Farmers' Institutes. 47 



troubled him seriously on newly broken greensward, but he saw nothing of 

 them in old ground. Mr. Little reads agricultural papers thoroughly, but he 

 declares that three-fourths of what they contain about strawberries are fallacious. 

 He does not mulch much, using for that purpose a few leaves. The soil is 

 loosened with a hook. 



The quince, Mr. Little said, will take a higher cultivation tban any other 

 fruit. The soil around the roots should be loosened with a hook, but never 

 with a hoe, spade or plow. Coal ashes and straw should be used to keep down 

 the weeds and make the ground moist. 



The pear tree should simply be fed with fertilizers ; the tree should be al- 

 lowed to stand firm and the roots should not be disturbed. Slacked lime is good 

 for trees suffering with the blight. Pear trees treated in this way do ten times 

 better than those that are neglected, as Mr. Little knows by actual test. 



Mr. Little had just branched off into the raising of hens, when he was cue off 

 with a flood of questions ou the raising of strawberries, pears, etc. In response 

 to them he said that wood ashes should not be used to fertilize strawberry plants 

 in a clay soil. That soil is already too hard and it should be loosened, instead of 

 made harder by ashes. Mulching is the proper way to treat such soil. He did 

 but little mulching in winter ; used a few leaves. He had used boards be- 

 tween the rows of strawberries, but they were unsatisfactory and were not used 

 after the first trial. 



Alfred Peck, proprietor of the Collins House, testified to the excellence of Mr. 

 Little's strawberries. 



President Kellogg said that a man in Sheffield had mulched a strawberry bed 

 with tobacco stems and with the greatest success. Mr. Little objected that with 

 such a mulch it is impossible to get at the weeds. 



Merritt I. Wheeler, delegate to the State Board of Agriculture, said a fellow 

 member had stated at one of the meetings of the board, that one of his neigh- 

 bors had raised 160 strawberry plants from the seeds, and the next season ob- 

 tained a quart from each plant, a remarkable experiment considering the time 

 occupied. Mr. Wheeler's father was the first one to raise strawberries in Great 

 Barrington, fifty years ago. He used plaster, one season, for fertilizer, but had 

 no berries. Strawberry plants need to be fed with alkali, hence the value of 

 ashes, tobacco stems, etc. Mr. Wheeler said that he prefers to set out new 

 plants on new ground every two years, instead of pursuing Mr. Little's method 

 of renewing the beds of plants. He would not get plants from an old bed but 

 would buy them from a strawberry plant grower. 



Mr. Wheeler was erroneously reported to have maintained, at the last Institute, 

 that grass is most nutritious if cut at the maturity of the seed. Instead of this, 

 he quoted an agriculturist as saying that grass should be cut when the seed be- 

 gins to form. 



William H. Burget of Great Barrington asked if any one present knew why 

 the Flemish Beauty pear cracks, and if there is any remedy for it. Balph Little 

 said that he had many Flemish Beauty pear trees, but the pears cracked so that 

 he grafted the trees with Bartletts. There was no other remedy. Rev. Kobert 

 Bennett of North Egremont, questioned if the Flemish Beauty would grow well 

 on any but damp soil. E. W. B. Canning of Stockbridge, replied that he has 

 raised this pear on gravelly soil for many years and the fruit had not cracked. 



