WINTER MEETING AT CARTHAGE. 169 



succeed in ridding our cellars of all the old canned stuf!, so we can fully enjoy the 

 connng crop, which promises to be abundant. 



Our strawberry plants have made a fair fall growth, while the raspberry and 

 blackberry have made excellent wood which is well matured for the winter ; even 

 our peach-trees go into the winter in line shape; and since failures have their bene- 

 ficial effects and prosperity its ill effects, we have learned patiently and thank- 

 fully to accept the situation. 



And now in recalling the lessons of the past as requested by our worthy 

 Secretary, I think of a horticultural friend, who, thinking the old way of planting 

 blackberries too slow, dropped his plants into deep furrows and covered them with 

 a two-horse cultivator, harrowed the ground, leaving nothing to show where to cul- 

 tivate, and the blackberry being naturally slow to start, of course the weeds took 

 his field. 



He says he will plant peas in the rows the next time to show where to culti- 

 vate, and he had better leave the tops of the plants out in their natural way, as 

 their leaves have a vital influence on the new stalk growing from the root. 



Another good horticultural friend, but who seldom attends our meetings, 

 wishing to increase the size of his Snyder blackberry, pruned very heavily last 

 spring, and learned when too lato that he had destroyed his crop by cutting off 

 about all the fruit buds. He should have topped the suckers while only two and a 

 half to three feet high, and then in the spring cut their brahches back to twelve or 

 eighteen inhces. 



A few years ago I planted half an acre to Minnewaska blackberry, which at 

 that time was very expensive, and to hasten their propagation I selected a very 

 rich low plot of ground on which to plant. I succeeded in growing plants, but 

 other plants of the same kind set on a hillside endure the winters much better and 

 yields double the amount of fruit ; even the Snyder does poorly in low, rich land* 

 I prefer a north or eastern hillside for either raspberry or blackberry. 



Another lesson learned on the strawberry grounds was that the VVarfield No. 

 2, although one of the best in an ordinary 8ea?on, cannot resist a drouth. 



Another lesson is, that while coarse barnyard manure is good material for 

 mulching the strawberry of an ordinary season, it will smother the plants badly 

 when the season is very wet. Clean, fresh straw or prairie hay is the safest and 

 perhaps the most economical mulching. 



A failure in the fruit crop is generally followed by a heavy growth of wood 

 and an over-load of fruit, and it will be well to cut back heavily and thin the fruit, 

 especially on the peach and pear. 



Mr. J. W. Young, a trustworthy neighbor of mine, who has thousands of 

 young trees growing, and who has been greatly annoyed by rabbits, tells me he has 

 killed them by the use of rough on rats applied to sliced apples and dropped in 

 their trails, until he now has no further trouble,. except as an occasional visitor 

 drops in from his neigbors' rabbits. If this will work, it will beat wrapping trees • 



I have long believed that men make a sad mistake by trying to be both farmer 

 and fruit-grower. How much happier and how much more successful they would 

 be if they would confine themselves to some one trade or business, and become 

 specialists. If an orchardlst, let stock-raising alone; if he is a berry-grower, be 

 that and nothing else. Let a man make growing onions or potatoes a specialty, 

 become thoroughly posted on that subject, and then grow onions or potatoes for all 

 there is in the business, and he is bound to succeed. The poultry and dairy busi- 

 ness, sheep-raising and many other branches of business are overlooked or mixed 

 in with other things, so it is neglected. We want more specialists. 



Oregon, Mo. J.N. Menifee. 



