^82 ROCK COUNTY, WISCONSIN. 



small garden, because of their propensity to sucker, unless the 

 suckers be treated as weeds. The best for the garden, proba- 

 bly, is the Philadelphia, although it is too dark for some. I 

 think it indispensable. Among the red are many claims to 

 public favor. Some have a local reputation, some are so ten- 

 der they Winter kill, but during twenty-five years I have 

 found nothing equal to the above for general market and 

 family use. 



STRAWBERRIES. 



Last but not least of the small fruits, I come to the straw- 

 berry. Here there is as much chance for bewilderment as 

 among grapes. There is a rage for new varieties, something 

 better every way than the Wilson, large as apples, and choice as 

 Burr's New Pine. While it may not be found, certainly ver}^ great 

 effort has been made with very great results. First on this list 

 of clamorous favorites I may put the Shapeless, with its ber- 

 ries that so often reach nine inches in measurement. It is an 

 exceedingly vigorous and healthy plant, has a perfect bloom, 

 great productiveness and excellent quality, with perhaps only 

 one thing lacking — firmness; but it has sufficient of this for 

 any ordinary transportation. 



Of the new varieties I place the Crescent as the most vig- 

 orous, productive, and luscious of the whole list. As to its 

 qualit}^ liowever, there is a diversity of opinion. Some soils serve 

 to give it an insipid flavor, but nearly all good judges place its 

 quality ahead of the Wilson. It lacks the firmness of Wilson for 

 long shipments, but some marked points of superiority will 

 long make it an indispensable variety. It was stated at our 

 State convention that it would glut the market to introduce 

 this generally among farmers, as it requires no care after the 

 first year, except the picking of the enormous crop of fruit. I 

 will give one instance from my own grounds last season. In 

 1^^78 I planted eight hundred Crescents in one block, rows 

 nineteen rods long. In the last row there happened to be just 

 ninety-nine plants. The tending was good. I mulched in the 

 Winter following with chip manure. The row had formed a 

 bed three feet wide. No cultivation or weedinfr was done in 



