PROFITS OF FRUIT-GROWING--THE TRADE IN BERRIES.
It cannot be supposed that agriculture is always a successful pursuit.
On the contrary, we know it many times to be the reverse. But when one
looks carefully into that branch of it which embraces fruits, especially
the smaller kinds, the evidences in its favor as a money-making business
multiply as we proceed. The reader must have some knowledge of the
prodigious profits realized a few years since by the peach-growers in
Delaware, where 800 acres were cultivated in that fruit by a single
individual. At one time he was compelled to charter several steamboats
during the entire season, to convey his thousands of baskets to market.
From only 70 acres the owner has realized a net profit of $12,000, in
one season. The instance of my relative in Ohio, mentioned in an earlier
chapter, affords another illustration of what a very small orchard can
be made to yield. I have known single peach-trees in gardens, in seasons
when the general crop was short, producing as much as $20 each. Those
who buy single peaches at the street corners in our cities, one or two
for a dime, can readily understand these figures. I could point out a
garden belonging to a widow, containing twelve plum-trees, from which
she regularly receives $60 every year, and sometimes even more. Grapes
are never so abundant in market as to reduce the price below the point
of profit.
The prices paid for pears are such as to seem absurdly high. But even
when rebellion had most depressed the market, I knew a single tree to
net $23 to the owner. Another grower, from three trees, annually
receives $60. A citizen of New York is the owner of three pear-trees
which have yielded eleven barrels, and produced $137. There is another
tree in that State, seventy years old, from which, in that period,
$3,750 worth of pears have been sold--enough to pay for a farm. A young
orchard of four hundred trees, some eight years after planting, at two
years’ crops yielded the owner $1,450. An acre of the best pear-trees,
well managed, will produce more profit than a five-hundred-acre farm,
without a twentieth of the care or capital.
But examples almost without number may be given, where apple-trees also
have yielded from five to ten dollars a year in fruit, and many
instances in which twenty or thirty dollars have been obtained. If one
tree of the Rhode Island Greening will afford forty bushels of fruit, at
a quarter of a dollar per bushel, which has often occurred, forty such
trees on an acre would yield a crop worth four hundred dollars. But
taking one quarter of this amount as a low average for all seasons, and
with imperfect cultivation, one hundred dollars will still be equal to
the interest on fifteen hundred per acre. Now, this estimate is based
upon the price of good winter apples for the past thirty years, in one
of our most productive districts; let a similar estimate be made with
fruits rarer and of a more delicate character. Apricots and the finer
varieties of the plum are often sold for three to six dollars per
bushel, and the best early peaches from one to three dollars. An
acquaintance received eight dollars for a crop grown on two fine young
cherry-trees, and twenty-four dollars from four young peach-trees of
only four years’ growth from the bud. In Western New York, single trees
of the Doyenne or Virgalieu pear have often afforded a return of twenty
dollars or more, after being sent hundreds of miles to market.
These standard fruits, requiring several years to come into bearing, are
too slow for the majority of cultivators, who, like myself, need
something which will pay in a year or two. The whole berry family is
pre-eminently adapted to meet this demand for immediate profit. Happily
for the multitude engaged in its propagation, the business cannot be
overdone. Could an exact calculation be made of the money expended in
the city of New York merely for the small fruits, the amount would be so
enormous as to be scarcely credible, and would go far to prove the
immense wealth which actually exists, in spite of the fact that
thousands are suffering all the stings of poverty. Take the strawberry
as a faint index of the large sums of money that are annually laid out
in the different varieties of fruit. One of the most ephemeral of all
fruits, only lasting its brief month, the strawberry nevertheless plays
no insignificant part in the _rôle_ of our early summer business. In
fact, this little berry may be said to be the prime favorite of the
season. Of a delicious flavor, with just sufficient of tartness to
render it agreeable, it commends itself to the taste of young and old;
while its cooling properties render it highly beneficial, in a hygienic
point of view, during the early heats of the dog-days. Then its
cheapness places it within the reach of the poorest. It is alike welcome
to the schoolboy who has a few cents of pocket money to invest in such
delicacies as schoolboys are wont to indulge in; to the laboring man,
after the burden and heat of the day are over; and to the wealthy, who
has at his command the means of enjoyment of the most expensive kind.
