Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 April 1896 — Small Fruit Farms Pay. [ARTICLE]

Small Fruit Farms Pay.

‘ ‘Contrary to the general opinion,” said Mr. Russell Stephens, one of the largest fruit growers of the Sacramento valley, “it is the small fruit farms in California which pay the best. The big frui t farms are very expensive to manage, and as every person about them as to be hired, there are many leaks and weak points. The transportation feature is, perhaps, more important than all things else combined, for unless the fruit can be shipped, and properly shipped, there is no money in the business. In the end the big farms will pay, but at present the small growers have the best of it, for they can handle as they-raise. It is strange to us that you people in the east pay twenty-five cents per pound for Malaga or Tokay grapes, when out there we are glad to sell them for from sls to sl7 per ton, or less than one cent per pound. The railroads and middle men get all the money, and what is wors'', the consumer has to pay such high prices that he does not feel able to buy all the fruit he should.”