490 TwENTY-FlKST BlENNIAL EfEPOKT 



a small way with this association. Living near me was a young 

 man who had been gi'owing several acres of strawberries every 

 j^ear, but they had never been able to ship any of the berries out. 

 They arrived in such poor condition it was not profitable. One 

 man said to me: "If we could ship the berries in carload lots it 

 would pay." I was not especially interested as I had a farm of 

 about forty acres and did not grow strawberries. About that time 

 we had a railroad agent that Avas an enterprising fellow, and he 

 wanted to help the L. & N. Railroad all he could. He sent for me 

 one day and said, "I want you to help me get up an association 

 here for growing strawberries. ' ' I said T didn 't want to grow straw- 

 berries. "I've got more now than I can do, though I will help you get 

 it up." We got seven or eight growers together, and to make a long 

 story short we got together and planted fifty-five acres of straw- 

 berries. In deciding the varieties we needed, every fellow planted 

 the variety he liked best. That was one mistake we made. The 

 first year we began to market we found we had lots of strawberries 

 we could not ship. We then decided there were about three varieties 

 that were profitable — an early, an intermediate, and a late. It 

 looked pretty serious when we began to market them. Towards the 

 latter part of the season, hov/ever, we got in with a better straw- 

 berry and got $1.25 a crate. The next year we had a shorter crop 

 and we had learned a great deal. We profited a good deal on our 

 returns, but we got a better price and netted $2.00 a crate for them. 

 So the next season we began to plant more. They have to be planted 

 a year before you get anything out of them. The next year we did 

 pretty well, and then we began to plant some more, selecting those 

 varieties that were better suited to our climate and soil and that 

 the market demanded. In our case these were the Klondyke, Aroma 

 and Gandy, and we have been growing these three varieties for 

 several years. Recently, however, we have discarded everything 

 but one variety which suits us better than any other, and that is 

 the Aroma. A few growers still grow other varieties, but practically 

 99% of the growers use Aroma. 



The year following we had a good crop and we got $2.10 on an 

 average. This price means f. o. b. cars. This is the price not count- 

 ing the picking, packing or freight. The following year it kept 

 getting better. We averaged $2.15. Everybody was getting rich. 

 The next year we struck a snag. Our strawberries got in about the 

 time everybody's did. So we only got $1.75. I will say this, though. 

 Anything over $2.00 a crate is "velvet," as they say. But after 

 getting $2.15, $1.75 did not sound so good. The next year we struck 

 it very bad. We had 1,200 cars, and for various reasons we had a 

 bad season and bad market and we only netted $1.35 for these straw- 

 berries. Well, the following year we had a very fair crop and 

 netted $2.10 for them, and the year following $2.25, and last year 



