nth March, A. D. 1897. 



The follow ill;; essay was read before tlie Society in connection with llie M;issacliusetts Fruit 

 Growers Association, at their Auunal >reelinn: 



ESSAY 



BY 



A. G. SHARP, Richmond, Mass. 



Theme: — Small Fruit Culture. 



I WAS a little surprised to be called here by your President to give 

 yon a talk, or read a paper, on small fruit culture, as I doubt not 

 there are men here, who have had more experience than I in this line, 

 though not probably under the same conditions of soil, etc. I can 

 always learn something from any man wlio has been a cultivator of 

 any small fruit. My soil is a heavy clay loam that heaves badly with 

 the frost, fall and spring, so much so tliat I have seen clover roots of 

 more than a foot in length thrown entirely out of the ground. 

 Therefore I have to pursue a different system from one on a santly 

 soil. I am not going to give you any theories, but what I have 

 learned or observed in actual practice during my seventeen years' 

 work among the berries. If we were all growing fruits under the 

 same condition of soil and markets, less would be gained in attending 

 these meetings. It is of our varied experience that it becomes so 

 profitable to meet and compare notes, in fact this is now a necessity; 

 and the question is n(;t can we afford to attend them, but can we 

 afford to miss them? The days of guess-work have gone by for the 

 successful farmer or fruit grower. The best dairymen have their 

 scientific tests, by which they weed out their unprofitable cows, study 

 the food analyses and learn which are the most economical and most 

 profitable feeds to use for both milk and butter, also mamivial value 

 of different grains used, hold their winter meetings and discuss 

 their problems, striving to get nearer the consumer or lessen the ex- 

 pense along the line and at the other end, knowing that one cent, per 



