STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 79 



and only partially matures. There are no apparent indications 

 of an insect at work on leaf, stem or root. Occasionally a Cuth- 

 bert is similarly affected, and last summer in a distant pasture 

 I found some plants of the wild raspberry in the same condition. 

 I would like to know the cause and remedy if there is one — have 

 feared it might eventually destroy all our varieties. 



Our Loudons have shown no signs of the disease, if it should 

 be so called. They have proved perfectly hardy, remaining 

 upright through the winter without any protection and leafing 

 out to the tips in the spring. The fruit ripens a little earlier 

 than the Cuthbert, which makes it very desirable. We have 

 never raised any for market. Mr. E. P. Powell says it is not 

 to be recommended for that purpose, as it does not bear shipping. 



Of currants we have several varieties : Fay, Cherry, Versailles, 

 both red and white, Old Dutch and some unnamed. Our best* 

 white currant is a seedling found growing wild in the field years 

 ago. If the rows are kept clean and heavily dressed, the bushes 

 properly pruned, the currant worm subjugated, provided a heavy 

 frost does not occur when the plants are in bloom, a luxuriant 

 crop is the result. 



Our currant plot always reminds me of Rip Van Winkle's 

 garden, which he said was the most pestilent little piece of 

 ground in the whole country — for witch grass will insidiously 

 creep in and all at once the bushes are smothered. Mulching 

 only encourages the grass to grow and flourish. Will some one 

 please suggest a remedy? 



We have had no success whatever with the gooseberry. It 

 neither grows nor fruits. The cause to us is unknown. Our 

 main crop is the strawberry. A number of years ago before 

 we began farming, a friend gave us some plants of the Charles 

 Downing. Knowing absolutely nothing of strawberry culture, 

 we set them carefully out. The more they were tended, the 

 greater were our trials. The runners overspread all our little 

 plot in a hopeless tangle, the berries were few and far between, 

 no larger than wild ones ; thus our first attempt proved a perfect 

 failure. The next fall, a neighbor on moving away told us to 

 help ourselves from a bed which he had fruited. It was consid- 

 erably grown up to weeds and grass, but finding many beautiful 

 looking plants with large, fresh foliage, we proceeded to take up 



