PROCEEDINGS OF THE WINTER MEETING. H 



In selecting plants, be sure to get the varieties that do the best in your 

 locality and on the kind of soil you have. The variety that will do well 

 on sand may be a failure on clay and vice versa. In taking up plants, 

 care should be taken not to cut or injure the roots any more than neces- 

 sary. The varieties that have given the best satisfaction in this locality, 

 are Wilson, Crescent, Warfield. Greenfield, Haverland, Gandy, and Man- 

 chester. Wilson is one of the old varieties and one of the best yielders, 

 and does best on sandy soil. Crescent is another old standby that does 

 well on sandy land, is rather small, but very productive. Warfield is 

 one of the best if grown on moist soil, but is a short-rooting variety and 

 will suffer from drought on sandy soil. Greenville is one of the new 

 varieties, but with us, the past season, it gave good satisfaction. It is 

 one of the large, late ones, and holds its own all through the season, the 

 last picking being as large as the first of the Wilsons. Haverland is 

 one of the best berries we have. It stood the frost and snow storm last 

 May the best of any berry we had, and ripened all its fruit in good size. 

 The berries are very handsome, of large size and good quality. Gandy 

 is a well-known variety, is one of the largest and latest, but a shy bearer; 

 it is a good market berry, always brings a good price. Manchester is one 

 of the large late berries that do well on some kinds of soil. I notice in 

 several localities it is in the discarded list, but around Ludington it is 

 grown extensively on muck land and gives the best satisfaction when 

 other varieties fail. There are scores of other varieties that have been 

 tried in this place, and so far we have found none others that will come 

 up to the requirements of a good market berry although w^e have quite 

 a number that have not fruited yet, and expect great things from some 

 of them. In setting new varieties, set just enough to give them a good 

 trial, as there is more lost than gained in setting largely of untried sorts. 



BY MR. C. E. WRITTEN OF BEIDGMAN. 



I think it is an admitted fact that Berrien county grows more straw- 

 berries for market than any other county in the state. Our township 

 (Lake) will rank second in the county, with a total of 8,649 bushels mar- 

 keted in the season of 1894, with a grand total of 62,493 bushels for the 

 county the same season. These figures are from the report of the Sec- 

 retary of State. I had thought to be able to give the exact number of 

 acres growing in our township last season, but could not get these fig- 

 ures. I will sav, though, that nearlv everv farm has from one to ten 

 acres in bearing. 



Twenty-five years ago, when this industry was in its infancy, it was 

 thought that the lighter, sandy soil was best adapted to strawberry 

 culture — in fact, was the only fit soil for it. Time has wrought many 

 changes in this, as in all other lines, and today we pick our best land 

 for this crop, ^fy ideal would be n rich, sandy loam, rather low if it 

 could be properly underdrained. Of course, care should be taken to 

 avoid locations much subject to spring frosts, as these are the bane of 

 the strawberry-grower, ofttinies the most brilliant prospect changing to 

 a dismal failure in a single jiight. 



In fitting the land fm- this croi), J think those meeting Avith best suc- 

 cess practice fall i)lowing, this being done as late in the season as practi- 



