124 ^^^ CONNECTICUT TOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



nine out of every ten new strawberries are failures commercially 

 speaking. 



Mr. Comstock : How many years have you fruited ^Mammoth 

 Beauty ? 



Mr. Race : I think ten years. It is a strawberry that will 

 stand resetting' on the same qualit}' of soil, the best of any I 

 have had. You know that where you grow your own plants 

 without changing them they are liable to run out, like rye or 

 corn — you must change once in a while. In some cases this 

 is so, but with the jMammoth Beauty I find that they bear 

 setting over and over again from one piece to another, and are 

 strong and vigorous. 



A Member : I think you said you use a ^^'eek to set two acres. 

 How many men do you employ? 



Mr. Race: Well, men are scarce up our way, and I have 

 always had the pleasure of doing a lot of my own work. I 

 have two good hired men right along. I aim to hire two more 

 in the busy season — that is, men or boys. Then I have two 

 rousing good girls that drop strawberry plants when I want 

 them to do it. I don't suppose it is fashionable for women to 

 do it, but they do it and are not any worse for it. and their 

 pocketbooks are not any worse for it either. So that would 

 make about six or seven of us all told. 



Mr. Flight: How many quarts do you grow to the acre? 



Mr. Race : Well, I am not much of a figurer, and I don't 

 keep track of it as some of my neighbors do ; I have made a 

 mistake in not doing that. I had an acre and a half that I told 

 the fruit growers down at Worcester last spring about, that I 

 raised on a field where I plowed under some corn. I tried 

 the green-fertilizer method. I plowed under corn eight feet 

 high, which was sown broadcast, using clover after the corn, 

 and rye after the clover. The berry that I used as a pollenizer 

 was Lovett's Early. It didn't prove to be a good bearer. The 

 first few berries were fine, but the rest were little berries, and 

 dealers, of course, didn't like to take them, so a good many 

 of those berries went to waste. But on that acre and a half 

 I picked 316 bushels of strawberries. If the Lovetts had been 

 Mammoth Beauties, I would have had 500 bushels. That is 

 the best crop I ever raised and gathered. They sold for good 

 prices. 



