18 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTTJRAL SOCIETY. [1880. 



Mr. Earle said the Crescent strawberry had generally been' 

 condemned by his patrons ; they said they didn't want any more 

 of that kind. 



Mr, James Draper said the Kittatinny blackberry'- did well with 

 him two years, and then it went back on everybody. Wilson's 

 Early was similar in his experience ; but Waclmsett has stood 

 the racket for ten years, and is far ahead. He believed in high 

 manuring for blackberries. It should be applied green in the 

 fall, close to the roots. In raspberries he said the market glut- 

 ted easily, in his experience, until he advertised them for canning. 

 He did not like the Brandywine ; it had gone " way out of sight." 

 The Fhiladelpliia is the only reliable berry. 



Mr. Midgeley said his raspberries last year averaged 19 cents 

 per quart. 



Mr. Edmund Hersey, President of the Hingham Agricultural 

 Society, was introduced. He said the Worcester of 35 years ago, 

 when he last saw it, was quite different from what he saw to day ; 

 but the interested audience indicated that green fields are not far 

 away ; he was glad to be among those who could teach him. He 

 began as a grower of Peaches at four years of age, and at six 

 was in the Nursery business as a grafter of trees ; he has kept up 

 his practice, but did not pretend to extended experience, although 

 he began over fifty years ago. 



He said of all the small fruits the Cranberry is especially im- 

 portant. Almost every farm has a favorable spot for its culture, 

 but there are few farmers who realize how much importance it 

 deserves. He thought it easier to make $100 on cranberries than 

 $50 on strawberries. He thought this crop more susceptible to 

 rule than the strawberry crop, Tlie proper location is a good 

 porous peat bottom, with water to flood the ground at any sea- 

 son, and to keep it covered a foot or two deep in winter; a sand 

 bank near by is essential. Such a spot is worth $500 per acre, 

 and can often be bought for $10, So much the better. The 

 top of the land should be removed down to the peat ; the soil re- 

 moved goes to the barnyard. The peat should be covered with 

 sand, three inches deep, in winter, when the soil is hard ; vines 

 should be set in this sand. In selecting varieties, quality and 

 productiveness are important. He exhibited cranberries as sold 

 from natural meadows, and otliers from cultivated ground, 

 between which there was a decided difit'erence in size and appear- 

 ance. The cultivated variety shown, he said, will produce four 

 bushels to the rod, but it is too light colored; if a dark berry 



