STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 83 



is anything which is likely to fix the thoughts of children upon 

 the home it is the growing of plants. There are different sides 

 to that, too. I remember in my own case that my thoughts and 

 memories of the strawberry were not so much connected with 

 the berry and cream side, as it was with the weeding exercise 

 which was mentioned. That was quite an important part of 

 my early experience. The weeding of strawberries and the 

 weeding of carrots were closely associated with my earliest mem- 

 ories of garden work, and as I got down on my knees and fol- 

 lowed that row I used to measure it with my eye and mentally 

 subtract each foot from the total length as I progressed. But 

 if we practice modern methods these hand-weeding difficulties 

 of culture may be entirely obviated. 



I would like to say that in New York state, in the principal 



strawberry county in that state, there are now growing up two 



sets of strawberry growers, — one set which has the ideal of 



quality before it, the other set which has the ideal of quantity 



before it. The growers for quality select their varieties, practice 



certain methods of culture and usually reap higher rewards than 



the other set. The one is the strawberry farmer, and the other 



one is the strawberry culturist. In one instance which I knew 



of very well, the man grows Marshall — I don't know whether 



the reader of the paper has grown that variety or not, but the 



Marshall is to the strawberry what the Spitzenberg or the 



Mcintosh Red is to the great class of apples, — it represents to 



my mind at any rate the acme of excellence, but like many of 



these finer varieties it is not as productive, and it requires special 



care. Now the Marshall should be cultivated in narrow rows 



instead of wide rows. The ordinary way is to cultivate your 



strawberries in a matted row of two to two and one-half or even 



three feet wide; and in these rows where the plants are not 



thinned out, naturally there is a great deal of competition and it 



is a struggle in which the fittest survives. The general size of 



the fruit is brought down. But in growing the Marshall this 



grower, as I say, keeps his rows narrow and thins his plants. 



He arranges and sets a plant here and carries out four runners 



at opposite points, making a row about fifteen indies wide, and 



having the plants spaced as it were, each one is able to take 



advantage of its circumstances to the fullest extent. So much 



for the growing. 



