MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. 419 



order to get at the imts. Along the Mississippi river the nut trees had 

 ■suffered much from this cause, but the people of the \Yest were plant- 

 ing groves of nut trees in many places. 



'' Small fruit in New England," was the title of a paper read by J. 

 H. Hale, of South Glastonbury, Conn. In the course of the address 

 ]\Ir. Hale said : "In New England we have many hilly slopes and sharp 

 corners to keep clean, yet I think we are producing and eating more 

 fruit than in any other section of our country. A big plantation with 

 us would be a ten-acre field. It costs $1.50 an acre to raise straw- 

 berries. In the 850 paid for fertilizing, I pay $35 for ground bone-dust 

 and $15 for potash salts, which I regard as the best of manure. Rasp- 

 berries, gooseberries and currants cost us $75 an acre to produce. 

 Strawberries are grown in valleys, while raspberries are grown in small 

 hedge-rows three and one-half feet apart. Blackberries are not planted 

 to any extent for the market, yet the owner of one acre of blackber- 

 ries tells me that the sale of berries paid for 560 bushels of corn last 

 year. One hundred acres would be a liberal estimate for all the cur- 

 rants cultivated in New England. Gooseberries and grapes are grown 

 •only in limited quantities, yet tons upon tons of these fruits are 

 brought in from New York State every fall. In selling the small fruits, 

 the American square measures are used, fruits being sent out in white, 

 -clean baskets. Within the last few years a number of us have used a 

 new crate that will give us more space and keep the fruits fresher and 

 better than when sold in the small rough crates, such as are found in 

 the West. We sell our fruits from our own wagons to consumers and 

 retailers, thus securing better prices than sent by railways to the large 

 cities. Poor men often buy six or seven quarts of berries to the mil- 

 lionaire's two quarts, and when we have no more saloons it will be a 

 millennium for the small-fruit growers. As to varieties, that question, 

 like the tariff, is a. local issue, and the less said about it, the better. 

 Half the strawberries grown in New England are Crescents, and the 

 other half are standard berries. The cherry currant has chietly been 

 grown for the market. The Downing gooseberry is grown also for the 

 market. The lucretia dewberry is. proving to be all its Ohio friends 

 promised. The Worden grape is growing in favor each year. For 

 family use all but very late ripening fruits are grown in perfection. We 

 are making all the use we can of these staple luxuries that are becom- 

 ing so popular for summer foods. If we can scatter horticultural seeds 

 in the minds of the people we shall have brighter homes, and this so- 

 ciety will have done a great and noble work. The president announced 

 that in the discussion following the reading of the paper on small 



