CULTURE OF SMALL FRUITS. 91 



Henderson of preparing plants for forcing, by lading the runners 

 in small pots. The speaker thought it better to pot 3'oung plants 

 in spring, and shift into larger pots as the plants grew, by which 

 large, fat crowns, full of fruit buds, would be read}' when wanted 

 for forcing. He thought that forcing strawberries might be made 

 profitable. He believed also that they might be forwarded to 

 advantage in cold graperies, and called on E. W. Wood for his 

 opinion on this point. 



Mr. Wood thought there would be but little time gained. He 

 had commonl}' taken up his grape vines from the twelfth to the 

 fifteenth of April, and it is not desirable to give extra heat before 

 that time. In March he throws open the windows of his grapery 

 at top and bottom ; to keep them closed would injure the vines. 



Mr. Wood spoke of the importance of these discussions as a 

 means of diffusing information as to the best varieties of fruit, and 

 especiall}' as to the value of new fruits. The onl}^ opportunity to 

 judge of new varieties is at the exhibitions, and it is impossible to 

 tell from merely seeing a fruit whether or not it is desirable for 

 general cultivation. He had been disappointed with the results of 

 his own cultivation of Mr. Moore's new seedling strawberries, of 

 which he had tested three varieties. From a row of the Belle, two 

 hundred feet long, he did not pick a peck of berries, and the plants 

 came out stinted in the spring, and the leaves curled. His experi-. 

 ence was the same last year, but perhaps the plants need the 

 "Concord sand," in which Mr. Moore says he grows his straw- 

 berries. ISIr. Wood's soil is a strong loam with a clay subsoil. 



Last year Mr. Wood tried the experiment of planting straw- 

 berries in August, though he had previously believed it useless to 

 set them at that season. A crop of early potatoes had just been 

 taken from the ground. He dibbled a hole and filled it with water, 

 and did not lose a dozen out of seven or eight hundred plants. He 

 learned the method from a vegetable grower. 



Mr. Smith, being asked his experience with the varieties of 

 strawberry mentioned by Mr. Wood, replied that it was the same 

 as Mr. Wood's. The Grace produced a fair crop and the Caroline 

 an abundant one, while the Belle proved a shy bearer. 



Mr. Wood spoke of the Versaillaise currant as a good grower, 

 and an abundant bearer, while a row of Dana's Transparent, along- 

 side of the Versaillaise, had produced but a very small crop. 



The Chairman remarked that man}- persons considered the Ver- 



