The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1901-11-12
A PLAN FOR THE BOYS.
How Those on the Farm Can Make Some
Money.

by A ID. Craig, MukW -nagO. Wis, in Farm
ers VO Gel
By the way, boys, forgot to tell
you the best way to set out straw
berry plants. Not one farmer in
fifty does it this way, so will sug-
gest the plan and ask you to adoptit.
You are aware that good plants
have roots six inches long now to
insure good results those roots should
be set deep in the ground. You
might take a spade and press into
the earth for hole, but would pre-
fer to make long paddle-shaped in
strument out of a four-inch board.
The paddle end should be hewn with
an axe to an edge and the top rounded
little to clasp with the hand. Now
take mallet, or some heavy ham
mer, and commence to make holes
on your row. Drive down the re-
quired six inches, rock your paddle
back and fourth two or three times
so as to make a good opening, then
gently pull it out and make other
holes about fifteen inches apart
When one row of holes is made set
the plants before commencing on
another. In setting be sure and get
the roots down and the dirt pressed
against them. A good way to press
the dirt is to take pointed stick and
push into the earth and give quick
pry motion towards the plant and
the work is done. Smooth with
your hand and go on with the others.
I will explain why you should do
this instead of scratching out some
dirt with your fingers and putting
the plant in it. First, the roots are
down in their natural position. Sec
ond, in case of dry weather they are
not so easily dried up. Third, they
grow faster and throw out runners
sooner. This last spring set out
three rows across my garden eight
rods) and this tall you can hardly
find a missing place, and yet the
drought ruined many plants, gar
dens and fields everywhere. With
out this deep setting three fourths
would surely have died.
Now am going to tell you of a
little dream had the other night. I
dreamed your father made fun of
the idea that you could lay up $50
from your berries and still have all
the family could use. The curiosity
of the dream is that it hits pretty
close and contains a good deal of
truth. But, boys, that is a very
moderate amount, and / will tell you
why. This year had four rows of
strawberries across my garden and
Mrs. @. said she would pick some for
the neighbors and call it pin money.
OF course I got quite interested in
her account and helped pick and run
errands. The first piokings gave her
ten cents per quart, but after that
only six and eight cents. We filed
the boxes full and got quite a run
over store berries at five cents. I
tell you it pays to put big berries in
the bottom and fill the boxes up
rounding. We gave away a great
many boxes, ate saueerfuls three
times a day, besides our winters
supply. Well, the pin money
amounted to $21.19.
In telling you about saucerfuls
makes me think of little incident
that happened once. had quite a
quantity of celery, and in the fall
took up a lot of the plants for stor-
ing in cellars. visited neighbor-
ing village ard sold them by the
hundred One lady said she would
take three dozen. The amount was
80 small I said something about it
and by way of trying to increase the
order said should put down eight
hundred plants. The LADY looked up
into the wagon where Twas standing
and and said: "It makes a differ |
enoe, Mister, whether you buy them
or raise them 1t is just the same
with your berries. If you buy them
the good mother economies by
using those little, stingy sauce dishes,
but if you raise them then comes the
fat shortcakes for dinner and the
saucerfuls for supper and breakfast
That picture alone ought to inspire
any owner of Jersey cow to have a
strawberry bed. My boys, do you
know of anything as good as big
dish full of ripe strawberries with
plenty of cream and sugarP They