66 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



made for his destruction, hundreds of acres are annually 

 destroyed by tliis destructive agent. 



I have one or two suggestions to make which have a bear- 

 ing on this very important subject, — First, never set straw- 

 berr3'-plants on land which has not been in cultivation at 

 least two 3^ears from the sod ; and the second is. So manage 

 as to induce or force your plants to throw out runners lib- 

 erally before the cutworm commences operations. To insure 

 this important result, prepare your ground in the fall, manure 

 liberally, set your plants early, and cultivate thoroughly. I 

 mean by setting early, as soon as the frost is out of the ground 

 in the spring ; and you can run a cultivator over the ground, 

 put in 3'our plants, and, if you should have any doubt in 

 relation to the final result, drop a teaspoonful of standard 

 guano or some high-grade fertilizer within about two inches 

 of the plant just before hoeing. 



Small strawberry-plants are preferable to large ones. They 

 will take hold sooner after setting. They will send out run- 

 ners earlier, and more of them, than large plants. By thus 

 taking advantage of the one virtue which we claim for the 

 grub, it is possible to produce a fair amount of foliage, though 

 many of the old plants be missing. 



One of the most powerful agents operating to discourage 

 the small-fruit grower in Massachusetts is the severe compe- 

 tition which he is compelled to meet in foreign fruit. ShijD- 

 ments from the South commence early in the spring, and 

 advance North as the season advances, supplying our markets 

 with such quantities, at low prices, that the consumer be- 

 comes indifl'erent, if not cloyed, by the time the native fruit 

 is ripe. 



Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, and Long Island were 

 once supposed to be separated from us by a respectable 

 amount of intervening space ; but rapid transit annihilates 

 distance, and tliey now enter the market with us in the 

 morning : in fact, better than that ; for the berries of New 

 Jersey and Long Island, picked in the afternoon, are sold 

 the next morning in Boston market before the Dighton and 

 Somerset berries arrive. If their shipments would cease 

 when ours commence, it would, to some extent, mitigate the 

 evil. Our berries, on entering the market, find it well sup- 

 plied, and prices down to hard-pan, and, although labelled 



