LITTLE INDUSTRIES FOR WOMEN.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6120, 5 March 1898, Page 3

LITTLE INDUSTRIES FOR WOMEN.

THE GROWING OF SMALL FRUIT. (By Mary Gaunt in the "Argus") At the final meeting of the Educational Congress, hold at Earl's Court last July, the subject under discussion was " Agricultural Education for Women." Mr Horace Plunket, a man who has, perhaps, done more than any other man to bring agricultural prosperity to Ireland, presided, and many people of weight spoke on the subject. They recommended that women should learn all that they could concerning gardening, dairying, poultry, and bees. Some thought that possibly gardening might be too hard for a woman, but after all many a girl spends hours in her garden for pleasure alone. She weeds, she digs, she hoes, she hesitates not to put on the manure, she does many an arduous day's work, and the result is, in this genial climate, that many a garden that is scarcely ever touched by any but feminine hands is a wealth of blossoms. But in the ordinary flower garden there is no profit. If all that steady work were given to something that would bring in a little money it would be much pleasanter for the worker, and it might easily be done. To the Americans, as far as I can gather in my researches, we owe most of our knowledge on small fruit growing. The idea of a small farm with a woman to work it seems very familiar to them, and, by way possibly of making it popular and attractive, they publish little books which relate in the form of a story how the thing is done. I don't know that I exactly care to assimilate my knowledge in the form of an improving story, but still there is much to be learned from " 2000dol a year on fruit and flowers," "ooOdol a year from the Strawberry Garden," and "Farming by Inches and with Brains," by Charles Barnard, and as the Department of Agriculture present the book as a prize, I can only conclude it is really as gopd as it seems to be, and, therefore, I recommend any girl thinking of going in for farming on a small scale, or, indeed, any idle girl, to get it and see what can be done. Some profit is certain — quite enough to make the girl whose time is otherwise valueless turn her attention to it ; but the exact ■amount to be made is very difficult to say. One thing only is certain : Given suitable soil, given intense cultivation — that is, all the care and attention that a girl with no other occupation can give to a small piece of ground — and the return will be very good ; it wil probably surpass all the expectations of the neighbours round, if it does not fulfil the worker's. The evidence given before the Royal Commission *on Vegetable Products in Victoria is worth considering, and there it stated that a crop of 2* tons of strawberries per acre may be expected, and that 5 tons for three acres was a very poor crop, as the strawberries had been destroyed by frost ! Two tons and a half of sti-awberries at 4d a pound means .£93 6s, while at 6d per pound, which the Mutual Store thinks is the average price of strawberries during the year, it means <£140. The commission was told tli at as much as 71b of fruit had been picked off one plant in one season. This, o£ course, is a phenomenal yield, but a,t -ilb per plant the returns would be something like <£4o per acre. There is no doubt whatever that a small plot of ground, which is carefully cultivated, and has an immense amount of attention bestowed on it, will yield more in proportion than a large area, which, in this land of dear labour, ha just as much, or, rather, just as little labour bestowed on it as the gardener thinks will bring it through. Fuller, one of the American authorities on the growing of small fruit, relates how, by way of experiment, he took a sixteenth of an acre of very poor land, dug into it twelve two-horse loads of well-rotted cow-dung, and planted it with strawberry plants. For mulching he used " salt hay," which, I presume, but I may be wrong, is the long, coarse grass growing in the salt marshes, and, after carefnlly looking after this plot of ground, never letting a weed appear, and allowing but very few runners, in the second year he gathered 400 quarts — 5001b, I take it— of strawberries, which, at 6d a pound, would mean .£l2 10s, or £100 an acre; and this was off soil which he expressly says would have produced nothing at all without manure. And, what is more, the crop the next year was quite equal to the first one, and the bed went on bearing for five years, requiring very little more monev to be spent on it. Peter Henderson, another writer on the culture of small fruits in America, relates how once he actually saw 20,000 quarts of strawberries— 2s,ooolb— gathered por acre, and he considers 5000 quarts— 6l2olb— the least that may be expected. I can seo no reason why we should not do as Avell as that here, for if our hob summer i3 disastrous, their great frosts must be equally hard to contend against. If it is necessary to buy a piece of land and fence it, the beginning of. fruit-grow-ing will be rather expensive for a girl, ioi thi land must of necessity be at her veiy door, andthefencingof anacre with barbed wire, ordinary wire, and wire - netting, wm cost something between £U and £*>, according to the shape of the course, I need hardly say that as the land to be fenced gets bigger the > cost *"*£*£ ia a surprising manner. Such *fenc<nsa |

