PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANNUAL MEETING. 165 



With the commencement of the growing season the date of the bloom- 

 ing and maturing of each variety is noted and recorded. 



In the case of strawberries the sexuality of each variety is determined, 

 while in bloom, and a record is kept of the date and weight of each pick- 

 ing, by means of which the beginning, duration, and end of the season of 

 each variety, together with the amount of its product, are determined. 



Twenty-six plants of each variety were grown, of which thirteen are 

 kept in hills by the prompt removal of all runners, while the other thirteen 

 are encouraged to form a matted row. These two sets of each variety are 

 picked separately, and a separate record made of each, for the purpose of 

 determining, in each case, by which process each may be made to yield the 

 most desirable or profitable results. 



It has been the purpose to adopt a similar plan in the case of other 

 small fruits, but so far it has, from one cause or another, proved impossible 

 to secure, in very many cases, the even and perfect stand of plants neces- 

 sary to a reliable result. In the case of the tree fruits, many if not most 

 of which are as yet not in full bearing, and owing to the depredations of 

 insects and birds, the same diflBculty exists. On account of such difficulty 

 resort is had, in these cases, to estimates of comparative productiveness. 



Many of the varieties selected for their superior quality are not profit- 

 able, commercially considered, while, of the new, trial varieties, scarcely 

 one per cent, prove really valuable, and yet each must receive a modicum 

 of the cultivation and watchfulness needed to determine its position in 

 the scale of values. This circumstance, involving as it does extra expend- 

 iture of time and labor, must necessarily preclude the expectation of profit 

 as a direct result of the enterprise, save that which inures to the public 

 at large, from trustworthy results thus obtained instead of the question- 

 able conclusions reached by individuals and liable to vitiation from the 

 interests, real or imaginary, of those from whom they may have emanated. 



Since no trustworthy comparison is possible, between a plantation of 

 strawberries bearing its first crop and one with its second, it is the practice 

 generally to plow under a plat after taking off one crop, the plat for the 

 following year's fruitiug having been planted the previous spring, although 

 it may be found desirable, at some time in the future, to maintain a plat 

 for a second year's crop, and to compare results from the first and second 

 crops. 



With the renewal of the plantation, such varieties (and they are gener- 

 ally a large majority) as, after sufficient trial, have not proved valuable, 

 together with those already sufficiently tested, are omitted, save only such 

 of the tested varieties as may be desirable for purposes of comparison, the 

 varieties dropped giving place to other and generally more recent ones. 

 Under this practice, the number of varieties which fruited in 1893 was 176, 

 but is reduced to 160 in the plat for 1894. 



The entire plantation, including about fifteen acres, is not yet full, space 

 remaining for such varieties as may from time to time require testing, 

 while in the case of the tree fruits (with the possible exception of peaches), 

 trees of varieties not requiring further trial can be re-grafted with other 

 and untested kinds, with a probability of hastening results. 



As a means of indicating the present extent of operations, we give the 

 number, in each class of fruits, already planted, there being in most cases 

 two trees of each variety. Of apricots, 9 varieties, all being of the class 

 known as Russian; apples, 189; apples, 24, imported from Hungary, 



