STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 75 



Mr. Jenkins. If you will come to my place I will show you 

 my berries, and I have weeds growing in there that are as high 

 as my head. 



Mr. Whipple. Is that a perfect plant? 



Mr. Jenkins. Yes. 



Mr, Whipple. When the spring of the year comes, do you 

 gather the weeds and take them out of the way? 



Mr. Jenkins. No, sir, not unless, there are too man^ weeds to 

 bother about j^icking; if there is, I let them stand until there is 

 no danger of freezing, and take a scythe and run over the bed 

 and let them drop on to the bed. I take off a certain portion 

 from the bed where they are too thick. That is all I ever do to 

 my berries. 



Mr. Whipple. Does not what some call the native blue grass 

 trouble your soil ? It is a wild grass that grows upon a wet soil 

 in this country. I cannot succeed with berries if I let them 

 stand two years, without having this grass take possession of the 

 whole ground. 



Mr, Elliot. I would inquire, is this a firm flesh, or good mar- 

 ket berry 1 



Mr. Jenkins. It is; it stands carriage well. I don't know of 

 a quality that would add to the berry. It is as fine a shipping 

 berry as I have ever had, it is the finest table berry I have ever 

 used, and in every respect it is the best berry that I have ever 

 seen grown. It is a late bearer, and holds in bigness in size 

 better than any other berry I have ever seen; and another thing, 

 they don't run to vines; the are perfect in bloom, need no fertil- 

 izer. I don't work them only the first year, and only until about 

 the middle of July, and all the weeds that grow after that I con- 

 sider a benefit. They are very vigorous in their growth. I 

 mark my ground to set my berries the same as I plant corn, 

 three feet eight inches one way and about two feet apart in the 

 rows the other way. I never cut a runner, never disturb them — 

 let them grow as nature designed they should. 



Mr. Smith. What kind of soil have you? 



Mr. Jenkins. I have different kinds of soil on my farm and 

 have tried all parts of the land, and it don't seem to make any 

 difference, although sandy land brings them earlier. My farm 

 is generally a black, sandy loam. I have got this method of 

 cultivating by being constitutionally lazy. (Laughter.) If I 

 haven't I guess it has been a fast growing disease, and it has got 

 fast hold of me. » 



