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To strawberries succeeded raspberries. My stock of
boxes was thus useful a second time. But raspberries are not always
reliable for a full crop the first season after planting, and so it turned
out with mine. They bore only moderately; but by exercising the same care
in rejecting all inferior specimens, the first commanded twenty-five cents
a quart in market; gradually declining to twelve, below which none were
sold. I marketed only 242 quarts from the whole, netting an average of 16
cents a quart, or $38.72. In price they were thus, equal to strawberries.
In addition to this, we consumed in the family as much as all desired, and
that was not small. I had heard of others doing considerably better than
this, but had no disposition to be dissatisfied.
The trade in raspberries is increasing rapidly in
the neighborhood of all our large cities, stimulated by the establishment
of steamboats and railroads, on which they go so quickly and cheaply to
market. It is probably greater in New York State than elsewhere. The
citizens of Marlborough, in Ulster county, have a steamboat regularly
employed for almost the sole business of
transporting their raspberries to New York. In a single season their
sales of this fruit amount to nearly $90,000. The demand is inexhaustible,
and the cultivation consequently increases. In the immediate vicinity of
Milton, in the same county, there are over 100 acres of them, and new
plantations are being annually established. The pickers are on the ground
as soon as the dew is off, as the berries do not keep so well when
gathered wet. I have there seen fifty pickers at work at the same time,
men, women, and children, some of them astonishingly expert, earning as
much as $2 in a day. Several persons were constantly employed in packing
the neat little baskets into crates, the baskets holding nearly a pint. By
six o'clock the crates were put on board the steamboat, and by sunrise
next morning they were in Washington market. As many as 80,000 baskets are
carried at a single trip. The retail price averages ten cents a basket,
one boat thus carrying $800 worth in a single day. All this cultivation
being conducted in a large way, the yield per acre is consequently less
than from small patches thoroughly attended to. There are repeated
instances of $400 and even $600 being made clear from a single acre of
raspberries.
The culture in Ulster county, though at first view
appearing small, yet gives employment to, and distributes its gains among
thousands of persons. The mere culture requires the services of a large
number of people. The pickers there, as well as in New Jersey, constitute
a small army, there being five or more required
for each acre, and the moneys thus earned by these industrious people go
far towards making entire families comfortable during some months of the
year. The season for raspberries continues about six weeks. Many of the
baskets which are used about New York are imported from France, Frequently
the supply is unequal to the demand. If the chip boxes were introduced, as
suggested in the last chapter, the whole of this outlay to foreign
countries could be stopped. It is strange, indeed, that any portion of our
people should be compelled to depend on France for baskets in which to
convey their berries to market.
As my raspberries disappeared, so in regular
succession came the Lawton blackberries. I had cut off the tip of every
cane the preceding July. This, by stopping the upward growth, drove the
whole energy of the plant into the formation of branches. These had in
turn been shortened to a foot in length at the close of last season. This
process, by limiting the quantity of fruit to be produced, increased the
size of the berries. I am certain of this fact, by long experience with
this plant. It also prevented the ends of the branches resting on the
ground, when all fruit there produced would otherwise be ruined by being
covered with dust or mud. Besides, this was their first bearing year, and
as they had not had time to acquire a full supply of roots, it would be
unwise to let them overbear themselves. Some few which had grown to a
great height were staked up with pickets four and a half feet long, and
tied, the pickets costing $11 per thousand at the lumber-yard. But the
majority did not need this staking up the first season; but many of the
canes sent up this year, for bearers the next, it was necessary to support
with stakes.
