SUMMER MEETING. 15 



ground so it looked like snow, and the next year had raised wheat 8 or 

 10 inches higher than on ground alongside of it, and he had two 

 bunches of wheat to show for it, science to the contrary, that salt is 

 not a fertilizer. Barn-yard manure and red clover were also men- 

 tioned, the former being too full of obnoxious seeds, and the latter too 

 slow of accumulation. The President favored dried blood, and the 

 Vice-President wood ashes. It was suggested that some land was 

 already too rich, and that every one experiment on his own land and 

 report results at next meeting in the winter. Mr. Robinett suggested 

 that he had furnished cans to town people to get their ashes, and had 

 cleaned up all the back alleys in his town to get them, so the horticul- 

 turists were a good thing to have around a town. The President men- 

 tioned phosphate of bone, made of ground bone and muriatic acid. 

 He did not think salt was a fertilizer, but some land might need salt 

 while other did not. 



The question of early and late blooming was discussed, but none 

 had paid particular attention to that. The Crescent was mentioned as 

 a long bloomer ; like the Maiden's Blush apple, the blossoms never all 

 got caught in one frost. It takes a strawberry from 23 to 30 days to 

 ripen from blooming time. Berries to be shipped long distances should 

 be pioked by the stem and not handled at all ; evening is the best time 

 to pick them, when they are perfectly dry. Plow deep and cultivate 

 shallow. 



Wednesday, June o — 2 p. m. 



BREEDING STRAWBERRIES 



Was discussed by Prof. Keffer of fhe Columbia Experiment 'station. 

 He said it was on the same principle as breeding animals. The best 

 plants should be selected before blooming, and then the bloom covered 

 away from any possible chance of tiying pollen, and after fertilization 

 by the proper berries, the seed should be again planted and kept from 

 other berries, and in five or ten years you will have a pedigreed plant. 

 He has his first seedlings up now on the way to a high pedigree. 



RASPBERRIES AND BLACKBERRIES. 



G. P. Turner of Meadville — First get strong healthy plants ; guard 

 against disease. Fall planting is best for blackberries and red rasp- 

 berries, and spring for black raspberries. Do not set too deep, and 

 mulch well to protect from winter. I find more money in growing the 

 plants to sell than the berries, in blackberries. The diseases of the 

 berries were discussed, authracnose in the raspberries and red rust in 

 the blackberries ; some thought it was for want of fertilization, others 



