Arizona republican., 1907-06-20

farmers are also bookkeepers, for with
 a little more keeping of accounts,
 they could tell better what they were
 accomplishing and where they could
 work reforms in their farm methods.
 However. this stor. is to tell about
 three men who do keep records, and
 are public spirited enough to give the
 world the benefit of them.
 The first of these is c. C. Chambers,
 Strawberry" Chambers if you please,
 for he has been making a speciality of
 raising strawberries and has made a
 success of the business. He has been
 "bothering with strawberries now
 for about ten years and is inclined to
 keep right on until he can find a bet
 ter gold mine. He has grown prin-
 cipally the Lady Thompson variety.
 though he has had good success with
 the Klondyke. and believes it will
 prove to he the best for this section.
 He is now experimenting with the
 Aroma. another new variety He
 has had the best results by planting
 the strawberry vines on little ridges and running the water between the rows. Successful strawberry cul-
 ture requires lots of water. He has fifteen acre patch of ground that he buys water for. but he only has three or four acres in berries. He takes the water run for fifteen acres, which comes about once in four days this year, being under two canals. and puts most Of it on the strawberry patch. And this is what he has done this year with onl.' THREE acres of bearing vines. He began picking on the first day of February and is still at it. but these figures are only up to and in cluding June Is, four months and a half. In the beginning his berries brought him from 25c to soc q box. The- are now down to F 12 cents. hut his crop so far has averaged him twenty cents a box From the three acres in the time specified, he sold s224444 worth of berries. He also kept record of his expenses in growing. caring for and them and says it was about one half. That leaves a net profit of Sl122.22. He has also put up preserves tn the value of s200. How much sugar he usedSxas not learned. but suppose il was $50 worth.-it would leave a profit there of $50. or a total net profit of s1272.22, or s41SO7 net per acre.
 So much for Strawberry" Chambers who grows them in ridges and culti- yates quite diligently.
 The next man is Strawberry Black MT. J. w. Black. who lives southeast of the city. Sometime ago The Repub- tar-i,, tal f.ta n detailed account of the methods Mir Black uses to coax the berries to grow It is not necessary to re- peat it all at this time. even if it were all remembered, but it is recalled that MT. Black believes a whole lot in let ting the strawberries alone after hay ing furnished them plentifully with water. In that respect he and Mir Chambers agree beautifully that the ] berries must have water in abund- ance. But MT. Black says the ridging method has not heen as profitable for him as the flooding. He plants the berries down practically on level ground and at the proper times he floods the patch, gives it all the water t can absorb. During the picking sea son, about all he does is to keep out the cookie burrs and big weeds, and the Johnson grass if it appears, and spends the rest of his time marketing berries. When the crop begins to lag. he lets the patch grow up with weeds which sccm to protect it. If ,hey get too high he mows off the tops and then iI' the winter he touches a match to the dry weeds and burns off overy- thing but tho strawberry roots The plants shoot uo and blossom and the game is on again
 And here is what Strawberry Black has done: Hc has not furnished the i figures of gross returns. but gives out this much: That he has in bearing this year, six acres of berries. Thus far he has marketed 3O.000 boxes on which he has made net profit of S2300. or a net profit of :3S6.65 per acre.
 This looks on the face of it as