The crop was excellent in quality, but not large. I
began picking July 20, and thus had the third use of my stock of boxes. I
practised the same care in assorting these berries for market which had
been observed with the others, keeping the larger ones separate from the
smallest ones. Thus a chest of the selected berries, when exposed to view,
presented a truly magnificent sight. Up to this time they had never been
seen by fifty frequenters of the Philadelphia markets. But when this rare
display was first opened in two of the principal markets, it produced a
great sensation. None had been picked until perfectly ripe, hence the
rare and melting flavor peculiar to the Lawton prevaded every berry. They
sold rapidly and netted me thirty cents a quart, the smaller ones
twenty-five cents. There appeared to be no limit to the demand at these
prices. Buyers cheerfully gave them, though they could get the common wild
blackberry in the same market at ten cents. Now, it cost me no more to
raise the Lawtons than it would have done to raise the common article.
But this is merely another illustration of the folly of raising the
poorest fruit to sell at the lowest prices, instead of the best to sell at
the highest.
The crop of Lawtons amounted to five hundred
and ninety-two quarts, and netted me $159.84, an average of
twenty-seven cents a quart. My family did not fail to eat even more than a
usual allowance. As soon as the picking was done, while the plants were
yet covered with leaves, Dick cut off at the ground all the canes which
had just fruited, using a strong pair of snip-shears, which cut them
through without any labor. These canes having done their duty would die in
the autumn, could now be more easily cut than when grown hard after death,
and if removed at once, would be out of the way of the new canes of this
year's growth.
The latter could then be trimmed and staked up for
the coming year, the removal of all which superfluous foliage would let
in the sun and air more freely to the cabbages between the rows. The old
wood being thus cut out, was gathered in a heap, and when dry enough was
burned, the ashes being collected and scattered around the peach-trees.
After this the limbs were all shortened in to a foot. They were very
strong and vigorous, as in July the tops of the canes had all been taken
off, leaving no cane more than four feet high. The branches were
consequently very strong, giving promise of a fine crop another season.
After this, such as needed it were staked up and tied, as the autumn and
winter winds so blow and twist them about that otherwise they would be
broken off. But subsequent practice has induced me to cut down to only
three feet high; and this being done in July, when the plant is in full
growth, the cane becomes so stiff and stocky
before losing its leaves as to require no staking, and will support itself
under any ordinary storm. I have seen growers of this fruit who neglected
for two or three years, either from laziness or carelessness, to remove
the old wood; but it made terrible work for the pickers, as in order to
get at one year's fruit they were compelled to contend with three years'
briers. Only a sloven will thus fail to remove the old wood annually. I
prefer removing it in the autumn, as soon as
picking is over, for reasons above given, and also because at that time
there is less to do than in the spring.
In the meantime the fame of the Lawton blackberry
had greatly extended and the demand increased, but the propagation had
also been stimulated. A class of growers had omitted tilling their
grounds, so as to promote the growth of suckers, caring more for the sale
of plants than for that of fruit. Hence the quantity to meet the demand
was so large as to reduce the price, but I sold of this year's growth
enough plants to produce me $213.50. Of this I laid out $54 in marl, which
I devoted exclusively to the blackberries. I had been advised by a friend
that marl was the specific manure for this plant, as of his own knowledge
he knew it to be so. A half-peck was spread round each hill, and the
remainder scattered over the ground. A single row was left unmarled. It
showed the power of this fertilizer the next season, as the rows thus
manured were surprisingly better filled with fruit than that which
received none. Since that I have continued to
use this fertilizer on my blackberries, and can from experience recommend
its use to all who may cultivate them.
