MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 173 
scale. For profit, plant those kinds only that can always be relied 
upon, and be sure that the plants are pure. I have tested on my 
grounds more than twenty-five kinds, and find after an experience 
of ten years that the sorts which it will do to recommend, are few. 
Downer’s Prolific is unquestionably the hest early variety, Wilson’s 
Albany the best medium and Green Prolific the best late kind. 
These three varieties do well on all soils, and under all modes of 
cultivation. Among the newvarieties that promise well are Boyden’s 
No. 30, and the Kentucky, both very late. By planting these va- 
rieties we may have this delicious fruit for at least one month. 
When set in the spring, the fruit stems should be removed the 
first season. Cover in the fall with straw or wild hay; either must 
be free from foul seed. In the spring remove the covering leaving 
it at the end of the bed; cultivate until the berries begin to turn, 
and then put the mulching between the rows, and wet it two or 
three times during the bearing season if possible. If the directions 
given are followed, my word for it, you will be rewarded with an 
abundance of this healthful and delicious fruit. Fortunately it is 
so easily raised that the poorest owner of a few square rods may 
have it in abundance. It will contribute to healch, comfort and 
economy, save butcher’s and grocer’s bills, and make home pleas- 
ant. One-twentieth of an acre as well cultivated as a field of corn 
should be, and set with an early, a medium and a late variety would 
yield an average of four quarts per day for from four to six weeks. 
In order to accomplish so desirable a result, who would hesitate to _ 
devote even one-eighth of an acre to strawberries? Make your plans 
now, decide upon the number of plants of each kind you will need, 
make arrangements to procure them reasonably, prepare the ground 
at once, set out the plants in good time, and you cannot fail to be 
highly gratified with the result. Remember the conditions. Un- 
mixed plants true to name, and clean culture. J. J. Thomas says 
if you allow them to become weedy, they will bear but little, and 
you will come to the conclusion that strawberries are a humbug. 
Do the work early and well, and the expense will be small, the labor 
light and the reward great. 
Next in their turn, and right on the heels of the strawberry, come 
currants, raspberries and grapes. Thus, with small expense and 
proper care, our tables may be supplied with the various kinds of 
small fruits from three to four months. 
Raspberries that have proved sufficiently hardy by proper pruning 
and a little protection, to warrant their culture, are, for blackcaps, 
Davison’s Thornless, Doolittle and Mammoth Cluster; for red, 
Purple Cane and Philadelphia, the last being the latest and best for 
general culture. For grapes, the Concord and Janesville are hardy 
and of fair quality. Raspberries, the first year after setting, should 
not be allowed to grow more than one and a half feet in height, but 
kept pinched or cut back, which will cause them to throw out side 
branches, which should also be pinched off when one foot long, thus 
causing them to be stocky and not easily broken by the wind, and 
protected early in winter. The second year let them grow two and 
half a feet high—not higher. By pruning in this way and witha 
little protection, we need have no fears from winter killing. 