The first strawberries during the season generally appear at the
Broadway saloons about the middle of May, and are sold at the very
modest price of fifty cents per pint basket. A placard in the window
announces that a plateful, with cream, may be had for a similar small
consideration. These early strawberries are from Virginia; but as they
are small, with immaturity stamped upon them, it is to be presumed that
there is not a very great rush for fifty cents’ worth, even by such as
feel like boasting that they had eaten strawberries and cream ere the
frosts of winter had well disappeared. Soon, however, New Jersey begins
to give up her stores of the delicious fruit, and prices fall from fifty
to fifteen, from fifteen to six, from six to five, and finally from five
to three cents per pint.
Almost the entire early crop of the New York market is grown in New
Jersey, and by far the largest quantity brought into the city by any one
route reaches New York by the New York and Erie Railroad Company. The
berries are conveyed in carts and wagons from the gardens where they
are grown to the several railroad stations, whence they find their way
to the respective ferries. Great quantities, however, are conveyed in
wagons direct to the ferries. Hence it is next to impossible to obtain
exact information of the actual quantities brought into the city, and
consumed by the inhabitants. All that can be done is to convey an
approximate idea of the immense extent of the trade, leaving the reader
to imagine what must be the actual quantity, since that of which
authentic information can be obtained is so enormous.
The berries are largely shipped from Burlington, Monmouth, and Middlesex
counties in New Jersey. Large quantities are also grown in Bergen. The
Bergen County Journal says, that from data furnished, it considers
10,000,000 baskets a low estimate of the quantity sent to market in one
season from that county alone. This evidently is a mistake, for, after a
very close inquiry into the matter, it does not appear that any thing
like that quantity has reached New York from all places where the berry
is grown. Even supposing that other markets besides that of New York are
indicated, the quantity named seems too large for credibility, as having
been grown in a single county, however favorable the soil may be to the
production of the fruit, and notwithstanding the utmost indefatigability
of the growers; and the more so when the Journal adds, “that thousands,
perhaps millions of baskets, have rotted on the vines.”
The opening of the Northern Railroad of New Jersey to Piermont, is
another circumstance which has given an impetus to the trade. The
opening took place just at the commencement of the season of 1859,--not
early enough for the growers to make their arrangements for a very large
crop, but just in time to enable them to take full advantage of the
means of transit over the line, of the then ripening crop. Accordingly,
as far as can be ascertained, 400,000 baskets were brought over the new
road. This looks well for a commencement, and holds out a good promise
of an enormous trade in future seasons. The section of country through
which the line runs, quietly undulating, is well watered, and admirably
adapted to the growth of the strawberry; and as the settlements are
within easy distances of the stations, the fruit can be sent into market
fresh picked and sound, retaining its full, rich flavor.
The cultivation of the strawberry is very little attended to on Long
Island. On inquiry at the railroad station there, it was found that so
small is the quantity brought over by it, that it was not deemed worth
while to charge freight for the few parcels carried by travellers. The
quantity may be safely set down at 25,000 baskets. No business is done
in this fruit over the Hudson or the Harlem and New Haven Railroads.
Besides the railroads, the steamboats bring to market large quantities
of the fruit. It is impossible to obtain correct statistical information
of the trade from this source. The quantity brought from Keyport, N. J.,
alone, by two vessels, has been estimated at 1,750,000 baskets.
The following is an epitome of the business done, as far as can be
ascertained:--
Baskets.
Over the New York and Erie Railroad 3,253,407
“ “ Railroad of Northern New Jersey 400,000
“ “ Long Island Railroad 25,000
“ “ Camden and Amboy Railroad 1,100,000
From Keyport, in vessels 1,750,000
“ Hoboken and other places, in wagons 500,000
---------
7,028,407
Say seven millions of baskets, in round numbers. Of the three and a
quarter millions brought over the New York and Erie Railroad, somewhat
more than one-half are from Ramsey’s and Allendale station, and the
remainder from the stations on the Union Railroad and the Piermont
branch. Of those brought by the Camden and Amboy Railroad, the great
bulk is from Burlington county.
It is difficult to form a correct estimate of the average price at which
strawberries sell; but by carefully collating the statements of the
principal wholesale dealers, and taking the mean of the several prices,
throughout the season, $3 per hundred baskets, by wholesale, seems to be
pretty near the mark. From the wholesale dealers the article sometimes
changes hands twice, before reaching the consumer, who, taking the
average, may be said to have paid 3½ cents per basket, or $3.50 per
hundred. Consequently, it will be seen that the retailer makes but a
small profit, especially in cases where the strawberries reach him
through the hands of the middle-man, who of course manages to make his
share of gain in the transfer. The wholesale dealers generally sell on
commission, accounting to the growers for their sales, and reserving ten
per cent. for their trouble. The largest quantity sold by any one dealer
is about 300,000 baskets. The freight charge over the railroads is 12½
cents per hundred baskets.
