderful thing that loo 

 bushels of strawberries could be disposed of on the Cincinnati market in 

 one day, and was commented on as a great event. A close estimate shows 

 that during the summer of 1879 eighty to eighty-five thousand bushels of 

 strawberries were sold in Cincinnati. Of course, a large part of these berries 

 were shipped away, but it is estimated that nearly one-half were consumed 

 here. About the year 1838, the cultivation of black raspberries was com- 

 menced in this county by James Gallagher and F. A. McCormick of 

 Salem, Anderson township. The first year, Gallagher's largest shipment 

 in one day was six bushels, and McCormick's four. When they were 



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