rs 
SMALL FRUITS. 41 
twenty-five years, and it was the only tree that had no blighton. I 
do not want to take up your time to tell you whatit is. The year 
1893 was pretty dry, and the majority of our trees were not in the 
best condition to go through the winter, and when spring opened, 
there were certain atmospheric conditions which started the trees to 
budding; it started the sap circulation, and the trees commenced to 
grow, unfortunately, before the frost was out of the ground; andthen 
there came a sudden check, and there was nothing to carry on the 
growth of the tree, and the blight set in. I think the drouth of the 
year before had something to do with it. 
Mr. Brackett: I would like to hear a discussion on growing the 
tree with several trunks. I adopted the plan of growing my trees 
in that manner. 
Mr. Dartt: Let us ask Mr. Brand. 
Mr. Brand: I do not care to say anything on that point. I was 
about to make a remark on the other branch of the subject. I was 
reminded while you were talking about it of a certain part of nature 
which Mr. Darwin calls “the law of economy of growth,” when there 
is no necessity for nature to put forth certain efforts. When you 
plant a root deep you put it below the action of the air, and it is not 
inclined to fortify itself against the inclemency of the weather so 
much as when it is higher up and more exposed to the atmosphere; 
and it is less liable to kill the nearer it gets to the surface of the 
soil, where it is more exposed to the atmosphere. You may expose 
it below its normal conditions if the roots were exposed and hard- 
ened up, and it may be able to resist more cold and changes than 
otherwise. I think it would be a good idea to dig down in the fal] of 
the year and remove a portion of the earth. I do not believe in hav- 
ing several trunks. The best results come from trees having trunks 
three or four feet high. 
Mr. Harris: If members will look back through the old reports of 
this society, they will find that twenty-five years ago I told them 
how I managed my orchard. About September I went into the or- 
chard and cleared the mulch away from the trees and tramped the 
earth hard around the roots of the tree so that the roots might be- 
come accustomed to the weather, and when winter set in I would 
put my mulching back again. Mr. Brand sawa tree in Mr. Budd’s 
nursery where the hens had scratched under the roots of a tree so 
they could make a nest under the center of the tree, yet that tree 
was not hurt in the root or top. 
REPORT ON SMALL FRUITS. 
THOMAS REDPATH, LONG LAKE. 
The past season has not been very favorable to those engaged in 
the growing of small fruits on account the of extreme dry weather 
that lasted all through the small fruit season, making the crop a 
light one. Strawberries were only about a third of acrop. The va- 
rieties that have done the best in this neighborhood, so far as I have 
been able to learn, are Captain Jack and Bubach No.5. Raspberries 
were a fair crop and sold at good prices. Marlboro is the most pop- 
