FOURTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 205 



vation and allcnv them to become overrun witli weeds and 

 their <;-ri)\\th checked. I have seen a good many crops well 

 started and then half ruined by not receiving the proper caie. 

 It won't do to raise a crop of grass or weeds and a crop of 

 potatoes on the same piece of ground. There will not be 

 enough large potatoes in the hill to be satisfactory. I repeat 

 that a person needs to be quite careful in the acreage he starts 

 to raise unless he is so situated that he can get extra help when 

 needed. He must also plan for such contingencies as may 

 arise. A wet season may cause the weeds to grow so that it 

 requires a large amount of extra help from what would be 

 necessary under ordinary circumstances, and if he has too 

 much under cultivation he is pretty sure to suffer quite a 

 considerable loss if unable to give proper care. He must also 

 remember that the numerous pests cause quite an extra 

 amount of labor, which must be given at just the right time. 

 It would be useless to try to fight the striped bug, that trou- 

 bles our cucumber and squash vines, after he had had a couple 

 of days to feed upon them. I don't think you would find 

 many vines left. The same would apply to numbers of the 

 other pests. If after planting and caring for a crop we find 

 we are overstocked, better just drop a piece, let it go by and 

 sell that which is just ready and in its prime, as poor stock 

 will lessen the sales and be unprofitable in the end. 



The same applies to berries ; we must not set more than 

 we can well care for from the time of setting to the end of the 

 picking season. If we should happen to have more than we 

 could get picked, it would be far better to drop one field or 

 portion of field and pick the rest regularly, so that we would 

 not get any overripe or more partially decayed ones mixed 

 in by some careless picker. I have seen some seasons when 

 the price was so low and the market so poor, that I thought 

 it better to let a field remain unpicked during the latter part 

 of the time. 



With the successful growing, the marketing is the equal 

 partner, as it is only part of the battle to grow it, and perhaps 

 the smaller part. While within the memory of many of us 

 the bulk of our berries and vegetables were mostly grown in 

 the east Atlantic states, to-dav such is not the case, as thev 



