136 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



President Eddy : We have with iis one of the most suc- 

 cessful growers of small fruits in Massachusetts, Mr. Wheeler 

 of Concord, and he will now tell us about his methods of 

 culture and marketing. 



Some Profitable Methods of Growing Small Fruits. 

 By Wilfrid Wheeler, Concord, Mass. 



The growth of our country during the past ten or twenty 

 years has been very remarkable and its great industries have 

 been taxed to their utmost to keep up with the increased de- 

 mand for all sorts of material and produce. This condition 

 of affairs has led specialization in many industrial pursuits and 

 has also been extended to the farmer and the tiller of the soil 

 in general, so that it has brought about great changes in the 

 old style farm. Rarely now, except in remote sections, will 

 you find the old fashioned farm, where everything was pro- 

 duced and consumed at home; for the fanners, too. haz'c be- 

 come specialists. We hear of the dairyman, the orchardist, 

 the market g'ardener, the fruit-man or the horticulturist and 

 these in their special lines are striving to fill the wants' of the 

 growing comnmnity in which they live, and are wide awake to 

 embrace any new suggestion which may come to their notice. 



One ])ranch of their great work of which I intend to speak 

 to you of today is, the growing and marketing of small fruits, 

 which subject covers the strawberry, raspberry, blackberry, 

 currant, gooseberry, etc. There are besides these a large num- 

 ber of other small fruit very important in many respects, but 

 as yet they are only adapted to cultivation in special localities. 

 Of these the cranberry is perhaps tlie most important, and of 

 this my native state grows more than all the rest of the country 

 put together. 



In these days, when the out-of-doc^r life is being spoken of, 

 written of and lived, when the very children are being imbued 

 with its spirit, no one who owns or leases a plot of ground can 

 afford to be without his or her small" fruit garden. The farmer 

 whether he be an orchardist, dairyman or market gardener, 

 owes it to his family to see that their wants are liberally sup- 

 plied with these fruits so easily obtained, with a little care and 

 attention, from Mother Earth. 



