VARIOUS NATIONAL SOCIETIES. 141 



etc. Of course, some little fruit is sent to New York, and a very large amount 

 to Boston, yet by far the largest bulk of the crop is sold and eaten the same 

 day within ten miles of where it is picked. 



w Yet, with these advantages, none of us are getting rich out of the business. 

 Some are only just making a living, while others are losing money and fast 

 becoming discouraged with the low prices that have ruled the past few years. 

 We hear all about the one successful cultivator who succeeds in producing 6,000 

 to 8,000 quarts of strawberries, or 4,000 or 5,000 of raspberries per acre, and 

 sells them at fifteen or twenty cents per quart, while nothing is said of the 

 " ninety and nine jnst men" and fruit growers who get only 1,500 to 2,000 

 quarts per acre, and sell them at five or six cents. 



As a dealer in plants I might be expected to "boom" the business a little, 

 yet at present I would advise those that are well established in the business to 

 hold on and not get discouraged, to cultivate less acres, and give better care 

 to what they have ; while "new beginners had better not begin." The labor- 

 ing classes are our largest and best consumers of fruit, when they have the 

 money to buy with, using four to six quarts per day in many families, while 

 the millionaire's family are satisfied with one or two quarts. Start up all our 

 mills, factories, mines, and shops, increase the wages of our working classes, 

 and stop licensing rum and beer shops to rob the laborer and his family; then 

 small-fruit growers will be able to sell all their products at good, paying 

 prices. 



In the discussion which followed President Earle said that the conditions in 

 strawberry culture in Connecticut differ somewhat from those in Louisiana or 

 Illinois. In Connecticut the grower is fortunate in being near a market, and 

 he can get back his packages and market his fruit in a different manner from 

 the man who is distant from market. The latter must use packages that can 

 be given away. He had never seen a strawberry so tender that it could not be 

 shipped any distance necessary, when properly picked, packed and shipped in 

 refrigerator cars. He picks the Crescent just as it begins to color, and by the 

 time it reaches the consumer it is fully colored. With some varieties this early 

 picking will not answer. With refrigerator cars the fruit can be three or four 

 days in transit. The crates and boxes used cost about two-thirds of a cent a 

 quart. In Illinois the Crescent is mostly grown. The Sharpless is also grown, 

 but ripens unevenly. 



Mr. Smith, Wisconsin, said that insects of some kind had been a great hind- 

 rance in raising strawberries until he practiced setting the plants in soil that 

 had not grown strawberries in several years, kept them well cultivated, raised 

 one crop, and immediately plowed the vines under as soon as the crop was 

 gathered, when he had no more trouble with insects. 



Mr. Albaugh, O., said that his brother, of Covington, O., was the dissemina- 

 tor of the Lucretia dewberry. It originally came from the mountains of Vir- 

 ginia. It was hardy, and the fruit good, having no core as has the Snyder. 



A. J. Caywood, New York, said that the Lucretia was large, and ripens a 

 week earlier than any other variety. He plants it four feet apart, ties the 

 vines up to a stake, then trails them along the ground near the upright canes. 



Mr. Albaugh said Sharpless was a leading variety in the Miami valley. He 

 said that in Barnesville, O., a few years ago the residents stopped cultivating 

 tobacco, and now grew strawberries on the hill method. The runners were 

 systematically cut off, and it was claimed that the Sharpless was the best 



