492 TwENTY-FiEST Biennial Repoet 



plants freezing out. It takes about two tons of straw to the acre 

 to mulcli the strawberries, and a man who has to buy his bale of 

 straw at the market price objects to mulching with it, but most of 

 them grow wheat. It has made a demand for straw and raised the 

 value of it. It has gotten to be as high as $2.00 a load. It is quite 

 a saving if, you can raise the wheat on the farm and in that way we 

 have made the wheat crop more profitable in our country. If the 

 plants are clean, they require no further attention until picking 

 time. 



We have about two thousand growers in our association, and a 

 thousand acres in strawberries. Every man who grows berries be- 

 longs to this association. The dues are 50c a year. We incorporated 

 as a stock company, and while our stock has been subscribed, it has 

 never been taken up and paid for. It is not a concern to make 

 money. We have a board of seven directors who are elected once a 

 year. These directors elect the president, vice-president and secre- 

 tary and treasurer, and the manager is the "whole show." I am 

 more impressed, everywhere that I study these questions, with the 

 advantage of having a competent man as manager. We were able 

 to get such a manager and he did not happen to be a farmer'. There 

 is no reason why a farmer should not manage it as well as anybody 

 else, but we found this man who had been a fruit broker and he had 

 had a good deal of experience in dealing with men, which is very 

 important. We selected a gentleman in Bowling Green, and he has 

 been our manager for five years. This man is paid for the services 

 rendered. While he is only employed actually about six weeks, buy- 

 ing the crates, etc., some time is taken up during other parts of the 

 year. We pay him 3%c per crate. If the crop is large, he makes as 

 much as $2,000 a year some years. He gives us value received. We 

 are well paid for what we pay him. 



We buy x»ur baskets co-operatively. In January we get the 

 growers together, get the number of boxes we want, and call upon 

 the different firms in our territory and get bids, and the best bidder 

 gets the . order. We thought we could get these crates made in 

 Bowling Green, but we could not. For the last three years we have 

 been buying at Paducah; also at New Albany and in western 

 Tennessee. The same way with the plants. We begin in the fall of 

 the year and make contracts for the plants. We get the very lowest 

 wholesale prices. We also buy fertilizers co-operatively, and save 

 from $2.00 to $15.00 a ton. We have a little pamphlet which is 

 circulated among the growers, laying down the rules and by-laws. 

 Every man has to deliver all his strawberries to the manager, who 

 has entire charge of them. When these berries are ripe, which is 

 usually about the middle of May — ^the season lasting about four 

 weeks — we have rules about the picking. Every man should grade 

 his berries alike. We have three grades; what we call X, XX aod 



