MICHIGAN STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 5J. 



CULTURE. 



If the ground was well prepared, the work of keeping the 

 growing plants clean will be comparatively easy. Hoeing 

 should be carefully performed, and if any of the plants become 

 loose in the ground, as is frequently the case in light soils, the 

 earth should be pressed around them. The benefit of early 

 planting will be seen in the vigorous character of each plant 

 for standing the trials of winter. 



MULCHING. 



Mulching is greatly recommended, and if done carefully 

 with some light material, is beneficial, but in a breezy country 

 like Western Michigan, it is not easy to find a light mulch 

 that will remain where it is placed. A heavy mulch of barn- 

 yard manure is more likely to destroy the plant than is frost, 

 and of the two I prefer to risk the severest winter, depending 

 on the natural covering of snow, to any mulching I have tried. 

 Last winter, while one of my neighbors destroyed a magnifi- 

 cent bed of Agriculturists, planted last spring, by mulching 

 with manure, my young plants of Wilson's Albany, planted in 

 August and September, were uninjured, and are now produc- 

 ing a crop of berries, of which a sample is now before you. 



BEST VARIETIES — WILSON'S ALBANY. 



With regard to the varieties to be cultivated, I regard this 

 as a matter of taste for amateur culture. For profit, as a 

 market berry, the Wilson's Albany has long stood at the head 

 of the list, and maintains that position throughout the entire 

 western country. As a bearer it is very prolific. It stands 

 transportation well, and it is a good selling color. Its strong 

 acid flavor is considered by some a strong objection to it. I 

 think this its chief recommendation. It gives it character. 

 For what is the lemon so highly esteemed in all cases of fever ? 

 It certainly is not its sweetness. It is its fine acidity. Your 

 sweet strawberry, to my taste, lacks character and is insipid. 

 Not so with the Wilson's Albany. Whatever may be said of 



