156 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



Mr. Kinney. In our experience, now the bottom has 

 dropped out of it. It has been for years the nicest we had, 

 and there was no fruit that compared with it for firmness ; 

 but it is gone, and I should like to find out whether it is so 

 throughout the country. 



Mr. Wood. Well, we have had it exhibited on the tables 

 of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society every year, but 

 not as much as formerly. It is an excellent berry. 



Question. Does not ploughing up a strip about three 

 feet wide between the old roAvs of strawberries, and letting 

 them cover it over with new runners, make substantially a 

 new bed ? Do you plough up the old and make a new row 

 where the old was ? 



Mr. Wood. Yes, sir; but I said, cultivated in that way 

 we were more dependent upon a favorable season. That is, 

 the runners do not run as readily from an old bed that has 

 fruited as from a bed that is set out in the spring ; but if 

 the ground is kept in good condition, you will get a very 

 fair bed in that way. 



Mr. AuGUE. Do you know, sir, about what date this 

 beetle you speak of appeared ? 



Mr. Wood. I should think the first I saw of him was 

 the very last of July or the first of August. I will say 

 here that Mr. Saunders, in his book on "Insects Injurious 

 to Fruits," says that they appear before the fruit is ripe ; but 

 they have not on our beds, so far as I know, appeared until 

 the fruit is picked, the last of July or the first of August. 

 May I ask the audience if any other person here has noticed 

 it upon his strawberry beds ? 



A Voice. I have, for one. 



Mr. Kinney. I think it very strange that there are not 

 more people here acquainted with it, for I feel very certain 

 the same fall Mr. Cruikshanks discovered it, it was discov- 

 ored with us. We arc located in Worcester city. It has in 

 fact entirely ruined all those beds. I am not a scientist, 

 and do not know about the growth of the insect particularly, 

 only I feel confident that the damage is done before the beetle 

 appears. The larvae grow in the stems. They afi'ect the small 

 stem plants but very slightly, there is not sufficient room 

 for them to grow ; but take it on the Jewell and Sharpless, the 