good one, and will last for years, but the putting of it up -will make a big hole in a poor girl's capital. But suppose she can get an acre of her father's land, at a merely nominal rent, or could rent for a pound or two a field already fenced, adjoining her house, then she could start fruit-growing on a very small capital, and might soon earn enough to further extend her operations. Wire-netting is cheap, and will remedy till defects in a fence already standing, and if the land is within tho_ town borders so much the better, it is easier to reach a market, and with the ; water supply laid on she will be able at a small cost to keep her little garden moist and fruitful long after the rest of the | country ia dried up. An acre will be quite enough to begin with.and the cost of ploughing and harrowing an acre is reckoned at .£l. Strawberries are considered to do best on virgin soil, so that if the ground is rich ; it will want no manuring, but every day the virgin soil in • the colony gets less and less, so that it may be necessary to add manure. Well-rotted stable manure is very good for strawberries and is procurable in most places in the colony at Is a load without the cartage, which will probably be about Is Cd a load How much is to be put on depends, of course, on the soil, but strawberries thrive better in rich soil, and it is no good expecting a good crop from poor ground. Speaking roughly, possibly thirty tons of manure to the acre may be enough. Any of the many books on gardening will give full directions for manuring add also hints as to how to get the best most cheaply. Plenty of garden plots have been fertilised by merely carting on to them the rich damp vegetable soil from a neighouring swamp, v " muck" as our American cousins call it. The varieties of strawberries are innumerable, and these varieties vary greatly in their behaviour in different districts, a variety that may bear abundantly in one place being a failure in another. In starting a plantation therefore it would not be wise to plant largely of a variety that had not been previously tested in the neighbourhood, lest after all the trouble and cost of cultivation it might turn out a " duffer." An expert in gardening advises that an experimental plot of a few plants of all the sorts procurable should bo kept by every grower, for though many may prove worthless, one or more sorts may be discovered that show their appreciation of the district by cropping well, and if no strawberries have been grown in the district, his advice may well be taken by the beginner, for it is a fact that in some districts not even the Edith Christy, a Victorian seedling, and a very favourite strawberry in this colony will not grow. But assuming that strawberries will grow in the district, April is the best time to begin plantiug, because then a small crop may be expected the following season, and it is well to have several varieties, one coming in after the other. These conditions are attained by planting the Edifch Christy, the Marguerite, and De Trollope's Victoria. The Captain, too, is a very fine variety, and, being strong and firm fleshed, carries well ; but it is capricious, and does not succeed everywhere. Indeed, as I said ' before, it is impossible to lay down .hard and fast rules as to the variety to be planted ; the grower must be guided by what do well in the neighbourhood, and if there are none grown there, then she must not start strawberry growing until she has ascertained by practical experiment that important point for herself. It will take 10,890 plants to plant an acre with strawberries in rows* 2ft 6in apart with 18in between the plants in the rows, and they may be bought for about fifteen shillings a thousand. Once the plants are in the ground work begins, and it will be the grower's duty to keep the surface of the soil between the rows so lightly loosened that never a weed thinks of appearing. The ideal cultivation for strawberries is firm underneath and a loose shallow tilth on top. They are very impatient of interference with their roots, and as they make fresh roots from the crown every year, it is important that their desire3 in this direction be