The following figures will show what a conspicuous part this apparently
insignificant berry plays in our social economics:
700,000 baskets, at $3.75 per hundred $26,250
Profit to the retailers, at 75 cents per hundred 5,250
Commission to wholesale dealers, at 10 per cent. 2,625
Freight, at 12½ cents per hundred, all round 875
This is only as far as can be ascertained, but there is reason to
believe that thousands of baskets of strawberries find their way into
the New York markets, of which no account can be obtained, thus tending
to swell the enormous expenditure on this almost the smallest of summer
fruits.
It is equally difficult to ascertain the quantity of this fruit which
pours into Philadelphia also, during the season, but it is probably
two-thirds as great as that which goes to New York. There are numerous
growers near the former city, who dispatch to it from twenty to sixty
bushels each, daily.
An experienced writer on this subject estimates the consumption of
strawberries in the four great cities as follows--
New York 54,000 bushels.
Philadelphia 14,000 “
Boston 11,000 “
Cincinnati 14,000 “
This estimate of the consumption of Philadelphia is a very erroneous
one, as the consumption must fully equal that of New York. In 1860, no
less than 173,500 quarts of strawberries passed through the gate of only
one of the numerous gravel turnpikes in New Jersey, on their way to
Philadelphia. This is equal to 5,442½ bushels, more than one-third of
the quantity estimated as above.
He says that 8,000,000 baskets (five to the quart) have been received in
New York in a season. He adds, that the crop around these four cities
does not exceed 25 to 50 bushels per acre, although instances are
reported where 100, and even 130 to 140 bushels have been produced on an
acre, or in that proportion. The returns, therefore, vary from $100 to
$800 per acre, and the prices range from $1.50 down to 12½ cents a
quart. The former price is readily obtained in Washington at the opening
of the season.
He thence argues that in order to supply New York and vicinity with
strawberries, about 1,500 acres, of the choicest land is required, and
500 for the other cities named. This he alleges to be at least four
times as much land as is either appropriate or necessary for the object,
if the nature and cultivation of the strawberry were only as well
understood as the raising of corn. He contends that a crop of thirty
bushels of strawberries to the acre, is only about proportionate to a
corn crop of ten bushels on the same ground. He says that a strawberry
plantation is seldom seen without having, after the first year, many
more plants upon the ground than can obtain air or light sufficient to
fruit well. The consequence is, that all our city markets are mainly
supplied with inferior fruit, simply because some of the commonest kinds
continue to produce a little stunted, sour fruit, even under the worst
treatment. Superior, well-grown fruit will easily produce twice and four
times as much to the acre, and will command prices from two to four
times larger in the city markets: making the avails and the difference
from the same land to be 25 bushels at 12½ cents a quart, or at least
125 bushels at 25 cents a quart, or $1,000 or $100 an acre. He lays it
down that an acre ought to be made to yield 125 bushels, and that no
grower should be satisfied with less.
That this yield and these profits can be realized, there are numerous
evidences. Small plots of ground, thoroughly cultivated, have yielded
even a double ratio. One grower in Connecticut realized $215 from
strawberries raised on twenty-five rods of ground, or at the rate of
$1,300 per acre. A citizen of Maine has raised them, on a small lot, at
the rate of 300 bushels an acre. Another in New Jersey cleared $1,100
from three acres, and one of the agricultural societies in that State
awarded the strawberry premium to a gentleman whose ground produced them
at the rate of $1,222 an acre, clear profit. I have seen a crop ripening
on three acres for which the owner was offered $800 as it stood, the
buyer to pick and take it away at his own expense. The offer was
declined, and the owner realized $1,300 clear. Mr. Fuller, of Brooklyn,
has grown at the rate of 600 bushels per acre, on a small plot of the
Bartlett; and by the same mode of treatment, 400 of the Triomphe de
Gand.
