K& 
Vol. LIV. No. 2375. 
NEW YORK, AUGUST 3, 1895. 
$1.00 PEE YEAR. 
THE HOME OF A PENNSYLVANIA FARMER. 
WHERE RED COATS AND PATRIOTS ONCE FOUGHT, 
Now Blooms a Famous Strawberry. 
At Fig. 162 is shown the home of a Chester County, 
Pennsylvania, farmer and fruit grower—Mr. Edward 
T. Ingram, in the valley of the beautiful Brandywine. 
It is near the famous battlefield of Revolutionary 
fame. Here originated the now widely-known Brandy¬ 
wine strawberry, and here are gcown an assortment 
of fruits, both large and small, from big apples and 
pears, down to currants, grapes and raspberries. 
The Brandywine soil is famous for its natural fer¬ 
tility, and its great, rolling hills are cultivated to their 
summits. This farm is located within marketable 
reach of several towns and villages. The county seat 
The illustration, as a whole, has a wide range of in¬ 
teresting features. The Brandywine valley is, to some 
extent, shown on the right. The stream has cut a 
deep and picturesque channel amid round-backed hills. 
In front of the house, a beautiful meadow is watered 
by a copious stream which descends from the west, 
inviting the use of the water for irrigating purposes. 
To the right of the dwelling, may be seen the 
poultryhouse, its roof made conspicuous by the posi¬ 
tion of the sun at the time of the photographer's visit. 
In front of the poultryhouse, is a brooder house, which 
occupies the exact site of an Indian village, as shown 
by numerous polished stone implements picked up in 
the soil at that spot. Just back of the dwelling, a 
cache or secret hiding place in the sloping ground, 
furnished some 93 argillite implements of Indian 
Mr. Ingram’s experience warrants'the recommenda¬ 
tion of Rio, Marshall and Brandywine strawberries, 
in the order of their ripening, for near-by markets. 
Rio and Marshall have, with him, shown high quality, 
which is to be considered in connection with crowded 
markets ; but neither of these two berries produced 
sufficient in quantity to be entirely satisfactory. As 
to the Brandywine, in the open market, it was the 
past season largely picked up at nine cents by 
the crate, while the Bubach begged for customers at 
634 cents per quart. 
This year's experience on a steep hillside, seems to 
corroborate Mr. Bale’s idea about frost drainage; for 
while the blossoms of the Brandywine were not killed 
by frost on any part of the patch, the plants on the 
higher levels produced the best fruit. The shape of 
. 
THE HOME OF A I 
of Chester, with 10,000 inhabitants, is but three miles 
away. But, like all other successful fruit farms, it is 
sought by many retail buyers, who visit the place with 
their own teams, and carry away large amounts of 
fruit for private consumption. 
A nearer view of the buildings was not deemed de¬ 
sirable, as the object was to show the lay of the land. 
Back of the house, and resembling a flock of sheep, 
will be noticed an army of berry pickers. Strange to 
tell, the strawberries near the top of the big patch, 
where the pickers were caught by the camera, were 
larger, better and more numerous than in the more 
sheltered situation down near the buildings. The big 
patch consisted of Brandywines, except trial rows of 
all the more prominent new varieties. The slope of 
the present patch is about south. 
’ENNSYLVANIA FARMER IN THE BRANDYWINE 
origin, now mounted at the Smithsonian Institute at 
Washington, and there can be no doubt that the 
locality was in bygone years as beautiful in the eyes 
of the Red Man, as it is to-day in the eyes of his white 
conqueror. 
There are also shown orchards of apples, pears and 
plums ; a trial plat for berries of various kinds ; rows 
of grape vines, a raspberry patch, etc. Blackberries 
are further to the right, and the same is true concern¬ 
ing last years big strawberry patch, which was on 
ground so low that it was in part covered by the 
swollen spring water of the Brandywine. This in¬ 
undation, by the way, did not injuriously affect the 
health or bearing qualities of the Brandywine straw¬ 
berries in that portion of the patch. The big barn 
attests the general fertility of the farm. 
VALLEY. Fig. 162. 
the berries on the higher ground was decidedly better 
than that of those on low ground. s. E. p. 
Some Notes by Mr. Ingram. 
The view over the house shows the strawberry patch 
of 105 rows across the slope, each 70 yards long ; the 
upper portion of the slope is quite steep. To the left 
of the berries, lies the wheat field, which when the 
photograph was taken, was already coloring in the 
hot sun. In the extreme left of the picture, is an¬ 
other berry patch just showing through the tops of 
the trees in the foreground ; this plat is very low, a 
portion being overflowed by the stream which passes 
through the valley. 
The first of last year’s bearing beds was next to the 
right of the upper end of the orchard. The second 
