87 



much. I have also sent them out beyond the Mississippi. A gentleman who was on 

 my ground and saw some of the fruit said if he could have such berries in Philadelphia he 

 could get a fine price for them. He said that they were the finest bei-ries he had seen, 

 I think I have twenty-five different varieties growing there, and I do not know any 

 better among them. Some strawberries seem better adapted for one kind of soil, and 

 some for another. 



Mr. Dempsey. — I have been cultivating strawberries for a few years, and I have 

 tested quite a large number of varieties during the time. I have never, however, pro- 

 pagated plants for sale. My experience has been in obtaining the fruit, and in endea- 

 vouring to make the most money possible out of it. So far I have found the most pro- 

 fitable variety that I have cultivated has been the Crescent Seedling and Wilson's Albany, 

 when we cultivated to any extent. The Crescent Seedling produced a very fine crop 

 this year, and we took the last picking of it with the first picking of the Wilson's Albany. 

 When I came to look over my receipts at the end of the season I found that not only had 

 the Orescent Seedling been profitable, but that it had commanded in the market about 

 fifty per cent, more than Wilson's Albany, taking the crop into consideration. They 

 went into the market earlier, and consequently brought a higher price this year. Last 

 year I did not discover so much difference in the two varieties. Captain Jack was very 

 fine with us this year, and very prolific. This New Dominion I have been cultivating 

 ever since the first year it was sent out, and I have never had one good crop off it in 

 that time. I keep trying it on different soils, hoping I may strike a soil that is some- 

 thing like its native home. It was on the soil that I saw Mr. Biggar cultivating it that 

 I got the most successful results from it. The Sharpless we failed to get any satisfaction 

 from when we first planted it, because we were too anxious to get big strawberries. We 

 placed it on land that was very strongly manured with stable manure, and the conse- 

 quence was that we got leaves and not fruit. We planted it then on light land manured 

 with ashes and bone dust, and that appears to produce berries and very little foliage. 

 We had some land that was manured with stable manure, but did not have the bone dust 

 and ashes ; we also had land that was manured with the bone dust and ashes only, and 

 while the average per acre on the one was 6,000 quarts of Wilson's Albany, upon the 

 other it was only 2,000, with the same variety of berry and the same cultivation. I find 

 that the difference in productiveness a great deal more than pays for the bone dust and 

 ashes. They cost a great deal less than stable manure with us. This test was on two 

 blocks of two acr^s each. We have several new varieties. In fact, about every new 

 variety that we hear of we try. When we went to pick the first of Arnold's Pride that 

 were ripe a person who was with me said, " Why, we can pick those berries with a 

 scoop." The first time we picked them we took as many quarts from the block as we 

 had set plants. They had been set two feet apart and had been allowed to have run- 

 ners, and every two feet we found a quart of berries. How much was picked during 

 the season it would be impossible for me to tell, from the fact that our experimental 

 grounds are all open to the public, and everybody wants to take away some specimen 

 berries to show their friends. 1 believe there is money in the Sharpless. Any straw- 

 berry that will pay to grow for market it will pay the amateur to grow. I believe there 

 is money also in the Arnold's Pride, but I believe there is more money in the Crescent 

 Seedling and in the Wilson's Albany than in any other. They ship in good order. I 

 have found no difficulty in shipping the Crescent seedling to Montreal, so I would have 

 no hesitation in shipping them on account of their being a little soft. I did not ship any 

 of Arnold's Pride ; I had none to ship. 



Mr. Page submitted the Report of the Committee on Vegetables, as follows : — 



VEGETABLES. 



Your Committee to whom was assigned the duty of collecting information on vege- 

 tables submit the following as a result of their work : — 



Under the name of vegetable comes a large number of valuable articles of food, and 



