SECRETS IN MAKING SMALL FRUITS PROFITABLE. 



IF SECRETS THEY MAY BE CALLED. 



First— Don't go into the business thinking you can play up " gentleman," (we mean 

 of the lazy sort), paying but little attention to or having but little love for the business. 

 You must have a taste for it — yes, love it — so that you will be found working yourselves. 

 Show your help that you know what work is, and how much a man can or Ought to doj 

 by the example you set him. Don't get your ideas up too high and build too many 

 castles. "Cut the garment according to the cloth. " Just as soon as you sit down and 

 figure up what an acre would come to at the high price and the largest yields you have 

 seen given, you are getting above your business. Not long since a young man entered 

 our office who was going into the fruit-growing business, and he wanted every sort we 

 had. Our inquiry was, " Why do you set such a large assortment ?" " Oh, I shall 

 make just as much reliance on selling the plants as the fruit, and shall want a full 

 assortment to supply the demand." "But how do you know that you can sell plants 

 so easily ?" "Why I can't see why I don't stand as good a chance as you, for I see yov 

 are sending off plants by the wagon load." " Hold a moment, friend, and let us prick 

 that bubble. Some fourteen or fifteen years ago we commenced selling plants. We 

 advertised and paid out large sums of money, but for the first two or three years got 

 but few orders. The people were shy of us ; we were strangers, and how did they 

 know but what we were at an old trick that was, and is to-day, quite common, to sell 

 any kind called for, and if we did not have it, put up something else. For years, we 

 say, we worked and advertised, until finally our. large shipments of fruit and their 

 unmixed character commenced to tell in our favor.' People /visited our grounds, 

 scrutinized and inspected our plants closely and reported the result, and these reports 

 gave our plants a character and reputation, and then, by advertising, we soon worked 

 into a business that paid us back for our long years of hard labor and expensive adver- 

 tising. No, we would advise you to set your grounds out mainly to five or six varieties 

 of strawberries — standard sorts — that are raised in all parts of the country, and an 

 equal proportion of other reliable fruits. Soon your shipments will commence, your 

 business will first attract attention near home. Your neighbors will see the success 

 you are having and they will buy plants of you. Gradually your reputation will widen 

 and extend, until by patience and perseverance, and a determination to establish a 

 character for honesty and uprightness, by selling no plant for another sort and keeping 

 your plantations pure and unmixed, you will soon work into the plant trade, and then 

 it will be time for you to keep an assortment that will supply all demands." 



Such was our advice to him, and such it is to all who have an idea that they will go 

 right into a flourishing business in selling plants. We admit that part of our success 

 for the past few years has been in selling plants, as well as fruit ; and we say to all, 

 now, first be sure and set pure and unmixed plants, and when you trim your grapes, 

 currants and gooseberries, save the cuttings and set them out, and as your neighbors 

 and others see your fruits they will want some of them, and learning that you have 

 plants for sale, will buy of you, and gradually, as you learn the secret of selling, ad- 

 vertising judiciously, &c, &c, your business will increase. Another point, 'when you 

 find a fruit is of no value — no matter what it has cost you — discard it, and don't attempt 

 to sell it, for such a course will surely work against you in the end. 



The second point is — Don't plant too much at first, but what ground you do 

 plant, make it count. If your means are small and you have but little land, sow 

 among blackberries, raspberries, &c, plant out early potatoes, tomatoes, cabbages, &c. 



Third — Don't experiment too largely with new high-priced sorts ; but leave that 

 for those who have the money to lose. 



Fourth — Plant pure unmixed sorts. No person, who has not had the experience, 

 can imagine the loss that will accrue from planting mixed varieties ; hence, it is of 

 great importance if such have to buy their plants, to get them of parties who not only 

 have a reputation at stake, but who have had such experience with small fruits that 

 they can tell one sort from another at a glance. We know of a prominent nursery- 

 man, who is known to be a reliable man and who stands very high in the horticultural 

 world, that has sold a large quantity of "Wilson's Albany" in with his other stock. 

 These plants were obtained from two or three parties whom he believed to be and are 



