AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 93 



amount of manure ; but cai'e must be taken not to use manure that pro- 

 duces fermentation. 



Wm. Lawton. — I have used wood mold to the best advantage, for fer- 

 tilizing strawberries. 



The chairman stated that his raspberry field was no longer profitable, 

 that is, not as profitable as strawberries. The old stock raspberries of 

 Long Island were hai-dy, and needed no covering. 



Dr. Ward. — I am amazed at what has been said about raspberries. It 

 is contrary to my experience of eight years. If the fruit of others is not 

 perfect, the soil is not adapted to this plant I have grown all the sorts 

 most common, and never find imperfect berries. I also find the business 

 profitable ; they cost less than strawberries. I cover mine for winter ; 

 a man and boy can cover three-fourths of an acre a day. Tlic lifting out 

 of the vines in spring takes but little time, as the plants would have to 

 be attended to beside. The after-work is small, compared to the value of 

 the crop. I have been equally surprised at seeing in a late article in the 

 Horticulturist, that pears cannot be grown in this country to any advan- 

 tage. 



Solon Robinson. — Have you seen the reason why the writer of that 

 article did not succeed ? A practical gardener gives it in the last number 

 of Moore's Rural New Yorker. He says the ground is a stifi" clay, 

 undrained, and so wet it produces sedge grass and moss, and of course, 

 cannot produce good pears, particularly upon the cold, bleak eastern 

 shore of Grand Island, Niagara river. 



T. W. Field. — I have no doubt of the success of Dr. Ward, but he is 

 an exception in the raspberry business. 



As to the failure of L. F. Allen in growing pears, it is not to be won- 

 dered at, when we know how and where he grows them. 



Mr. Freeman, of Ravenswood, said : I covered two acres with raspber- 

 ries at an expense of $15, and I believe that I can make the business 

 profitable. 



Prof. Nash. — 1 have always noticed that wild strawberries grew best 

 upon light, dry, new land, without manure, and I want the error corrected 

 that amoniacal manure is necessary. 



R. Gr. Pardee. — My first experiments were with barn-yard manures, and 

 I made my bed very rich, and failed to get a gill of fruit. I grew great 

 vines but no berries ; yet the idea prevails that a large quantity of 

 manure must be used upon the strawerry bed, and people are hard to 

 convince of the bad effects of high manuring for a crop of strawberries. 

 Lime is a valuable application, particularly lime slaked with water 

 saturated with salt. About raspberries, I have to repeat that raspberry- 

 growing in Milton, upon the Hudson, is profitable. If the vines produce 

 imperfect berries, the canes are imperfect. Spurious kinds are vei'y com- 

 mon all over the country. 



Dr. Ward stated that he had the greatest difficulty in eradicating spuri- 

 ous canes among his best raspberries. He believes that they hybridize, 



