138 The Canadian Horticulturist. 



STRAWBERRY OROWIXC FOR MARKHT. 



g^R. R. M. KELLOGG is a successful strawberry grower, living near 

 (I Ionia, Michigan. He read a paper on the subject before a recent 



meeting of the Michigan Horticultural Society, a few extracts 



from which we give our readers in view of the near approach of 



the season for this fruit. 



The lirst question treated is, Wi// it pay ? Mr. Kellogg's 



reply is : " If you are willing to play second to everybody else and 

 comjilv with all the conditions of failure, you will not get very rich. If you are 

 willing to spend your time cultivating for thirty to fifty bushels per acre of small, 

 second-class berries, with which you will always find the market glutted, I tell 

 you most emphatically, no, it will not pay. If you are one of those energetic, 

 pushing, investigating, painstaking fellows, who comply with the conditions of 

 success, you will do as hundreds of others have done, have a good fat living and 

 even get rich at it.'" 



An important point which he emphasizes is, the development of a good home 

 market. Our city markets are frequently glutted, and if the near markets of our 

 smaller towns were better developed, there would be more room for the business. 

 He says : "The great secret of developing a home market lies in getting every 

 family in town to eat several quarts .of fruit daily instead of one. It is utterly 

 astonishing how much fruit people will use in the course of the season if you 

 manage them rightly. If they get tired of one variety, have another of different 

 color, flavor and appearance for them to try. Don't allow them to think they 

 can go without for a single meal, and you will be surprised to see how quick it 

 will cease to be regarded as a lu.xury but an absolute necessity. Teach them 

 that a fruit diet means clearer heads, cooler blood and better equipoise of brain 

 and muscle, and will save, in many cases, its cost in doctors bills. Bear in mind, 

 it's keeping people everlastingly eating that makes a home market. You have a 

 right to make your fruit look as neat and attractive as you please. The corners 

 of the box should be filled up even and the points of the berries turned up, 

 making them even and as full as they can be crated. Small berries look deci- 

 dedly neat fixed in this way, and the big berries can be put in the bottom to 

 surprise your customers when the beauties roll out of the box. They will appre- 

 ciate the joke. Never ofifer a customer berries in an old, broken, or dirty box. 

 If berries once mold in a box the spores remain in it, and they will ever after- 

 wards mold very (juickly. This is especially true of raspberries. 



Personal appearance goes a great way wiien calling on customers. The fruit 

 should be delivered direct to the family, and it must not be mussec Uy rough 

 handling. I had a fruit wagon built with side springs nearly seven feel long. 

 It rides as easy as a boat. No matter how fast 1 drive my fruit is never 'jumped' 



