The Florida agriculturist., 1884-09-10
What are the Girls to Do?

WUdG hI6 UU6 0lI16 W OO!
TIE QUESTION ANSWERED IN PART BY A
COUPLE OF NORTH CAROLINA MISSES.
"Nhat shall we do with our girls ?"
says Bill Arp, in the Atlanta Constitution.
| have heard great many fathers ask
that question. | don't mean rich faith
ers, who have no anxiety about their
daughters, but allude to the folks in the
middle walks of life, whose daughters
have had an education, and the fathers
have had nothing else to give them.
What is poor girl to do when she quits
school or comes home from college? 1t
is right hard for her to descend from the
beautiful heights of astronomy and the
fields of history and botany, and the
chambers of music down to the drudgery
of housekeeping and sewing and darning
and patching old clothes. But suppose
she is good, dutiful girl, and is willing
to do that and more, the question is
what does it amount to. Can't she
take hold of something that will excite
her ambition, and interest her and make
her some money? Girls are human and
they want to do something. Girls who
do not marry, and whose fathers are
poor, will need some money after awhile
when the rose begins to fade on their
cheeks. Some are independent enough
to go to millinery and dress-making, but
this gives employment to but a few.
Some paint flowers and do fancy work,
and sell what they make, but not many
have the gift of genius in that line, and
so the question still comes up: What can
the clever country girls do to make
q living for themselves and feel indie
pendent?
Not long ago l was in Eastern North
Carolina, and found the question an
swered in some places found some
nice, well educated girls cultivating
small fruits and vegetables for market.
They didn't plow the ground, but they
planted and hoed and weeded the crop.
saw an acre of strawberries that two
sisters had planted, and they made a
frolic of it; that is they went at it with
anatney gat6srea 4UO qIateesH IiatesHst and il s.itt il
they would get thousand Ihore, and
they packed them in little baskets, and
the little baskets into crates, and sent
them North, and their sales averaged
30 cents quart. Their total expenses
for hire of help and cost of baskets and
freight to market were 5000, and this
left one thousand for their work and
watching and constant care. Well, those
girls are proud and independent. Their
father had five acres, and he was making
money-a good deal of money. | never
saw nicer business for one so simple
and sure. The land was poor and sandy,
the rows three feet apart; when the
plants get well set, pillow opens fur
row close by on each side, and this fur
row is nearly filled with cotton seed,
after that the vines are mulched with
straw, that is all. never saw vines as
small and berries as numerous. count
ed 240 on one plant. They laid on one
another. This vine had been picked
three times, and there We're 240 left.
They frequently picked a quart from
three plants and left many not ripe.
They pick until So'clock in the morning,
and the girls averaged fifteen quarts by
that time. They begin again at in the
afternoon and get fifteen quarts more.
When they hire pickers they pay 2ls
cents for girls and , cents for boys, for
the girls are more careful and do not
mash the berries nor spill them, and do
not eat every big nice one they come
across. 4H
But this is not all. These girls have
got crop of raspberries just behind, and
they will make two hundred or three
hundred dollars off them, and they are
growing currants and goOseberries, and
talk about going into potatoes, beans,
grapes and all that. Well, why not?
Fruit growing is a nice business for girls,
and SO is vegetables. Those girls have
the advantage of ours, for the market is
nearer, but have never seen the time
that nice strawberries could not be sold
at home for 20 cents, and that will make
lots of money. And then, again, the
exercise is good for their health, and the
occupation SO cleanly and delicate, it
suits their nimble and delicate fingers so
we'll. Woman was the first gardener we
read about-that is to say, she was the
first to pluck the fruit, and have always
thought she ought to have been forgiven,
for her first thought when she found the
fruit was good was to give her husband
some. But he, like an old rascal, went
and laid all the blame on her, and tried
to get out of the scrape. Now, there is
chance for our girls to make some mo-
ney. Let them try a small patch, say
one-fourth of an acre. Plant out in
August, and have good crop of fruit the
next spring. 1t can be done. heard a
Nashville man say that two years ago
there was no such business around
! Nashville as growing berries for North
ern markets but now there are $50 bush
els shipped day from one town, the
town Of Franklin, and they netted 20