1889.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 4. 151 



his movements, but gets there just the same, and makes his 

 presence known by the wilting of the leaves of apparently 

 healthy plants. Examination will show the roots of the 

 plants all eaten off close to the crown. The enemy, 

 having gorged himself, will be found in the immediate 

 vicinity, and may be easily destroyed. Prompt care in 

 their destruction, removal of the dead plants and turning 

 some of the runners from the surrounding plants into the 

 vacant space, will prevent serious damage. A new enemy 

 has recently appeared in some localities in the State, in the 

 form of a small black beetle about one-fourth inch in length. 

 He makes his appearance in the old beds soon after the fruit 

 is picked. In a few days the leaves are thickly perforated, 

 appearing as though riddled with fine shot ; he continues 

 devouring the foliage until nothing but the skeleton of the 

 leaf is left and the plants die. He is very shy and quick in 

 his movements, and upon any approach to or disturbance of 

 the leaves, immediately secretes himself in the soil around 

 the crown of the plant. 



To the inquiry often made, "What will the strawberry 

 yield?" it may be said that two hundred bushels to the acre 

 is a good crop, though we have well authenticated records of 

 more than twice that amount being grown. One grower in 

 Arlington, the past season, sold from twenty-four thousand 

 feet of land something over one hundred bushels of fruit. 

 This was not a remarkable yield in quantity ; but the plants 

 were set in rows five feet apart, and a crop of early beets 

 grown between the rows the first season, and the plants but 

 sparsely covered the ground ; but under these conditions 

 what was lacking in quantity was more than made up 

 in quality ; the fruit was sold in the Boston market to 

 wholesale dealers and returned the owner over eight hundred 

 dollars. 



The currant is a fruit of so easy cultivation, and confined 

 to so few varieties, that there is little that is new or not well 

 understood that can be said of it. The object in introducing 

 it here is, first, because it has not received, and is not at 

 present receiving, from fruit-growers the consideration to 

 which its merits as a market fruit entitle it; and, second, 

 because it can be successfully grown among tree fruits at a 



