Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1898-07-15
Profitable Fruit Growing.

Profitable Fruit Growing.
Now and again some interesting facts
come to the surface about the produc-
ton of fruits and delicacies Of various
sorts, by means of which some grower
more shrewd. painstaking or practical
than his fellows has made fortune, or
is on the high road to that most allur-
ing state of things. 1t may be straw
berries, mushrooms, hot house grapes,
cucumbers, tomatoes or whatnot, but it
Is success with consequent results.
Straightway scores of persons rush
into the same bushes, and for time
the market is threatened with overstock,
and prices will, 1t is predicted, come
down far below the cost Of production.
But for some mysterious reason, after
q few years all of this excitement dies
out, glass, sash frames and materials
for hotbeds are for sale for song, and
the enthusiastic grower, having parted
with a goodly amount Of his surplus
cash, II indeed he has not become ut
terly bankrupt, makes up his mind that
there is some trick or catch about the
business, and that as for him and his
house, they will stick to old-fashioned
legitimate farming and gardening. It
is only the genius who succeeds in
accomplishing great things in the way
Of forcing fruit and vegetables. Indeed
1t is the experience Of life that great
successes are among the most uncom-
mon of occurrences.
There is very little danger of over
stocking the market with exceedingly
fine products. A gardener who has fol-
lowed his business for half a century
remarked the other day that it would
make but very little difference to him
II hothouses were set up on every place
in his community. He has his trade
secured and established, by the most
painstaking and intelligent work on his
specialties, and 1t is the height Of alb
surdity to suppose that any amateur
can come along and successfully CON-
pete with him. The rules that apply
to one class of growers fit equally to all.
There are but few men who can con-
tract to furnish at a given date
given number of spring lambs in per-
feet condition. The same be said
of poultry and other meats. In
out-of-door products and the ordinary
garden yield there is almost as much
certainty that the uncertainty will be
the rule. Agreement to supply
thousand heads of caulifower resulted
in the production Of less than fifty that
were up to the standard. Lettuce
grown by ordinary methods is practi-
cally understandable.
The impression prevails that the
standard vegetables can be grown with
the greatest ease, and so they can, but
friends of ours in hand, and have
brought them up to quality that has
completely demorallzed the market
Vegetables such as were grown ten or
fifteen years ago dealers would not take
at any price, and any attempt to realize
a profit from them would be met with
utter failure. Apples that would have
been merchantable when the present |
farmers were starting out in life now
go into the cider mill.
Wheat is as carefully scrutinized as
butter, and the INSCRIPTIONS farmer
who would resort to mixing grain of
an inferior grade in order to increase
the bulk of his crop would be very
likely to find his entire output thrown
back on his hands and himself stamped |
as a man with whom commission mer-
chants would not care to deal. And |
all over the country the same condition
of affairs prevails.