Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 53, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 March 1909 — The Pickle and Cabbage Business at Gifford. [ARTICLE]

The Pickle and Cabbage Business at Gifford.

John Resh, the superintendent of the Bloomington Pickle Co’s, business in Jasper county, with headquarters in Gifford, was in this city a few days ago. The company has had a very profitable experience in this county and the business is no longer of an experimental nature. To this end Mr. Resh is pleased to announce and the information will be well received by the growers, that the price for pickles will be increased this year from 50 to 60 cents a bushel, which is a 20 per cent increase. Cabbage will probably remain the same price as last year, about $9 a ton. It is estimated that from 10 to 20 tons of cabbage can be grown to the acre if properly attended and the season is favorable in the way of well distributed rains. It will be remembered that A. C. Ruble, of Bloomington, was the manager «of the plant two years ago. It was then located at Newland, and he had taken many large orders for sauer kraut, and when the hard times came on in the fall of 1807 many of the orders were cancelled. It looked' as though Ruble had made a bad blunder, but later developments proved that he was all right. The kraut sold this last year for more than it would have a year before and as it had kept perfectly the company made a great amount of money. Ruble was a great hustler and worried a great deal about the sales that he had reported and which backed up on him following the panic. He went back to Bloomington and resumed work with the company, but his mind gave way and he is now said to be hopelessly insane.

The pickle business is a fine thing for the country about Gifford, Newland, Laura and other points and Mr. Resh reports that a greater acreage is ex<pected this year than last.