THE RUSHIRE FRUIT FARM, IONIA, MICH. 
II 
Berry Boxes and Grape Bas- 
kets. 
For many years we have had all our 
berry boxes from Wells-Higman Company, 
of St Joseph, Mich. It is the largest estab- 
lishment in the northwest; they use the most 
perfect machinery, t mploy skillful help, and 
use the best of timber, and make all kinds 
of fruit packages, especially Climax grape 
baskets. Write them for catalogue. They 
are thoroughly reliable. 
Berry Boxes 
For box-making 
you will need a 
stapling ma- 
chine. We have 
one made by 
the Cobden Ma- 
chine Works, 
Cobden, Ills., 
which works 
like a charm. 
A good opera- 
tor can make 
from four to six 
thousand Hal- 
lock quart boxes 
in a day. If 
you are not 
growing fruit on 
a scale large 
enough to justi- 
fy the outlay 
you should club 
with neighbors 
and have one. 
They are a neat 
thing for sewing all kinds of small boxes 
and are far superior to tacks. 
Stapling Machine. 
really fine fruit secures the asking price and 
no bickering, it is almost a universal prac- 
tice to take only one crop. We believe the 
grower who practices securing one large 
crop of fancy berries and plows under, 
manures and resets again next spring will 
get the most money for his labor. He will 
have a better hold on the market and will 
be very much less liable to get the ground 
infested with grubs. If this white grub does 
not get in and fertility is maintained there 
is no trouble about raising berries on the 
same land year after year, any more than 
corn and potatoes, but like all other crops a 
rotation is much more profitable if it can 
be done. 
A Second Crop costs but very little. 
If you have burned the patch over after 
picking, as explained elsewhere, there will 
be little hoeing to do. All the setting and 
cultivating of the first year as well as cost 
of plants are saved and the second and 
third crops are often profitable, but you 
must set a new piece every year so you will 
have a supply of vigorous plants to reset 
from. The fruit from a two and three year 
old bed is generally three to five days 
earlier than a new bed, will average smaller 
but sells readily on account of its earliness. 
If you practice hill culture, the plants, as 
explained elsewhere, will not be exhausted, 
and three or more good crops can always be 
taken. 
HOW MANY CROPS. 
How many crops can be picked before 
plowing under? Under favorable circum- 
stances three profitable crops may be taken. 
If the first crop produces as much as four 
hundred bushels per acre the plantation will 
be exhausted to such an extent that a second 
crop would not probably pay, but if you get 
caught with spring frosts so that only a light 
crop is secured the first year you may ex- 
pect a very large crop the second year. In 
the vicinity of our largest cities where land 
is high and a fancy trade to cater to, where 
Varieties of Strawberries. 
The great diversity of soils and climatic 
conditions render it exceedingly difficult to 
recommend varieties. Those which do well 
with me may not do well with you. If two 
varieties are set side by side, one fails, the 
other succeeds grandly^, remove them both 
to another field and their success will some- 
times be exactly reversed. It often hap- 
pens that the same variety from another 
part of the country will do better; this has 
often been found true of the old standards, 
Crescent and Wilson. The only way you 
can determine definitely is to experiment 
with different varieties, bearing in mind that 
those sorts which do well over the greatest 
area of country will be the safest to plant 
largely, and that exhausted plants cannot 
be made to succeed anywhere. 
I do not believe there is any soil on which 
large crops of corn and potatoes do nicely 
where some variety of the strawberry will 
not do equally well, and this can be definite- 
ly settled only by testing. 
Set largely of those varieties which 
have been widely tested and found to suc- 
ceed almost everywhere. There are many 
new varieties coming out and some are of 
the greatest value and may be exactly 
suited to your soil and location in which 
case it would be a valuable discovery. Keep 
in mind that one crop of three- hundred 
