GROWING SMALL FRUIT FOR PROFIT. 



BY E. F. STEPHENS. 



The topic of "Small Fruit for Profit," assigned me, is one to 

 which I wish I had given a great deal more attention in the last ten 

 or twelve years than I really have. That is, I wish I had devoted a 

 larger portion of my ground to small fruit growing than to tree fruit, 

 because they come into bearing so much quicker, the fruit is always 

 salable at good prices, varieties test themselves as to their adaptability 

 to our ground in a shorter space of time, and the length of time that 

 the plantation must be carried as a dead expense, before getting suit- 

 able returns, is very much shorter than in the growing of tree fruit. 

 While I would not advise a single individual to plant hundreds of 

 acres of small fruit with the idea of marketing his crop in the large 

 cities, as is done by growers in Illinois and the eastern states, because 

 I do not believe that our rainfall is sufficiently regular and equable 

 to make this commercially profitable — the fruit sold in that way is 

 usually sold at less than half the prices which we can obtain here in 

 our local market — yet I think that with the high prices which we 

 can obtain in all of our interior towns, it can be made quite profitable 

 to grow small plantations of the various small fruits which succeed. 



If we cultivate our home markets and the towns nearest us and 

 most accessible, we can obtain much better prices than any of the 

 larger growers who ship to the cities are able to get. Quite a large 

 proportion of these selling prices of their products is lost in express 

 charges, packages, commissions, and glutted markets, all of which we 

 save by selling our products in small towns, and selling^ directly to 

 the particular storekeepers who sell to their customers. In this way 

 we have never sold grapes at a less average than five cents a pound, 

 and two years averaged eight cents. Raspberries always averaged 

 fifteen, strawberries never less than twelve and one-half, blackberries 

 never less than twelve and one-half, and if cherries should be included 

 among the small fruits, this we would regard as a very profitable 

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