STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 105 



SMALL FRUITS AND THEIR CULTURE. 

 By Hon. P. M. AuGUR. 



God in his overflowing goodness has bestowed upon us numerous 

 mercies, not the least of which are beautiful flowers and our excel- 

 lent summer fruits. These are specially adapted to the season in 

 which they come, and to our needs at that time. The law of adapta- 

 tion is seen everywhere. Note the fur of the seal and polar bear 

 with walrus fat for the needs of the Esquimaux ; the citrus fruits 

 with their delicious acid for the people of the sunny south ; and 

 the beautiful, luscious summer fruits for us of the temperate regions, 

 all good in adaptation in their time and place. 



The great development of small fruit culture has taken place 

 almost wholly during the recollection of some of us. Those of you 

 who have passed your sixtieth year will hardly remember the straw- 

 berry in the old home garden as a cultivated crop ; while the same 

 in the village market was an unheard of thing. Now the long trains 

 go thundering along the great railways bearing hundreds of tons of 

 the delicious fruit to the great city markets ; not now as a mere 

 matter of luxury, but indeed as a necessaiy table supply. 



Let us look for a few minutes at the intrinsic value of the straw- 

 berry. If we were on the verge of starvation probablj^ we should 

 welcome a few barrels of flour more heartily than so many crates of 

 strawberries; and yet in 'Hhe good book" it is written ''man shall 

 not live by bread alone." 



I have in my mind's eye an invalid, sick for some two weeks with 

 that dreaded disease Typhoid ; her doctor has told her friends he 

 can do no more and the}' must be prepared for the worst. A kind 

 neighbor in the fullness of her heart sends in a little dish of beautiful 

 strawberries in the full fragrance of the morning. They are placed 

 upon the bed by the sick girl ; their beauty and fragrance awaken a 

 new yearning for life, and now for the first time she desires to take 

 one in her fingers, it finds its way to her mouth with another and 

 another, and in short the turning point is passed, the doctor finds 

 a change for the better and in a few days her merry laugh resounds 

 through her home, and that good neighbor is assured that when life 

 was trembling in the balance she threw in the make weight that 

 turned the scales toward returning health. 



