APPENDIX TO STATE SOCIETY'S REPORT. 341) 



short crop of the year previous giving them but little chance for repro- 

 duction and with boys in the orchard, which is getting to be pretty gen- 

 erally the custom in this county, and the use of common remedies, they 

 have been kept under control, so that, with the exception of the damage 

 to the late crop of grapes by the grape codlin, no serious results can be 

 reported. 



About the middle of June a slender, light green worm, about an inch 

 and a half in length, made its appearance upon the raspberry plantation 

 of Mr. Baldwin, of this place, and in a few days his entire field of twenty 

 acres of the Turner Seedling was leafless, and just about as suddenly the 

 entire field was wormless ; a new growth of leaves soon covered the canes 

 and the fruit was uninjured. This prevalence was not noticed at any 

 other point, and Mr. Baldwin is very anxious to know why they had a 

 spite against him, and whether or not they intend calling upon him next 

 season. 



It is pretty generally conceded, by persons of experience, that fruit 

 grown upon our barren or sandy land is superior, in both flavor and keep- 

 ing qualities, to that grown upon rich black soil, where trees and vines 

 make a much more rapid growth. If this difference in the quality of 

 fruit may be attributed to a difference in the growth of the plant or tree 

 which bears it, then the remedy lies in the provision of a limited supply 

 of food for fruit-bearing plants. Some cultivators overcome this difficulty 

 by allowing a short, thick growth of weeds among their small fruits and 

 in their vineyards; or rather they cultivate with the scythe instead of the 

 plow. A timothy or blue grass sod appears to enforce rather too thorough 

 a system of retrenchment; yet the best and most perfect crop of grapes 

 I have seen for many years was ripened upon Concord vines, standing in 

 a firm old timothy sod. So far as strawberries are concerned, the culti- 

 vator who induces the largest growth of plants will secure the largest 

 yield of fruit, and, consequently, the most money from a given amount 

 of land; but, further than that, the tendency of planters here is to devote 

 their thinnest soil to fruit culture. 



Within the past ten years the production of small fruit in this vicin- 

 ity has more than quadrupled, while the population of the city or county 

 shows no such comparative increase. 



To be sure, a portion of this supply finds a market at other points, 

 but the amount imported will more than double the quantity exported. 



Ten years ago a box of small fruit grown outside the county could not 

 be found in our market at any time; while now they appear to come 

 from the four corners of the earth, and from the very first to the very 

 last of the season, and must be brought into competition with fruit not 

 more than two or three hours from the field. I cannot better illustrate 

 the great change which has taken place in the consumption of small fruits 

 in this county, than by giving the experience of Mr. Baldwin, one of our 

 most prosperous growers of to-day. 



Sixteen years ago he found it impossible to dispose of a few quarts 

 of freshly-picked berries in our market at any price. Now, during the 

 height of the season, he gathers as many as 3,000 boxes per day, while a 



