60 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Manufacture a strawberry to your own liking. You have the ingredients, 

 and certainly should not be outdone by a senseless (?) plant. Mix the 

 sugar, the acid, and the various shades of crimson, blended to the heart. Dim- 

 ple it here and there, drop in the golden seeds, put on a frilled collar and lay 

 it beside those that were born before the breath of winter, that lay sleeping 

 under Arctic storms, that were not chilled by March and April fickleness, that 

 sets the rows ablaze in June. 



Think for a moment of a plant that produced these berries. Its ancestors 

 blossomed and made love on this continent before Columbus landed ; Noah 

 plucked a few on his way to the ark before the flood, sorrowing over the hour 

 of parting. Moses fed upon them in the mountain of Palestine, after he last 

 turned his face from the people he had led from bondage ; Adam and Eve 

 gathered them when they first awoke in the Garden of Eden. 



While thinking, continue to inhale the perfume, and, ere you stop, dash on a 

 little sugar, and as by accident, partially tip the cream-pitcher over the berries. 

 (It would be heartless to intentionally besmear creations so beautiful.) 



I have now reached the end of my task, and the beginning of yours. If from 

 this point you do not know how to proceed, you are not a son of Adam, but a 

 stranger from some far off planet where it is too hot, frosty or weedy to pro- 

 duce strawberries. 



C. AY. Garfield : When Ave first buy strawberries in the spring the thought 

 at once is to use plenty of sugar and cream. After our own begin to ripen we 

 drop the cream, and later when we would somewhat tire of them we find our- 

 selves eating them with relish without anything on them. 



W. W. Tracy mentioned the failure to bear of a plat of strawberries which 

 had been well cared for. The vines were vigorous, but no good fruit was pro- 

 duced. The vines had been cultivated the preceding season, and properly 

 mulched over winter, and in spring spaded between the rows. 



W. K. Gibson thought the spring spading might account for the failure to 

 bear. The vines were evidently too vigorous. Manure applied in spring, 

 especially if cultivated in, is almost certain to have that effect. 



Prof. L. H. Bailey mentioned an instance in which he had removed wild 

 plants which bore abundantly, to the garden, where they grew exceedingly vig- 

 orous, but failed to bear. 



RASPBERRIES. 



"When to Plant" was the first branch of the subject taken up, and the 

 Secretary opened the discussion by reading the following note from Mr. 0. A. 

 Green, of Rochester, N. Y. : 



Red raspberries should be planted in the fall, or very early spring. When 

 planted in the fall, they must be protected from heaving by frost, which is 

 impossible in low, wet soil. If planted late in the spring the young germs are 

 liable to get broken, and they do not succeed so well for other reasons. 



Black raspberries should be planted when the germ of the tip of the plant 

 has grown three or four inches, about the size of the ordinary tomato plant 

 when transplanted. When properly transplanted at this period, not one in 100 

 should fail. If planted before growth has begun, the earth often hardens and 

 prevents the germ pushing through. Those who buy cannot rely upon green 

 plants, but those who produce their own should always plant green plants. 

 The best land is any rich, elevated land. Wet land is always fatal, and low 



