Strawberries for the North. 23 



Second Day — Thursday. 



Afternoon Session. 



Half past two was the time fixed for the afternoon session of the 

 Society, but their pleasant river jaunt had so whetted the appetites 

 of its members that it was found necessary to satisfy the cravings 

 of the inner man before proceeding to the discussion of the questions 

 •upon the programme for to day. For this reason, it was fully an hour 

 after the appointed time when the strokes of the President's gavel 

 •called the meeting to order. President Earle then addressed the 

 'Society in the following words : 



The hospitalities of the citizens of New Orleans keep raining down upon 

 ■us. Here is an invitation from the New Orleans Refrigeration Company to 

 "visit their establishment at any time during our stay in the city, for which 

 we returned our sincere thanks. 



Gentlemen, we are now prepared to begin the serious work of our session^ 

 To-day, both the afternoon and evening sessions have been set apart for the 

 •discussion of small fruits, beginning with the strawberry. 



We have several papers prepared, and the authors are present. They will 

 Tdc read in succession. After a portion, perhaps most of them, have been 

 read, we will have a discussion upon them. Our first paper this afternoon 

 will be by Hon. J. M. Smith, of Green Bay, President of the Wisconsin Hor- 

 ticultural Society. Mr. Smith is one of the largest strawberrj' growers of 

 the Northwest, and it seems fitting that a man who has succeeded in growing 

 •over four hundred bushels of strawberries to the acre should be asked to tell 

 us how to grow strawberries at the North. Your attention is invited to Mr. 

 Smith's paper: 



STRAWBERRIES FOR THE NORTH, AND HOW TO GROW THEM. 



BY J. M. SMITH. 



In the entire list of our small fruits, the strawberry is the only one that 

 •can be grown with any certainty from the borders of the torrid zone to arctic 

 regions. It may be said that the north temperate zone is its most favored 

 clime. Yet, with its adaptation to so many different climates and soils, it is 

 only within the last twenty-five years that this most delicious of our small 

 fruits has become at all common. 



When I was a little boy and living, as I did, much of the time at the house 

 of my grandparents, my grandmother used to keep a little bed of strawber- 

 ries of the variety (as I now suppose) known as one of the White Alpines. 



They were kept, as far as possible, for extra occasions. The supply, as is 

 generally the case with those varieties, was exceedingly limited. 