All these returns are unquestionably the effects of high culture. Those
who fail to practise it, also fail to realize such returns. The slovenly
cultivator complains that his strawberries run out. But this is because
he permits the weeds and grass to run in and occupy the ground. The
plant has no inherent tendency to degenerate. For the last few years,
immense demand has existed for Wilson’s Albany Seedling. Those at all
conversant with the subject, know that plenty of room is requisite to
get the greatest quantity of runners from a given number of plants--the
sale being perfectly sure, all dealers give this room; the consequence
is, while the plants are worth say $10 per 1000, all are fine large
plants, and give a fair crop, even the first year after planting. Such
plants tell their own story, and the demand continues. In a short time,
prices come down; and the supply increasing beyond demand, the dealer no
longer thinks it worth while to give this room expressly for the growth
of plants: the beds take care of themselves, hence bear but little, and
the plants furnished are always weak and spindling. These require the
second year to fruit; perhaps, in the interim, new kinds are pressed
into notice, and from the old beds it becomes more and more difficult to
obtain strong plants, until the cry is raised that the once celebrated
strawberry has run its race. Now, the question is, whether the same
kinds under the same circumstances, that is, strong runners from strong
old plants, in good soil and plenty of room, will not continue to be
productive.
As this is not designed to be a treatise on the art of raising
strawberries, so I shall not enlarge upon the subject. Every grower
seems to have a method of his own, which he prefers over all others.
There are works upon the subject, containing numerous facts with which
every careful beginner should make himself familiar. But even in these
are to be discovered the most extraordinary collisions of opinion,--one,
for instance, recommending generous manuring, another insisting that
poor ground only should be used, while a third declares that frequent
stirring of the soil will of itself insure abundant crops. Amid all
these antagonisms one great fact stands prominently forth, that the
strawberry plant will continue to live and produce fruit under every
possible variety of treatment; while another is equally conspicuous,
that the better the treatment the better the return. It would be
presumptuous in a novice like me to undertake to reconcile these
unaccountable discrepancies of the great strawberry doctors of the
country. But I have learned enough to be satisfied that _soil_ has much
to do in the successful cultivation of this fruit. A variety which
flourishes in one soil will be almost barren in another. Hence, in the
hands of one grower it proves a great prize, but in those of another it
is comparatively worthless. Without doubt it is to this cause that much
of the diversity of opinion as to certain varieties, as well as to the
mode of culture, is to be attributed.
Neither will I undertake to decide what sorts, among the cloud of new
aspirants for public patronage which are annually coming into notice,
are to be adopted as the best. One is in danger of being confused by
going largely into the cultivation of a multitude of varieties. Having
secured a supply of a few which he has proved to be congenial with his
particular soil, he should adhere to them. Small trials of the new
varieties may be safely made, but wholesale substitutions are many times
disastrous undertakings. Having found out such as suit my soil, I am
content to keep them. The Albany seedling grows upon it with unsurpassed
luxuriance, and I shall probably never abandon it. Meantime I have tried
the Bartlett, and found it a rampant and hardy grower, bearing the most
abundant crops of luscious fruit. So I find McAvoy’s Superior to be a
beautiful berry, and a vigorous runner. In my soil the Triomphe de Gand
does not realize the extravagant promise of fruitfulness which heralded
its introduction to public notice. My neighbors also complain of it in
the same way. But for my own family consumption, I prefer it to any
strawberry I have ever eaten. The flavor is rich and luscious beyond
description, while the crisp seeds crackle between your impatient
grinders with reverberations loud enough to penetrate the utmost depths
of a hungry stomach. So long as my vines continue to produce only
one-fourth as much as others, I shall continue to grow this
unsurpassable variety. It sends off runners in amazing abundance. When
grown in stools, with the runners clipped off weekly, it bears profusely
of enormous fruit; and this method, I am inclined to believe, is the
true corrective of all unfriendly elements in the soil. In addition to
these, I have, in common with “all the world and the rest of mankind,”
the Tribune strawberries, now growing finely in pots, and carefully
housed for crop next summer. Having seen them in fruit, and having also
entire confidence that the association by whom they are distributed
would no more spread abroad a worthless article than they would
circulate a vicious sheet, so I regard the propagation of these three
plants as the beginning of a new era in the history of strawberry
culture.
I have very little doubt that there are specific manures for the
strawberry, and one of them will probably be found in Baugh’s Rawbone
Superphosphate of Lime. This article is manufactured in Philadelphia,
and is made of raw, unburnt bones, which in their raw state contain
one-third of animal matter, and combines ammonia and phosphoric acid in
the proper proportions for stimulating and nourishing vegetable growth.
I have used it as freely as I could afford to, on turnips, celery, and
strawberries. On the two former its effect was very decidedly favorable.
My celery uniformly exceeds that of my neighbors, both in size,
crispness, and flavor, and consequently commands a higher price. But its
effect on strawberries has been perfectly marvellous. On some of them
the superphosphate was scattered on both sides of the row, whence, by
repeated hoeing and raking, with the aid of sundry rains, its finer
particles found their way to the roots. The result has been a robust
growth of the plants, such as cannot be seen on any other part of my
ground. They hold up their heads, their leaves and fruit-stalks some
inches higher than any others, while their whole appearance indicates
that they have been fed with a more congenial fertilizer than usual.
