REPORTS FROM LOCAL SOCIETIES. 113 



Whilo these remarks may not be so applicable to small fruits as to the larger 

 kinds, on account of the greater length of time required to bring many of the 

 latter into bearing, yet let no one think that it is a short or easy task to fully 

 decide many questions in small fruit culture. Indeed some of them can only 

 be decided by each one for himself and for his particular Ideality. Take for 

 instance the question. Which is the best strawberry? and probably the' majority 

 within the territory embraced by this Society would unhesitatingly answer Wil- 

 son's Albany: and yet how often do we hear and read accounts of varieties 

 which are said to excel it in almost: every particular. This might be easily 

 understood if it came only from those who had plants to sell, but they fre- 

 quently come from disinterested persons who, having tried them, pronounce 

 them superior, and they undoubtedly are in some places, for while we may think 

 that in this locality for general cultivation for market Wilson's Albany takes 

 the lead of all other varieties, yet we would not presume to say, nor indeed can 

 it truthfully be said of any one kind of fruit, that in all places and under all 

 circumstances it is the best. The objection which is urged more than any other 

 against the Wilson is its acid flavor. I remember reading a statement that it 

 was good for everything but one, it was not good to eat. But if the person who 

 wrote that could sometimes when hungry be fed on ripe Wilson strawberries, he 

 would probably change his mind. I say ripe, because as they are often picked 

 they are not so, but are only colored. But if left on the vines until fully ripe 

 it would not be difficult to find those who would pronounce their sprightly acid 

 flavor superior to the almost cloying sweetness of some of the so-called better 

 sorts. 



But as it is not my purpose to dwell much upon varieties, let us notice my 

 method of cultivating the strawberry, which, if worthy of a name at all, might 

 be called the hap-hazard system. The plants are set among fruit trees and 

 the cultivation of the latter is rather the primary object, to which the former 

 are secondary. The plants are set about 3^ feet apart ^ach way, which gives 

 five rows of vines to each row of trees, and as they are kept in hills this leaves 

 plenty of room to cultivate both ways with a horse, and hence a great saving 

 on one very important item of expense, hand hoeing. A bed treated in this 

 way does not so soon become run out with weeds and grass. I have had 

 one lot in bearing four years, and judging from the last crop one might think 

 them good for four years more, if the trees had not grown so large as to require 

 the space, for the cultivation of which the strawberries had much more than 

 paid. They require little more cultivation than a crop of corn. This of course 

 does not always keep them in a fancy condition, but it usually insures plenty of 

 berries of a size and quality not by any means always excelled by more expensive 

 and crowded systems. The profit per acre of this plan varies of course like any 

 other, but would not be likely to equal closer setting, hence it should only bo 

 practiced by those who have plenty of land and do not care so much about the 

 yield per acre, as long as the residt obtained from the amount of expense and 

 labor employed is satisfactory. In setting out a plantation of strawberries I 

 would choose a soil that is naturally a little moist, then in case of drouth about 

 the time of ripening there might be an abundance of berries when others on soils 

 less damp were badly dried up, and hence of course they would be scarce in 

 market and prices would be remunerative. Strawberries generally seem to 

 suffer more from drouth than from too much rain. 



Any one growing strawberries to a considerable extent will probably find it an 

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