1889.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 4. 155 



Mr. Wood. I do not know of any.* 



Mr. Kinney of Worcester. I would like to ask Mr. 

 Wood if he knows anything about the Jucunda strawberry ; 

 whether he knows of any place where it is holding its own ; 

 and whether the work of this beetle that is commonly called 

 the strawberry beetle, is not the reason why beds are not 

 cultivated two years, as used to be the practice? 



Mr. Wood. The beds are run very generally in our 

 vicinity in the eastern part of the State the second year, and 

 in the vicinity of Boston I have heard nothing of this beetle 

 until this year. Some growers in other parts of the State 

 have been troubled with it, but I do not know that it has 

 deterred any one in our vicinity from growing their beds the 

 second year. Before we had any difficulty with that beetle, 

 it was a question with many who grow on high-priced land. 

 In Belmont and Arlington they have for years grown but a 

 single crop from the vines. They grow three crops in two 

 years. They set out their vines with the rows wider apart 

 than I recommended in the essay, five feet apart, and sow 

 early beets between. They get a paying crop of early 

 beets, and then their strawberries run over the ground for 

 the remaining part of the season, and next year they pick 

 their crop ; and as soon as the crop i-s taken off they clear 

 the ground and set it out to celery, and so grow three crops 

 in two years. 



As to the Jucunda, it is like a great many varieties, 

 diminished year by year. You will remember the Triomphe 

 de Gand was a popular variety, but it cannot be found in 

 Our vicinity ; but the Jucunda has retained its position. I 

 met Mr. Kinney from Worcester — the gentleman's fether, 

 I believe, who is one of the largest fruit growers from that 

 city — last year, and he informed me the Jucunda was 

 among the most profitable varieties. 



* Mrs. Mary Treat, in her book entitled "Injurious Insects of the Farm and 

 Garden," page 206, has the following: "The Currant Stalk-Borer {Aiijeria 

 tipuUformis, Linn.). — This is an imported insect and of the same genus as the 

 peach-borer. The moth lays her eggs singly near the buds, and the larva;, when 

 hatched, make their way directly to the pith, which they devour, forming a channel 

 several inches in length. The stem, thus weakened, shows by the inferior size of its 

 fruit that this insect is present, and it often breaks off at the afTected part. The im- 

 poverished growth of the stems indicates the presence of this borer, and at the fall 

 pruning all such should be cut away and burned." 