Many of them have put forth double crowns, showing that they are
prepared to furnish twice the ordinary quantity of fruit. So impressed
am I with the superior value of this fertilizer, that I have, this
autumn of 1863, manured as many rows as I could, and shall hereafter
substitute it wholly for all barnyard manure. It is applied with the
utmost facility, it contains the seeds of no pestiferous weeds, and its
virtues are so highly concentrated that a small amount manures a large
surface. It is quite possible that it may not do so well on some soils
as others, but no farmer can be sure of this until he has made the
trial. Hence, as that can be made with a single bag, the sooner it is
undertaken the better it will be for those to whose soil it may be found
congenial.
Thousands of dollars’ worth of the common wild blackberry are annually
taken to the cities and sold. For these berries the price has, within a
few years, actually risen one-half. The traffic in them on some
railroads is immense, especially on those leading into Philadelphia from
Delaware. Millions of quarts are annually sold in New York and
Cincinnati. A single township in New Jersey sells to the amount of
$2,000 and one county in Indiana to that of $10,000. The huckleberry
trade of New Jersey is also very large. A single buyer in Monmouth
county purchases sixty bushels daily during the picking season. All
these wild berries are gathered by women and children who, without
these crops, would find no other employment. But they grow in every wood
and swamp, in every neglected headland, while upon the old fields they
enter into full possession. As they cost nothing but the labor of
gathering them, so they are the bountiful means of drawing thousands of
dollars into the pockets of the industrious poor. The cranberry swamps
of New Jersey are as celebrated for the abundance of their products as
their owners have been for permitting them to become the prey of all who
choose to strip them of their fruit.
Thus the demand for even the wild berries continues to enlarge. Hence
there must be sure sale for those of a superior quality. In fact, the
cultivation of fruit is yet in a state of infancy; it is just beginning
to assume the character its merits deserve. Probably more trees have
been raised, more orchards planted, within the past ten or twelve years
than in all previous time. Within a few years past it has received an
unusual degree of attention. Plantations of all sorts, orchards,
gardens, and nurseries, have increased in number and extent to a degree
quite unprecedented; not in one section or locality, but from the
extreme north to the southern limits of the fruit-growing region.
Horticultural societies have been organized in all parts; while
exhibitions, and National, State, and local Conventions of fruit-growers
have been held to discuss the merits of fruits, and other kindred
topics, until it has become the desire of almost every man, whether he
live in town or country, to enjoy fine fruits, to provide them for his
family, and, if possible, to cultivate the trees in his own garden with
his own hands.
There are now single nurseries in this country where a million
fruit-trees are advertised for sale. If every hundred-acre farm were to
receive fifty trees, all the nurseries would be swept bare in a single
year. The States east of, and contiguous to, the Mississippi river,
would require ten thousand acres of land for three hundred years, to
plant ten acres of fruit-trees on every hundred-acre farm in this
portion of the Union: and this estimate is based on the supposition that
all the trees planted do well, and flourish. If only a fifth of them
perish, then two thousand years would be required, at the present rate
of supply, to furnish the above-named quantity of orchard for every
farm. Some nurseries already cover 300 to 500 acres, but even these go
but a short way in supplying the immense demand for fruit-trees. How
absurd, then, in the face of such an array of facts as this, the idea
that our markets are to be surfeited with fruit! Thousands of acres of
peach-trees, bending under their heavy crops, are still needed for the
consumption of but one city; and broad fifty-acre fields reddened with
enormous products, may yet send with profit hundreds of bushels of
strawberries daily into the other. If, instead of keeping three days,
sorts were now added that would keep three months, many times the amount
would be needed. But the market would not be confined to large cities.
Railroads and steamboats would open new channels of distribution
throughout the country for increased supplies. Nor would the business
stop here. Large portions of the Eastern Continent would gladly become
purchasers as soon as sufficient quantities should create facilities for
a reasonable supply. Our best apples are eagerly bought in London and
Liverpool, where $9 per barrel is not an unusual price for the best
Newtown pippins. And, by being packed in ice, pears gathered early in
autumn have been safely sent to Jamaica, and strawberries to Barbadoes.
The Baldwin apple has been furnished in good condition in the East
Indies two months after it is entirely gone in Boston. The world has
never yet been surfeited with fruit.