112 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



price down to six cents per quart so that the addition of the ten 

 crates involves a large actual loss, by breaking the market. There- 

 lore it is always safe to have an overflow market, even if at less fig- 

 ures, to save 3'our local market. 



Again it is best to excel in raising berries of extra size, beauty and 

 quality. When a market is glutted the small berries suffer worst. 

 John White and James Brown raise berries for market ; White's 

 berries average thirty-five to the quart ; Brown's average one huudred 

 to the quart ; White has a larger yield and gets twelve cents per 

 quart average. Brown has a less yield and gets an average of seven 

 cents per quart. White has a quick demand. Brown's go slow. 

 White comes home from market looking happy, Brown brings home 

 a long face. Now whose place will you fill, that of White or of 

 Brown? I leave tliat for you to answer. But remember Daniel 

 Webster's advice to a young lawyer who asked him if there was any 

 more room in the profession, "Yes, plent}^ of room higher up." 



MULCHING. 



This is a practice I need not explain to you ; but I assure you 

 one of great importance. Where your land is covered with snow till 

 April, it is of less need than with us in Connecticut, where we have 

 more open weather in winter; and 3'et the plants often suffer most 

 during the frosty winds that prevail in spring after snow is gone. 



When the ground ceases to freeze nights you can remove the 

 mulch (two tons of coarse hay per acre) and find last year's foliage 

 looking fresh and green ; here is a strong point in your favor ; when 

 this is done the ground should have one perfect shallow hoeing and 

 weeding, then remain free till the green berries commence to change 

 color ; at this time put back enough mulch to keep the berries per- 

 fectly clean. Leave it there till the crop is gathered, then turn 

 mulch and plants right under and seed to grass or any other crop. 



farmers' fruit gardens. 

 On my way to New Orleans Exposition in passing through Ala- 

 bama, as we saw negro quarters frequently and many dusky faces 

 peering at us, I said to the conductor, what do these people live 

 on? ^'Hog and hoecake," said he, '*year in and year out." And so it 

 is too often in outlying farm districts ; the delicacies of life are too 

 few and infrequent. 



