FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 169 



get the variety that you want to grow, it all lies with the soil and 

 with the man, and the season, etc., as to what results you get, 

 rather than anything that our friend from Three Rivers, Mich- 

 igan, tells us we are going to get by planting his "pedigree" 

 plants. I don't know but his plants are equally as good, but 

 I would just as soon have my plants as to send a long distance 

 to get any "pedigree" plants, and especially if I had to pay any 

 extra price for the pedigree. Of course, our different soils, and 

 our dift'erent locations give us different results in regard to the 

 earliness and lateness of our fruit, but I think any one that is 

 going to grow berries to any large extent can well afford to 

 try and get the earliest berries and the latest berries, and in 

 so doing he will in all probability have a contin-uous crop from 

 the very earliest to the latest. It is getting so that our late 

 berries are sought after fully as much and at better prices 

 possibly than our early berries, the berries from the south 

 coming in such large quantities and lasting until our berries 

 come, so that the price is well down when our first berries come 

 on the market, that is, it is quite a little earlier than we used to 

 think was profitable years ago for the first berries, and it has 

 materially cut into the profit of berry growing. The quality 

 of the berry is to be taken into consideration to a large extent, 

 and it is advisable to grow a good quality, but sometimes for 

 shipping purposes, and you will observe that as being the fact 

 in the berries that come from the south, quality always does 

 not predominate, for they have to use a berry that has good 

 shipping properties ; but for a berry for the near-by market 

 quality and good looks has quite a little to do with the sale. 

 The berry crop is very different from' the apple crop, for we 

 can't put our berries into cold storage, and hold them for sev- 

 eral days and weeks, as you can much of the tree fruits, and we 

 must necessarily sell quickly, but we find that the shippers and 

 the buyers, for instance, in a city like New Haven, are a lit- 

 tle bit careful the latter part of the time in ordering in too 

 many carloads, and sometimes the growers have written the 

 dealers that they are going to have berries in abundance in a 

 very few days, and in that way we get the market a little uK^re 

 bare than it otherwise would be, and that is a benefit to them 

 as well as to ourselves. I may say that almost every year I am 



