We know of no branch of rural industry which requires so much capital and outlay for its space as the cultivation of strawberries, and we know of no business so risky or fruit so perishable. Still it is our first fruit of the season, is in great demand and is very popular. Strawberry culture is yet unsettled. Most of those who failed, did so because they did not have capital enough, or were not able to hang on. We believe that where expenses are light and shipping facilities good, and plants reasonably well cultivated, that an average profit of $100 to $200 per acre can be realized regularly every year. Our shipments this year average about $200 per acre net over all expenses; still fully $250 worth of spoiled fruit occurred during the season. To make small fruits really successful in the highest degree, the grower must have capital, own his land entirely free from debt, support his own family, cows, horses, etc., on his land, spend no money off the place for manures, but make it all at home, and have a variety of fruits ripening from the earliest down to the latest of the season, so that the expenses of the farm may be divided equally among all, and not concentrated on one thing.

Those who have been most successful in small fruits have been so situated that they could sell plants as well as the fruit, thus realizing double profit from the same area. An intelligent idea of the market is necessary to a successful fruit-grower, otherwise he cannot cater acceptably to the buying public. Growers often are misled by supposing that any thing is good and profitable which will grow well and produce abundantly, but they forget that, after all, they are not the judges, for it is the market buyers who determine what to buy and what to discard. This instance is well exemplified in the Kittatinny blackberry: growers like to cultivate it, for it is very productive, but the market men decline to touch it, for they buy only from looks, color and size, and hence discard it altogether, in favor of the Wilson and Lawton. A good knowledge of the fruit market is indispensable to success in fruit culture.