CULTURE OF SMALL FRUITS. 87 



The Chairman read from the last report of the Fruit Committee 

 the following : "Much has heen said in favor of the Monarch of 

 the West, Star of the West, and the Great American, but we be- 

 lieve either of those raised by Mr. Moore is in all respects superior 

 to an}' of them." He inquired whether the varieties named, and 

 especially the Great American, were so well tested as to warrant 

 the comparison. 



Benjamin G. Smith, a member of the Fruit Committee, replied 

 that the specimens exhibited were from plants set last spring. 



The Chairman regretted the expression, and thought that we 

 should be very careful in regard to giving opinions on fruits that 

 we know little of. 



E. P. Richardson was disposed to think the Monarch of the West 

 better than was implied in the report of the Fruit Committee. One 

 of his neighbors w^ho has cultivated it with the Wilson, is inclined 

 to substitute it for the Wilson as a market variety. The specimens 

 shown at our exhibition were very large, but of poor color. 



Mr. Smith said that he had given special attention to the culture 

 of the currant and gooseberry. He found it impossible to produce 

 the best results without vigorous foliage. He trenched and enriched 

 his soil to the depth of from twent3'-four to thirty-six inches. He 

 mulched his gooseberries with salt hay, and used a solution of 

 sulphur and lime to prevent mildew on the foreign varieties. He 

 pruned very severely, shortening the young wood, excepting the 

 terminal shoots, to one or two ej^es. For strawberries he had used 

 a compost of one-fourth hen manure and three-fourths leaf mould. 

 He had found the Dorchester blackberry extremely liable to be 

 winter-killed. 



The Chairman remarked that the Wachuset Thornless blackberry 

 had been highly recommended in Worcester county, and called on 

 O. B. Hadwen, Ex-President of the Worcester Count}' Horticultural 

 Society, for information as to its character. 



Mr. Hadwen had seen it under very favorable circumstances, and 

 producing abundant crops. He had seen a row two hundred feet 

 in length covered with a larger crop of fruit than he had ever seen 

 on any other variety, wild or cultivated. It is perfectly hardy. It 

 is grown largely by Thomas A. Dawson, of Worcester, and Mr. 

 Hadwen had visited his grounds, and had never seen one 

 winter-killed. Mr. Dawson's soil is a light loam. The Wachuset 

 is not as large as the Kittatinny, but fully as large as the Dorches- 



