The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1888-05-29
STRAWBERRIES.
Their Cultivation, as Conducted
by LAGRANGE Lady. :,
"hat 5000 Quarts Melted Her. This Year.
10000 More Plants Set Out, and
$4,000 Quarts Expected.


Strawberries, as we'll as pretty girls, flourish
around LAGRANGE. 1t is interesting, in thisj
line, to know what a single woman, Mrs. SaralI
Is. Mabry, has accomplished. Last year shei
averaged twenty cents per quart for all theI
berries she sold. This year she had about half
an acre of Strawberries In full bearing from
which she has already sold 5000 quarts, which,
has brought her in the neighborhood of S375,t
or as much as the value of six or seven balesf
OF cotton. Some of these berries were sold ash
high as twenty cents per quart, and none less
than ten cents. Wednesday last 300 quartsI
were picked from this half acre, and sold fori
ten and fifteen cents per quart. Besides doingj
all this work with her own hands, she has seq
lected and set out since the beginning of the
year 10000 additional plants, ey-'
cry one of them alive and
promising abundant yields next season. al
few berries will be gathered from these vinesI
this year, and another crop of three or four,
| thousand quarts will be sold from the old
| vines this year. From half an acre she has
| sold over three thousand quarts of strawber-
ries already this year. Next year she will have
four and half acres of vines just as produce
tive, and, giving the lowest estimate, she will
gather $1,000 quarts which at ten cents quartz
the lowest price which she has ever received for
her berries, will bring her $27OO Besides
this, she has over four hundred vines of resp
berries. now covered with fruit which she will
sell for twenty-five cents quart, and which
Will provo a source of considerable income
No one will be surprised at the value of the
crop and the productiveness of the soil, but the.
TACT that a weak woman, with the weight of
| sixty years upon her shoulders, should have
! demonstrated the possibilities of small fruits'
| i'll this section is surprising. She is the most
| enthusiastic fruit culturist in Georgia, and in
| the work she finds recreation and Happiness.
| She has an untiring energy, and thoroughly
understands berry culture. During the heat
| OF the day, when she is compelled 10 rest i'm
doors. and i'll the evenings, she is not idle, but,
with her own hands makes the little wooden
quart baskets in which the berries arc sold.
The farm consists of forty or fifty acres, and all
except four and q half acres is cultivated in
ordinary farm products cotton, corn, millet,
oats, etc, which Mrs Mabry looks after very
closely. The berry farm Is wonderful within
itself. That it should have been developed
and so successfully managed by its mistress is
on example and an inspiration for others.
| The LaGrange Graphic tells pleasing story
| of the farm of Colonel Benjamin G. Swanson.
| A princey domain is this farm. With ter
| raced hillsdes, broad acres of level fields in
| cultivation and an abundance of virgin forests.
| There is just seventeen hundred and fifty
| acres in the farm comprising some of the best
| located as well as some of the most productive
lands in the county. In the center of this
| vast tract of land an old anto belum man.
Sion with its wide open fireplaces, large rooms,
wide verandas and broad halls, in its mute
way telling of the hospitality of the old south,
when men grew to mental giants because of
| the leisure vouehsafed for study by
| the wealth on everyhand. The very
| appearance of the house suggesting rest,
in striking contrast to the busy scenes
in fields and barns around it, But the
old house belongs to another era.
just across the road from the old mansion is
n tract of three hundred acres. Fifty acres of
this is in original forests and will not be dis
| turbed. Two hundred and fifty acres will be
lnt a nnr # oil Ill.
| splendid growth ON 1T, and all will have by
next year. a man would have to 20 several
! days journey TO find lot Of land better suited
| for pasture than this There are three or four
bold springs of the clearest and coolest water,
| and as many never failing streams. Down
through 1T, three ourths Of Mule in length is
| lovely meadow now rich in grasses and clover.
| On eithYr side of this is gently rolling lands,
| with here and there valley through which
| trickes clear brooklets furnishing the best
water in the greatest abundance for stock.
just at the head OF this long meadow the per-
manent barn will be built, with q capacity for
sixty to one hundred COWS, and when COM
pleted there will be no modern convenience
missing. just to one side, over one OF tho
boldest springs in the county, will be built tho
| dairy, where will be kept the milk and the
butter. In front Of this short distance will
| be built the dairyman's cottage. Such are the
| plans soon to he put into execution.
! The herd OF Jerseys, including some grade
| cattle, consists Of about fifty head of COWS and
| calves, headed by "Ianthil," son of the famous
| st. Helena COW. "Ianthil" is probably the
| finest bull in Georgia. He is beauty and
| perfect in every point. There now four
! teen working COWS, not one being over four
| years old, and large majority only two years
| Of age. From these heifers is made ten
| pounds of butter per day, besides enough milk
being sold every morning to pay all the run
| ming expenses of the dairy. BY next winter
this working herd will be increased to about
| thirty, and the product of the dairy more than
trebled. Gradually this force will be increased
until the herd will be brought up TO one hum
dred working cows. A big undertaking, but
the man pushing 1t has the means and the on
thusinsm TO bring it through successfully But
even that is not all All his tillable land is
being farmed on the tenant system, which
Mr. Swanson looks after most carefully.
Twenty-Five plows are kept busy on the place,
each pillow bringing him a 600 pounds of lint
cotton as rental. AS rapidly as circumstances
will permit, all this land will be put in grasses,
clover, etc, brood mares will DC placed along
with the Jersey cattle, and fine bloCded trot-
ting horses will be bred. The entire 1850
acres will be turned into stock farm mod
eIed somewhat after the famous Campbell
Brown farm of Tennessee, where only the best
stock will be raised and sold.
For this purpose of the finest booded
horses in the south has already been secured to
head the stable, and the farm is de-
veloped others will be added. Mr.. Swanson
only took hold OF the stock business year or
so ago. and, careful business man. Is grasp
ing the details Of the business as il grows. Ho
has made study Of stock, knows the breeds
of horses who make the best average time, has
at his tongues end the names Of the best
butter-producing Jerseys, and is working into
the channel Of trade where all the products OF
the farm can be disposed of to the best adyan-
tage He has gone into stock raising and
darying as a business, and will give it the
same careful attention as banker does his
business or the merchant his. In q word. this
farm will be strictly business principles.
The little Jersey herd he now has at work Is
paying Handsomely and growing more va1ua-
bic every day, thus demonstrating success by
actual experience. Every who has had
the means and has gone into stock raising and
conducted it intelligently and on a business
basis has succeeded. There is NO better coun-
try for stock raising on earth than in Troup
county No land will produce better grasses
or more abundantly.
SWIFT VENGEANCE TAKEN.