Northwestern Horticultural Society. 257 



One thing more in regard to the Wilson. If you are picking 

 to ship, you must pick about as soon as they are thoroughly col- 

 ored, but if for-your own use, leave them on the vines until they 

 are a deep dull red, and you have a berry very far superior to 

 any Wilson that you can get in the market. The general com- 

 plaint is that it is too acid. The truth is, it is almost invariably 

 picked before it is ripe. Try my plan, my friends, and see if lam 

 not correct. I have thus given my view with regard to the cul- 

 ture of this most delicious of all small fruits. It is twenty years 

 since I picked my first Wilson. Since that time I have but once 

 failed to have a crop that would not, at least, pay expenses. A 

 few times they have been what I termed moderate crops ; but 

 most of them have been large, and some of them simply enor- 

 mous. Previous to the introduction of the Wilson, I had been 

 more successful with the Early Scarlet than any other variety. 

 As compared with the Wilson, I do not claim to have been really 

 successful with any of the almost countless new varieties that 

 have been thrown out upon the public for the last twenty years. 

 If we can judge from the almost entire absence of almost every 

 variety except the Wilson in our markets, both east and west, my 

 experience will probably correspond with that of the great 

 majority of the growers of the country. Some of the large varie- 

 ties like Jacunda and others of that class, it is said, will do better 

 upon a clay soil than upon any other. I have never tried the 

 experiment. Upon my soil, with the best cultivation that I could 

 give it, it was almost an entire failure. 



Here let me say that while I decidedly prefer such a soil as I 



have mentioned, the Wilson will grow and yield good crops upon 



almost any soil except a very wet or very dry one ; and perhaps 



I should add a very poor one. If I am correct in my views, it 



will readily be seen that there is scarcely a forty acre farm in this 



state where the owner might not have a full supply of this fruit 



for at least one month, and generally more than that in each year. 



Almost every owner of a little garden plot may have. They 



should be upon the table of every farmer during their season, and 



should be as abundant there as bread and potatoes ; and as often 



as any of the family desire them. In my own family, I believe 

 17— Hort. 



