58 ANNUAL REPORT. 



ticultural Society and those who by their untiring aid and support are 

 teeping it up, I am, 



• Yours Truly, 



C. F. Norwood. 



The Secretary then read a paper on small fruits, by C. H. Hamilton, 

 of Ripnn, Wisconsin, Mr. Hamilton being unable to be present. 



SMALL FRUITS. 



BY C. H. HAMILTON, RIPON, WIS. 



Mr. President. Having been requested by your secretary, to pre- 

 pare a paper for your annual summer meeting on the subject of Small 

 Fruits, I will endeavor to give you a few practical suggestions. 



Small fruits, to people who live in the country are like heaven — 

 objects of universal desire and very general neglect. Indeed in a land 

 so peculiarly adapted to their cultivation, it is difficult to account for 

 their neglect, if you admit the premise that Americans are civilized 

 and intellectual. It is a trait of a savage and inferior race to devour 

 with immense gusto a delicious morsel and trust to luck for another. 

 People who would turn away from a dish of Wilson strawberries with 

 their plump, pink cheeks powdered with sugar, or a plate of melting 

 raspberries and cream, would be regarded so eccentric as to suggest 

 an asylum. But the number of professedly intelligent and moral people 

 who ignore the simple means of enjoying the ambrosial viands daily 

 for weeks together, is so large as to shake one's confidence in human 

 nature. A well maintained fruit garden is a comparatively rare ad- 

 junct of even stylish and pretentious homes. In June of all months, 

 in sultry July and August there arises from innumerable country 

 breakfast tables the pungent odor of a meat into which the devils 

 went, out of which there is no proof they ever came. The cabbage 

 patch may be seen afar, but too often the strawberry bed, even if it 

 exists, is hidden by weeds and the small fruits struggle for bare life in 

 some neglected corner. Indeed an excursion into certain parts of the 

 country might suggest that many of its thrifty citizens would not 

 have been content in Eden until they had put its best land into onions 

 and tobacco. Of course there is little hope for the rural soul that 

 does not love the manna of small fruits. We believe that humanity 

 in the main has reached a point where its internal organs highly ap- 

 prove of the delicious group of fruits that strayed out of Paradise and 

 have not yet lost themselves among the thorns and thistles. Living 



