86 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICLXTURAL SOCIETY. 



MEETING FOR DISCUSSION. 

 Thk Strawberry and Its Culture; Theories and Methods, 



By p. M. AucuK, Connecticut State Pomologist, Middlefleld, Conn. 



The time was when the Strawberry was regarded as a hixury 

 for occasioual use oul}' ; now it is justly considered a necessity. 

 So much so is it, that a faihire of the strawberry crop would be 

 considered almost as deplorable as a potato famine, at least 

 during the season when we usually have them. Formerly a few 

 crates answered tlie demand in any one market ; now the daily 

 supply of our principal cities requires long, ponderous trains of 

 cars, loaded with this most delicious earlj' summer fruit. No 

 apology, therefore, is needed for devoting our thoughts todaj- to 

 the consideration of the current theories and approved methods 

 now practiced in the highest strawberry culture. 



In noting the progress in this line, which has been made during 

 our recollection, Ave see a change as great as that between the little 

 packet ship of our boyhood days, and the great palatial ocean 

 steamer of todaj'. Again, when we compare a quart of selected 

 strawberries, of the best type we knew sixty years ago, with the 

 fine exhibition berries of the Sharpless, Belmont, and Jewell, as 

 they appear on your exhibition tables from year to j^ear, we are 

 indeed amazed ; and yet this is only in harmony with the rate of 

 progress we observe in almost every department of human effort. 



Therefore, standing as we now do on the threshold of the last 

 decade of the nineteenth century, let us look forward and see 

 where lie the opportunities for higher development and more 

 •complete success in this interesting department of horticulture. 



First, then, let us consider the subject of culture as having a 

 most important bearing on strawberry production, and being a 

 most important factor in achieving it. If we turn to mechanics 

 for an illustration we find that the same metal, under different 

 methods of handling, may be made into either a stone-hammer or a 

 watch-spring — the latter, of course, requiring a far higher degree 

 of skill than the former, with a consequent higher value. So also 

 ft given piece of laud may under a certain management yield a 

 crop of potatoes worth out' hundred dollars; the same land may 

 under very different management yield a crop of strawberries 

 worth ten times as much. Let it not be inferred from this that 



