Reports of Local Societies. 329 



For the farmer it is better to plant in rows of some length, and 

 for most articles, a sufficient distance apart to cultivate with a 

 horse; and in all other cases, plant in such a manner that a good 

 band cultivator may be used without any difficulty. No farmer's 

 garden is complete without its fruit department. The varieties of 

 strawberries are numbered by hundreds, and more new ones con- 

 stantly coming out; and yet we can almost say, and say it safely, 

 that there is but one standard variety for the country generally. 

 Set a bed of Wilson's, and with reasonably fair cultivation, you 

 are almost as certain of a crop as you are that summer will follow 

 winter and spring. There are other varieties that have done, and 

 are still doing well, with some men, and in some places; but there 

 is nothing yet tested that will compare with the Wilson for the 

 amateur cultivator. With fair cultivation you may expect a yield 

 of forty quarts per square rod. I have repeatedly had much more 

 than that amount. If you wish to try other varieties and get some 

 magnificent fruit, Seth Boyden's No. 30 will give it to you. Then 

 there are the Duncan, the Red Jacket, Prouty's Seedling, and the 

 Crescent Seedling, and hosts of others, from which to choose. 

 Downer's Prolific is a splendid table berry, and bears passably well. 

 Now, do not think me prejudiced against other varieties than the 

 Wilson. Such is not the case. I have them, and have the plants 

 to sell, and would gladly recommend them if I could honestly do 

 so. Of raspberries, you need a few of Doolittle's Black Cap for 

 early, and then a good supply of the Mammoth Cluster and the 

 Philadelphia. Set them in rows six feet apart and cultivate with a 

 horse and cultivator. Currants should be set at least six feet apart 

 each way. 



I think none of the new varieties are equal, all things considered, 

 to the old red and white Dutch. If reasonably well cared for, a 

 good crop is almost a certainty. My bushes have been in bearing 

 twenty years, and in that time have never failed to give us a nice 

 crop, and never a better one than last season. 



Grapes, in the number of varieties, exceed all the small fruits ex- 

 cept strawberries. There are a few of the standard varieties that 

 it is safe to set, and with fair care we may expect to be successful. 

 The Janesville is the earliest. Two years since mine were all ripe 

 and picked in August. It was their first bearing season, and, of 

 course, there were but few of them. In quality they are not first 



