Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1888-05-24
What You Can do With So. 600.

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money!" Why, he can do a good man,
things, for that amount is quite fortun,
here. | will tell him what | should d.
If had that amount to invest, / shoulC
get few acres of ground near town
upon which to raise strawberries an,
other fruit, and after the necessary ex
pense upon this, should invest the res
in cheap lands, ut least partly in cult
walton. which can be had two or tire,
miles from town for s. an acre or less
Then | should put tenants on thes,
lands (Which can usually be had will
small cabins upon them) furnish eacl
tenant with mule, a plow,a hoe and {
few bushels of cotton seed and set then
to raising cotton on the halves. In th,
winter the tenants could cut wood anc
maui 1t to town, thus clearing more lane
for cotton. Cotton yields three or foui
times as much money per acre as corn
True II requires three times as much
work per acre as corn, but when vol
'can get some one else to do the work
and give half the cotton at the gin,
merely by furnishing him a horse anC
pillow and bushel of cotton seed wortl
twenty cents and an acre of land wortl
30 and get clear return of $40 worth
OF cotton, you have soft thing of IT,
The renter who raises cotton must al
WAYS remain in poverty, and tho mar
who raises cotton on his own land vii
not get rich rapidly; but the man who
has cotton land to rent on the halves
has good and sure thing. The cotton
landlord is your true aristocrat who
''reapeth where he hath not sown and
/ gathereth where be hath not strewed. .
only it is the greenbacks that be
gathers for his tenant gathers the cror
for him.
We have finished gathering our straw
berry crop (the early kind) and il wa:
a fairly good one. A few words about
shipping Strawberries may be of inter
est to some of your readers. When
went into the business, | had a yer,
plausible theory that the way to avoic
losses from dishonest and irresponsible
commission men in the large cities was
to make arrangements to furnish the
berries direct lyto the grocers in smaller
cities and towns of the North, and thu!
avoid the middle men, and all the
evils connected with them. | spent
considerable time and money in obtain
ing the addresses of grocers and max
ing arrangements with them. Blu
someway my fine theory didn't work ii
practice worth a cent Some Of Tho
grocers after getting my berries were
dumb as an oyster forever after and nc
persuasion or threat could make then
"shell out, T" and didn't think it woulc
pay to 60 farther than threats of tht
"terrors of the law" Few grocers die
as well by me as the commission men
Again, the express lines to small anC
out OF the way towns are not prompt
and careful. | shipped few berrie,
to lancastervia Galena and they seemed
to get stuck three or four DAYS between
G2lena and Lancaster and to have beer
handled in regular baggage smashel
style, 50 that when they got through
they were worthless mess, and deac
loss to me, while some | shipped The
same day TO a commission man in
Omaha brought good returns.
On the out-of-thc-way lines the
agents have not had to pay frequent
damages for injuries to perishable good:
(the companies when compelled to pay
such damages usually shit them off on
the agents who handle the goods) and
they will let a case of berries lie around
in the sun at way office three or foul
days with as much unconcern as if it was
can of ink or q bundle Of paper for
which some poor country printer had
sent in great haste.
Then the smaller the town to which
| sent my berries the more kicking
and the less money came back. From
the fault found at such places | would
imagine that the people there had no
use for anything less than the prize
berries at a horticultural exhibition.
and were accustomed to have them at
all times after Valentine Day,
The variety of berries mostly raised
here are known in market as the Arkan-
sas Scarlet. They are quite small, but
VIC prefer 70 raise them for several
reasons. FIRST they can be raised by
the acre with less cultivation than corn
and yield well with treatment under
which the large berries would utterly
fail. Second, they are very early and
we can ship them before the market
is vorwhelmed with the flood Of berries
from Tennessee and Mississippi Third,
they are far superior in richness and
sweetness to any large berries. Several
varieties of large berries are raised here
for ~ late market. and have seen
taem here nearly as large as peaches,
but the people here would no more use
them on their tables than they would
eat the beautiful chromos which adorn
the nurserymen's catalogues. With
anyone who knows them. quart of
Scarets is worth n bushe Of the bic,
sour, watery berries. Put up half
gallon jar of the big, snowy Cresents or
Jumbos, and YOU have about three pints
and half of sour water with half A
pint of pulp floating in the middle.
Put up a jar Of the little Scarlets and
you have solid summer richness stored
up for winter Many people in the
large cities have found this out, and so
Kansas City, Omaha and ST. Louis
(looded as they are with berries from
all the South between Texas and Flori-
da) furnish much better market for
"Arkansas Scarlets' than would any
small town in Wisconsin.
| still think this IS destined to become
widely famous as a mining region. Ore