of plenty. They are splendid people, hard working, thrifty and
industrious, and make most excellent citizens. Although but few have
had the opportunity to attend school, they are most intelligent
farmers, ready and willing to adopt methods that will financially
improve their business. The majority are, however, limited in land
area and many times are obliged to crop their small farms to excess,
for strawberries are the main cash crop, and very few who have more
recently come here have the necessary funds to acquire much land or
equipment. The acreage in berries will vary from one-half an acre to
four acres. Cultural methods are practically all hand work. The land
is cleared by hand, plants set and runners placed by hand, fertilizer
applied by hand, hand hoed, hand weeded and naturally hand picked.

The rows are set 4-1/2 to 5 feet apart, plants 14 to 15 inches in the
row. The matted row system is used, but instead of allowing runners
to set at will, each one is placed. The beds are raised six inches,
rows when fully set are from 3-1/2 to 4 feet wide. Pine needles are
used for a mulch mainly because they were handy at first, clean of
weeds and easy to apply, but the pine needle is getting more and
more obsolete, like the tallow candle, and unless the grower changes
his method of mulching or else uses a motor truck and goes a long
distance he is out of luck in the future.

The industry has seen hard times and about six years ago it was
doubtful if it could survive. Growers were working as individuals
and selling their berries and buying their fertilizer, crates and
baskets. It was not uncommon for one grower to ship his season's
crop to as many as seven or eight different commission houses. This
all led to confusion. The commission man could not depend on a
steady and sure supply. By splitting up a crop in this way the