36 BOARD or AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



farm superintendent, day-laborer, marketman, cow-boy, and all- 

 hands. The poet's dream of fresh berries and cream to be eaten 

 under the vine-clad veranda, does not often come to the overworked 

 and tired farmer. And while his home may be barren of the 

 choice varieties of small fruits well and judiciously cultivated, it 

 is not that he would deprive the loved ones dependent on him of 

 these choice luxuries, but rather from the fact that he has always 

 thought it impossible for any but the most experienced, to cultivate 

 them with any hope of success. And as soon as he becomes 

 acquainted with the better varieties and learns how easily they can 

 be grown, when by proper cultivation a bushel of strawberries, 

 raspberries, blackberries, or grapes can be grown almost as cheaply 

 as a bushel of potatoes, the farmer's small-fruit garden will become 

 as much a fixture as the kitchen garden. 



Small fruits have been grown for centuries, but it is within the 

 last thirty years that special attention has been given to their 

 culture and the producing of new and improved varieties; and 

 since the introduction of Wilson's Albany strawberry, Doolittle's 

 improved black-cap, Philadelphia raspberry, Lawton blackberry, 

 and Concord grape, these and their seedlings, combined with a 

 number of chance seedlings, have given us a hardy and productive 

 race of small fruits that may be grown on almost any soil and 

 cultivated by the most inexperienced, and yet give fair return for 

 money and labor expended; while with a little extra care and 

 attention enormous crops may be obtained. And as the plants 

 may be had at any nursery at such low prices, any one owning a 

 spare rod of ground has no excuse for denying his family these 

 delicious and nutritious fruits. 



It is not necessary for me to go back two or three hundred 

 years and trace the history of small-fruit culture down to the 

 present time, but rather begin at once to show you as best I can 

 how and what to do to obtain the most and best fruit at the least 

 expense. Being neither a chemist nor botanist I could not, if I 

 would, explain to you the chemical effects of the different fertilizers 

 used upon the roots, wood, leaves, and general structure. My 

 observations at previous meetings of this Board have taught me 

 that our Connecticut farmers want plain practical statements and 

 experience that will show them how the thing is done in the 

 fewest possible words, and this I will endeavor to do as briefly 

 and plainly as possible, not that I can hope to make all points clear 