respected ; but the soil between the rows and all round the plants must be kept from caking by the diligent use of that valuable little implement known as the Dutch hoe. Around the plants possible the hands may have to be used ; there must be no weeds, all the runners must be cut off as they appear, and ! the soil must be well worked through, the winter. When the sun gets hot the ground must lie mulched to a depth of at least two inches. This serves not only to keep the heat from the roots and to hold the moisture, but also to keep the fruit free from dirt. What the ground is to be mulched with depends on what is to be had in the district, spent hops, straw, tan, grass, even gum leaves have been used, and answer excellently; indeed, any of these things would answer well, tan being the least satisfactory, as there is generally so much dust in it that after rain the fruit is likely to be covered with dirt. The following autumn this mulching may be dug in, and will help fertilise the ground, care being taken that the roots arc not disturbed. The strawberry bears two crops, one in November, roughly speaking, and the other about Christmas, and it is then the grower's hardest work begins. The first year, of course, there wiil not be much crop, just enough to show the quality of the fruit and what may be expected the following year ; but whatever there is, it must be picked and sold. The following year the strawberries will be in full bearing. It is hardly necessary to say the baskets and crates must be in readiness before the picking begins, und that picking must be dene as early in the morning as possible before the sun has become too hot. Picking, as a rule, is the great difficulty the grower has to contend with. The fruit must be picked straight into little baskets, each holding a pound of fruit, and thei-e must be a little discrimination used, for it is just as well to put " the best side to London," and the biggest strawberries on top. When the crop is at its height a picker may expect to fill eight baskets an hour, but at other times three or four will be the utmost she can accomplish. Children do not make good pickers, but young girls or old women could probably be hired in any of the country districts, and four could manage an acre. The exact profit, as I said before, is very difficult to arrive at; but, suppose the grower raised a ton of strawberries— 22401b— that would mean £37 6s, at 4d a pound, and the cost altogether should be something between JJI2 and .£ls. Surely a very good return on the money laid out. I have mentioned the strawberry first because it is a very attractive fruit ; but, as a matter of fact, for a beginner there is nothing like a good crop of gooseberries, for ripe gooseberries, when of good size, are very saleable, and pay well. The plants are hardy, and want but little looking after; the crop is certain, not nearly so easily spoiled as the more delicate fruit ; anyone can gather it, and the market is snro. Tear - old tree3 cost about eighteen shillings the hundred, and should be put in in the winter sft apart — that is, 1742 plants to the acre. The soil must be rich and must be kept well worked with the Dutch hoe, so that the tilth may act as a mulch, and conserve the moisture. Roaring lion and Crown Bob, both red gooseberries, are the best market sorts, being heavy bearers and the berries being very large. For good deseert gooseberries Covent Garden, the big fruit shop in Swanston Street, will give up to fourpence a pound ; while the Mutual Store reckons the average price of the ordinary gooseberry at 2£d a po\md. The first year a small crop may be expected, while the next year five pound or six pounds per bush may be gathered. Raspberries, too, are very profitable to grow in a climate and soil that suits them. The ordinary grower reckons they bring him in £20 an acre. Would it not bo well worth the while of some girl in cool, moist C4ippsland, where hot winds, the deadly foe of the raspberry, are not, to plant an acre of her father's land with raspberries ? I would advise anyone desirous of knowing what may be made out of a s-uall garden, to read Puller on " The Culture of Small Fruits," and Peter Henderson's

« Gardening for Profit." These are good books, or at least they ought to be, for the department of agriculture gives them as prizes. To most Australians, I think, they will be a revelation us showing how much, with care and work, may bo ' expected from one small plot of land. I have only briefly touched on the subject of small fruit culture, but I trust 1 have said enough to make a girl with but little money and abundant spare time and energy turn her attention to it. She who can manage an acre profitably will be in a very different position from the girl who is wholly dependent on her father.