The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1884-07-22
Work for Clever Girls.


What can the clever country girls do
to make living for themselves and feel
independent Not long ago | was over
in Eastern North Carolina and | found
the question answered in some places.
found some nice well educated girls
cultivating small fruits and vegetables
for market. They didn't pillow the
ground but they planted and hoed and
weeded and gathered the crop. | saw
an acre of Strawberries that two sisters
had planted and they made frolic of
it, that is, they went at it with Il will,
and took lively happy interest in it,
and they gathered four thousand quarts
and said they would get thousand
more, and they packed them in the lit
tie baskets and the baskets into crates
and sent them North, and their sales
had averaged thirty cents quart Their
total expenses for hire Of help and cost
OF baskets and freight to market was
two hundred dollars, and this left
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! good deal of money. inever
saw nicer business, nor one so simple
and sure. The land was poor and
sandy. The rows three feet apart
When the plants get well set a pillow
opens furrow close by on each side
and this furrow is nearly filled with
cotton seed, and then the earth Is thrown
back on the cotton seed after that the
vines are mulched with fine straw and
that is all. | never saw vines as small
or berries as numerous, | counted two
hundred and forty ON one plant They
laid on one another. This vine had
been picked three times and there were
two hundred and forty left They fre-
quently picked quart from three
plants and left many not ripe. They
pick till eight O'Clock in the morning
and the girls averaged fifteen quarts by
that time They begin again al four in
the afternoon and oct fifteen quarts
more. When they hire pickcrs they
pay two and a half cents a quart to girl,
and two cents to boys, for the girls are
more careful and do not pash the ber-
ries nor spill them and do not eat every
big nice one they come across.
But this is not ALL These girls have
got crop Of raspberri2s lust behind
and they will make two or three
hundred dollars off Of them, and they
are growing currants and g0oseberries
and talk about going into potatoes and
beans and grapes and all thay; we'll
why not. Fruit growing is a nice bust
mass for uii-ls and 49,, ,-oiyi,,,- X-an-at.
bleS. Those girls have the advantage
of ours for the market Is nearer, but
have never seen the time that nice
strawberries couldn't be sold NJ home
for twenty cents. and that Will make lots
of money And then a@ain the exer-
else is SO good for their health, and the
occupation so clearly and delicate and
suits their nimble and delicate fingers
so well. Woman was the first gardener
we read about, that Is to say she was
the first to pick the <ruit, and | have
always thought she OUGHT to have been
forgiven, for her first thought when She
found the fruit good was 10 give her
husband some. But he. like an old
rascal, went and laid the blame ON her
and tried to get out of the scrape.
Now, there is chance for our girls to
make some money. Let them try
small patch, say one-foUrth of an acre
Plant out in August and have a good
crop of fruit next sprifg. 1t can he
done. | heard Nashville man say
that two years ago there was no such
business around Nashville IS growing
berries for Northern markets, but now
there was one hundred and fifty bushels
shipped a day from one town, the town
Of Franklin, and they netted twenty
cents quart or six dollars a bushel,
and the girls did most Of the work.
wish the dear creatures were all rich
enough to live without work and only
had to work when they felt Ike it, and |
never see ladies of culture and refine
ment doing drudgeery but what i
shocks my humanity, and | want 4
society established for the presentation
Of cruelty to angels. But work is the
common lot for man. and for woman too,
and | reckon they are happier for it
Bill 4Tp, in atlanta Constitution