With the sale of pork, amounting to $58, the
receipts of my second year terminated. My cash-book showed the following
as the total of receipts and expenditures:
Paid for stable manure........................ $200.00
Ashes, and
Baugh's rawbone superphosphate.. 92.00
Marl...................................... 54.00
Dick's
wages................................ 144.00
Occasional
help............................... 94.00
Feed for
stock............................... 79.30
Pigs
bought.................................. 12.00
Garden and other
seeds....................... 13.00
Lumber, nails, and
sundries.................. 14.50
Stakes and
twine............................. 7.00
Total $709.80
The credit side of the account was much better than
last year, and was as follows :
From strawberries, 6 acres................ $857.60
" Lawton
blackberries, 1 acre......... 159.84
" Lawton
plants...................... 213.50
" raspberries, 2 acres
................. 38.72
" tomatoes, 1 acre..................... 190.00
" cabbages............................ 70.20
"
garden.............................. 63.00
" peaches, 10 trees in
garden.......... 58.00
" potatoes............................. 24.00
" pork................................. 58.00
"
calf................................. 2.00
Total
$1,734.86
The reader will not fail to bear in mind that in
addition to this cash receipt towards the support of a family, we had not
laid out a dollar for fruits or vegetables during the entire year. Having
all of them in unstinted abundance, with a most noble cow, the cash outlay
for the family was necessarily very small; for no one knows, until he has
all these things without paying for them in money, how very far they go
towards making up the sum total of the cost of keeping a family of ten
persons. In addition to this, we had a full six months' supply of pork on
hand.
The reader will also be struck with the enormous
difference in favor of the second year. But on dissecting the two
accounts he will see good reason for this difference. In the first place,
some improvement was natural, as the result of my increase of
knowledge,—I was expected to be all the time growing wiser in my new
calling. In the second place, some expenses incident to the initiatory
year were lopped off; and third, three of my standard fruits had come into
bearing. The increase of receipts was apparently sudden, but it was
exactly what was to be expected. I used manure more freely, and on my acre
of clover was particular to spread a good dressing of solid or liquid
manure immediately after each mowing, so as to thus restore to it a full
equivalent for the food taken away. This dressing was sometimes ashes,
sometimes plaster, or bone-phosphate, or liquid, and in the fall a good
topping from the barnyard. In return for this, the yield of clover
was probably
four times what it would have been had the lot been pastured and left
unmanured. In fact, it became evident to me that the more manure I was
able to apply on any crop, the more satisfactory were my returns. Hence,
the soiling system was persevered in, and we had now become so accustomed
to it that we considered it as no extra trouble.
The result of this year's operations was apparently
conclusive. My expenses for the farm had been $709.80, while my receipts
had been $1,734.86, leaving a surplus of $1,025.06 for the support of my
family. But more than half of their support had been drawn from the
products of the farm; and, at the year's end, when every account had been
settled up, and every bill at the stores paid off, I found that of this
$1,025.06 I had $567 in cash on hand,—proving that it had required only
$458.06 in money, in addition to what we consumed from the farm, to keep
us all with far more comfort than we had ever known in the city. Thus,
after setting aside $356.06 for the purchase of manure, there was a clear
surplus of $200 for investment.
I had never done better than this in the city.
There, the year's end never found me with accounts squared up, and a clear
cash balance on hand. Few occupations can be carried on in the city after
so snug a fashion. Credit is there the rule, and cash the exception,—at
least it was ten years ago. But in the apparently humbler trade of
trucking and fruit-growing everything is cash. Manure, the great staple
article to be bought, can be had on credit; but
all you grow from it is cash. Food must be paid for on delivery, and he
who produces it will have no bad debts at the year's end but such as may
exist from his own carelessness or neglect. Thus, what a farmer earns he
gets. He loses none of his gains, if he attends to his business. They may
be smaller, on paper, than those realized by dashing operators in the
city, but they are infinitely more tangible; and if, as in my case, they
should prove to be enough, what matters it as to the amount? The producers
of food, therefore, possess this preponderating advantage over all other
classes of business men: they go into a market where cash without limit is
always ready to be paid down for whatever they bring to it. A business
which is notoriously profitable, thus kept up at the cash level, and
consequently free from the hazard of bad debts, cannot fail to enrich
those who pursue it extensively, and with proper intelligence and
industry. I could name various men who, beginning on less than a hundred
dollars, and on rented land, have in a few years become its owners, and in
the end arrived at great wealth, solely from the business of raising fruit
and truck.
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