FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 285- 



DIFFICULTIES. 



Again, we are here quite subject to drouths and heat, with very hot 

 weather at the time of the ripening of the fruit. During the past two or 

 three years this has been a very serious calamity so far as results are 

 concerned. The crop of the second year back was a wonder to many who 

 saw it in its promise, and while it was yet in a condition to show what 

 it might have done, hot weather and drouth occurred, and perhaps more 

 than half tbe crop was utterly ruined. At present there is no way of 

 avoiding these results. Last year was even worse. Perhaps we all in 

 this vicinity understand that no year within the recollection of most of 

 us has been so severe so far as drouth is concerned as the one now past, 

 and the result of all this is that the comparison of varieties becomes 

 quite unreliable on that account, and only a repetition of these trials 

 will suflSce to really and satisfactorily determine the actual relative value 

 of certain varieties. There are upon this place this year from 160 to 

 170 varieties of strawberries. Five hundred varieties of strawberries 

 have been tested upon the place within the last twenty years since I have 

 had to do with it, and every season since the Experiment Station was 

 established a large number of these have been dropped and their places 

 supplied by others entirely new and untested. And yet, during that 

 twenty years or more, perhaps all the varieties that have shown them- 

 selves to be really valuable can be counted upon the fingers of one hand. 

 This, to my apprehension, shows that we are radically wrong in our pro- 

 cesses of introducing varieties, and that there should be, if possible, some 

 method by which new varieties could be kept out of the market until 

 they have been fairly tested and the fact of their worthiness established. 

 How this is to be accomplished I am not able to say. There should be 

 some measure adopted by which this testing can be done by experts 

 charged with such duty; and the millions of dollars annually expended 

 for these novelties saved to the planter. 



There are upon the Station grounds at the present time I am not able 

 to say how many varieties all told, but there are strawberries 170 varie- 

 ties, some 50 or 60 varieties of raspberries and blackberries, about 300 

 varieties. I think, of peaches, 100 varieties of pears, 100 perhaps of cher- 

 ries, and some 200 or .300 of apples. Of these a large proportion, including 

 nearly all of the small fruits, have already fruited at least once. Of 

 the peaches at least 100 or 150 fruited last year, and of cherries nearly 

 all the varieties on the place have fruited more or less, but not so fully 

 that we can determine their value. Apples, of course, and pears, have 

 been more slow in coming into bearing. It has not been the policy so 

 far to give what would be called intensive cultivation, and that for the 

 reason that the experiments are intended for the general public, and if 

 we were to get higher results than could be reached by the general pub- 

 lic, the result would be a disappointment, and the reputation of the Sta- 

 tion would probably suffer in consequence. For this reason the aim has 

 been to give clear, clean culture, reasonably good manuring, and ta 

 secure such results as every good cultivator ought to be able to secure 

 with the same varieties. 



This has been the policy so far pursued, and I so far have seen no rea- 

 son why it should be essentially changed. There are in the collection a 



