Arizona republican., 1898-02-14
STRAWBERRIES ARE COMING.
A Talk With a Well Known Straw
 berry Raiser in the Valley.

Everybody knows Strawberry" Williams. His round, good natured face is instinctively associated with big, red, juicy strawberries. Yester+ day a Republican reporter was try. ing to find MT. Williams ranch on Grand avenue, and he had to appeal to a little girl he met on the avenue to point out the house. Don't you know where Strawberry Williams lives?'' said the little girl reproachfully. 'I guess you are the only person that don't know" she added after she had kindly directed me to the ranch.
 The reporter found MT. Williams at home, and the rancher talked interest ingly about raising strawberries and other fruits in the valley. He has a pleasant home, and a ranch well stocked with vigorous looking fruit trees, grapes and strawberry vines. T can't tell you anything about the coming crop of strawberries, said the rancher, "as there are no two years alike in this valley. For the past two years my vines have shut down on their yield early in the winter, but previous to that time I took strawber ries to Phoenix as late as the first of January. So you see I don't know what is going to happen this year. The vines have begun to grow and spread out, and the first strawberries will come about the first of April, as they have never failed to do. But how long they will last is a puzzle to me.
 There are great many strawber- ries raised in the valley now," contin- ued the rancher. "A great many ranchers have gone into the business all over the valley. A few years ago when there were not so many raised we got a good price for them, but since so many have got into the strawberry business the price has gone down. This would not be so if our market was larger. We do not raise enough straw berries to ship them out in carload lots. Last year we rais 3d 100000 one-pound boxes. This year we will probably raise more than this. as the product increases each year. I have shipped strawberries to Guay- mas, Mexico and as far north as New Mexico, but this was done in competi- tion with California growers.
 "The first strawberries of the season demand a good price. but after they begin to bear profusely the price drops down. We can'tkeep berries like we can pears As soon as they are picked we must sell them, and they have to 20 at whatever price the market will give. Strawberries from the valley a~e shipped all over the territory, and there is always a demand for them. Tucson buys a great many strawber ries from us, and the big mining camps eat a great many. Jerome is our best northern market, and Prescott buys a great many boxes every year. We raise the finest strawberry produced anywhere, and our berries are bought in preference to the California berry by outsiders.
 ''It costs about five and one-half cents to raise a pound box of straw l berries. This includes the cost of raising the berries and picking and boxing them. I expect to have some thing over 10000 boxes this year. I have about four acres of vines. This Is enough to keep me pretty busy and l 1 don't know whether I will plant any more vines or not. I have male money cut of strawberries and believe there is a good future for growers i'll the valley"
 MT. Williams also has a fine pear orchard, and he thinks this fruit will be the most profitable the valley pro duces. Pears can be kept and sold when the market is good, but straw | berries must go as soon as they are picked. Pears raised in the valley are