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lOO TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



ascertain which is the more profitable. No one yet heard from, who has 

 fairly tested them, plants much of Wilson afterward. 



Mr. Wier. — I have been growing strawberries for nineteen years for 

 home market ; I have tried nearly all the new varieties — tried them side 

 by side. Wilson with us has not been productive ; when on high ground 

 it does pretty well, but I have raised on the same number of rods (twenty 

 rods) of Capt. Jack and Crescent twenty times as many berries as I have 

 of Wilson. The Crescent and Capt. Jack are the only kinds I would 

 plant for profit. 



Mr. Nelson. — The Wilson has been the leading berry for market; 

 a few years ago you could sell Wilsons in Chicago at big prices, but not 

 now ; there has been a change in this respect — there are berries that 

 are better. I think Capt. Jack will be one of the best berries to ship, 

 yet I would not discard the Wilson. 



The Secretary. — Mr. Earle tells me that he shipped Capt. Jack 

 berries from Cobden to Pittsburg, and also into Minnesota (nearly 600 

 miles), and they arrived in good order. 



Mr. Hatheway. — The past season the Crescent, fertilized by 

 Wilson, produced on seven-eighths of an acre on my grounds over 8,000 

 quarts of large, brilliant, good berries. Charles Downing and Capt. 

 Jack would be good varieties to use for fertilizing Crescent and other 

 pistillate varieties. 



My Crescents brought in our home market (Ottawa) two-and-a-half 

 cents more per quart than the ^(fj/ Wilsons. I shipped first-class Wilsons 

 to Chicago at same time as Crescents, and the Wilsons brought ninety 

 cents per i6-quart crate and Crescent ^1.75 per i6-quart crate the same 

 day. (In answer to a question) — Crescent is far more prolific than 

 Wilson. 



An animated discussion ensued, in which, however, no facts con- 

 flicting with those already given were brought out and but few new 

 ones. 



The following embraces the important points : 



Mr. Miner had found wood-ashes an excellent fertilizer for straw- 

 berry plants ; so also had Mr. Galusha, though he prepared a mixture 

 somewhat like the one described in his report. Mr. Wier found Capt. 

 Jack berries a little larger than Crescent. Mr. Hatheway said that in 

 almost every quart of Crescents he sold were berries nearly or quite four 

 inches in circumference ; the only objection he had to Capt. Jack is that 

 the fruit-stalks are longer than the leaf-stalks, so that the blossoms are 

 above the leaves, and thus more liable than most other sorts to be cut off 



