STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 23 



Our commission men are best pleased with the octagon box of any 

 we have yet tried. The Hallock or square box is good, but will not ship 

 long distances quite as well, in consequence of fitting too close and not 

 allowing proper ventilation. 



Hints on Setting. — I am partial to spring setting, in some respects ; 

 but if I was ready to set in the fall I should not wait until spring, but 

 would sow oats on the ground, and by the time winter set in the plants 

 would be well protected by a mulch that would not smother plants, nor 

 have to be removed in the spring, but could be plowed under. After testing 

 different systems, we finally have adopted the matted row system for 

 strawberries, and the hedge row system for raspberries and blackberries. 

 As most parties interested in berry culture are well acquainted with the 

 modes referred to, it will be useless to enter into any description ; but I 

 will state that we invariably cover our beds with six inches of straw about 

 the time it freezes up ; in the spring we rake off the straw between the 

 rows, and leave it there until after fruiting, for the following reasons, viz.: 

 to keep down weeds, retain moisture, and keep the fruit clean. After 

 the fruit was gathered, the past season, it turned off very dry and remained 

 so until quite late in the fall ; and, as a consequence, old plantations of 

 strawberries made a feeble growth, and made but few young plants, so 

 that we have a prospect of a light crop the coming season. Raspberries 

 and blackberries did quite the reverse; they made a very strong growth, 

 and bid fair for a heavy crop the coming season. 



Of Strawberries, the varieties most highly esteemed by us are Charles 

 Downing, Kentucky, Col. Cheney, Boyden's No. 30, Downer, Conqueror, 

 Monarch, Green Prolific and Wilson's Albany. The above were selected 

 from some sixty varieties that we have fruited. 



Of Raspberries I have fruited sixteen varieties, and find the following 

 profitable : Seneca, Mammoth Cluster, Davison's Thornless, Doolittle and 

 Ganargua. Of red varieties, only Turner and Philadelphia. 



Blackberries. — Snyder, Kittatinny and Wilson have given us paying 

 crops. The inclosed letter from a friend is submitted to show what the 

 Kittatinny can do under favorable circumstances ; and I will vouch for the 

 correctness of his statement, as I know he would not exaggerate. 



Respectfully, THOS. H. LESLIE. 



Ipava, 111., Dec. 9, 1876. 



Lewiston, 111., October 21, 1876. 

 Mr. Leslie : 



Dear Sir — I had, the last summer, a patch of Kitiatinny blackberries of about 

 eleven square rods of ground. There w as picked from it seventeen bushels of berries. 

 It looks like too large a story to tell, l)ut that does not alter the fact. The soil is clay 

 loam, and the ground is slightly rolling. They have had very little cultivation, and 

 been allowed to cover the entire piece. The canes were all killed in the winter of 

 1864-5, ^"d ^^^ ^^"^ ^"'^^ taken out of the way the next spring. The following fall a 

 portion of them were cut out, leaving them in rows. They were partially protected with 

 straw last winter, but that may not have been necessary, the weather not being very 

 cold; still, I am inclined to think it was an advantage. 



Yours truly, RUFUS PORTER. 



