STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 73 



that sells the best is the kiud to raise. I have an idea that they 

 would set the varieties they sell the largest amount of, and would 

 be strong evidence that that was the best variety. 



President Smith. The best advertised is not necessarily the best. 



Mr. Pearce. The Crescent is good, and if a man has the right 

 kind of soil and gives them the the right kind of cultivation he 

 will have a good crop; and when you can send out a plant that 

 universally in all kinds of soil and with all kinds of jjeople 

 have them get a good crop, that is the kind we want. 



President Smith. That has always been the Wilson. 



Mr. Pearce. Not necessarily; not in my experience. I have 

 sent out thousands and thousands of the Crescents and never had 

 any come back; I have sent the Wilson out and they said they 

 failed. The Wilson is a good and profitable berry. 



President Smith. I would state for the information of Mr. 

 Pearce that I bought a quantity of the Crescent paying $2.50 a 

 hundred for them and they proved worthless and I was compelled 

 to dig them up and throw them away. My soil was rich and 

 they wouldn't produce any berries. I have never been able to 

 grow the Crescent Seedling with any degree of success while I 

 have had no trouble with many other varieties I have grown. 



Mr. Whipple. What is your method of setting plants? 



President Smith. I grow them in rows and have the rows 

 about two and one-half feet apart. 



Mr. Whipple. I set my plants about two feet apart in the rows 

 and the rows about four feet apart. 



Mr. Tuttle. I have grown the Crescent Seedling on very rich 

 ground, but I never manure the ground where I put the Crescent 

 Seedling. I probably set the first Crescent Seedlings that were 

 set in Wisconsin. A friend of mine originated them. I saw the 

 plants two years before they were sent out. To look at the soil 

 on which they were grown it would not be supposed it would 

 produce anything; you could hardly find any poorer soil any- 

 where. It was on the sand and among j ack-oaks that the Crescent 

 Seedling was originated. It was quite sandy, poor, thin soil. I 

 think I have seen the Crescent on very rich soil, where it was 

 highly manured, and it would hardly do anything; but I don't 

 think there has been a plant produced that will succeed better in 

 the hands of everybody and produce more liushels of fruit. And 

 yet my friend Mr. Parmele says that he has something that beats 

 it; and if he says he has I know he thinks he has; I have known 

 him for some forty years. 

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