REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON GARDENS. 295 



should go from this Society. We call attention to the Hunnewell 

 Prizes offered at the special exhibition in June. 



Strawberry Garden of Samuel Barnard. 



The only Strawberry Garden your Committee w^re invited to 

 inspect this season was Mr. Samuel Barnard's at Belmont, which 

 was visited June 30th. The varieties under cultivation were the 

 Sharpless, Champion, Belmont, Jewell, Miner's Prolific, and Bid- 

 well, with a few other varieties for fancy or for trial, the May 

 King and Jessie being among them. The first four Mr. Barnard 

 considers the best now grown, giving the Belmont and Sharpless 

 the preference, with the reminder that the Belmont requires high 

 cultivation. To show that this is practised by Mr. Barnard we may 

 say that from twelve to fifteen cords of manure to the acre are 

 used, all or nearly all being horse manure, which he finds best 

 adapted to his land. It is ploughed in, in the fall. No bed is 

 fruited more than one year, and the condition of the beds showed 

 the wisdom of this manner of cultivation. We wish our descrip- 

 tive powers were suflScient to show to your imagination those beds 

 as the Committee saw them, for we think you would all agree with 

 us that such a yield of fruit 3'ou never witnessed before, and as to 

 to the size, color, and shape of the berries the display from the 

 same beds by Mr. Barnard at the Strawberry Show was ample 

 proof to all who saw them that the product was of more than 

 ordinary merit. The further fact that six thousand baskets were 

 picked from an acre of ground is additional evidence of Mr. 

 Barnard's success as a strawberry specialist. Any attempt to 

 describe the different varieties mentioned would be of little use, 

 as they are known by most cultivators. Belmont is noted for 

 successful strawberry culture, and Mr. Barnard has done his part 

 nobly. A hasty visit to the Belmont Strawberry Show where a 

 splendid exhibition of strawberries was being held, and the sight 

 of the elegant display of fruit there shown was the best evidence 

 that the town is sustaining fully its well earned reputation for the 

 production of the strawberry. 



Each year produces perhaps more new varieties of strawberries 

 than of any other small fruit. Some are valuable, but for general 

 cultivation many are of little use outside the locality of their 

 origin. There is no small fruit cultivated that is so highly prized 

 and so anxiously looked for with each returning season, as the 



