STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. I5 



c. The Small Fruits including under tliat name the strawberry, 

 raspberry, blackberry, currant, and gooseberry, (and we might include 

 the cranbeny and whortleberry,) are in many respects desirable and 

 valuable crops. The strawberry, from its early returns, fruiting heavily 

 one year from planting, is a desirable crop for the person of small means, 

 or for any one desiring early returns. As it is a low plant, its conditions 

 can be more easily controlled than those of any other fruit by mulching 

 and covering. Tlie ras^iberry and blackberry bear some fruit in the 

 second year, sometimes amounting to a good crop, and are desirable for 

 that reason. The currant and gooseberry come later into bearing, and 

 are valuable chiefly for their involving small expense in culture and 

 being hardy and productive, rather than high-priced. I regard tlie straw- 

 berry as probable tlie most valuable of tlie small fruits, and the raspberry 

 least so. 



2. Vegetable or Market Gardening near the cities and larsre 

 towns and to a certam extent where there are good facilities for shipping, 

 is a remunerative though a laborious business, and is associated to a certain 

 extent with fruit growing to advantage. In many cases it borders close 

 upon ordinary agriculture, as in the large fields of Irish potatoes grown in 

 the American Bottom near St. Louis and elsewhere. But in many in- 

 stances again it requires tlie best skill of the horticulturist for success. 



a. Vegetables grown for their 7-oots or tubers are such as the beet, 

 carrot, onion, parsni]), potato, radish, ruta-baga, sweet potato, and turnip. 



b. Vegetables grown for their tops or stems, are such as the as- 

 paragus, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, and rhubarb. 



c. Vegetables grown for their fruit are the bean, corn, cucumber, 

 egg-plant, melon, pea, squash, tomato, and watermelon. 



I have no practical knowledge of market gardening, but observing 

 others, I find the usual results of success and failure, according to the 

 ability and energy put into the work. The care required is considerable, 

 and at times must be unremitting, as when hot-beds are in danger. A 

 deal of exposure must be sometimes undertaken in order to plant at the 

 most propitious time, and hours too early to be healthful must be kept. 

 But earnestly followed it seems to be profitable, and I know of more 

 than one fortune founded on market gardening. It gives very early 

 returns: the time between sowing i-adishes and selling them is short. 



Market gardening involves the whole question of tlie value of (;om- 

 mercial and other fertilizers, which are specially necessary in its prose- 

 cution, but which I cannot stop to speak of here. 



3. Tree Growing for timber and other purposes I put as a separate 

 branch of Horticulture. It comes late in horticultural progress, and does 

 not look to very immediate results. Yet the attention given to it by 

 governments and individuals in the Old World, evinces its importance 

 and warns us to provide for the future of our own countr)% We should 

 have trees growing on every declivity too steep for profitable cultivation, 

 and on the west side, at least, of every farm. 



a. Hedging^ under the late impetus it has received from the high 

 prices of fencing, and from the better knowledge of its management is 



