170 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



called up several times just about the beginning of the berry 

 season, asking how soon we expect our berries are going to be 

 ready in any quantity. There is one thing that I can't under- 

 stand in the berry market or any other market, what the rea- 

 son is that the buyer, the middleman, wants to crowd the price 

 down so for. He cannot sell any more, he cannot buy any more, 

 but he contrives in every conceivable manner to crowd down 

 the price, and, as was said by one of the speakers this morn- 

 ing, they take advantage of those who come in with a few, 

 and it is a deplorable fact that a great many of the merchants 

 are always ready to tell you the price is a little bit off, and, as 

 I say, I can't conceive why they should do so, and it is a wrong 

 upon the producer, but I don't know that we will ever be able 

 to right it in any way. 



We grow our berries in the narrow matted row, and we 

 mulch as Mr. Hale has described, although I don't think I 

 would advise the use of stable manure upon a new bed, if I 

 were going to grow it more than two seasons, because the or- 

 dinary stable manure has enough grass and weed seeds of dif- 

 ferent varieties that will germinate to make you a whole lot of 

 extra work in the cultivation, but after the first year use your 

 stable manure. The salt meadow hay along where it is ob- 

 tainable makes a fine mulch, and we use quite a little rotted 

 manure for a mulch, putting it on pretty freely. And while I 

 grow in narrow rows quite a few of my neighbors grow in 

 wide rows, but I don't like it as well, for I don't think that 

 down through the center of the row you get as many large 

 berries. One of the principal things is to grow your berries 

 cheaply. We are getting a very cheap mulch now which will 

 be beneficial to a good many of you that are not getting the 

 same kind. Around New Haven, and I find in other places 

 somwhat, and I cannot conceive how it has come upon us so 

 rapidly, within the last few years, while we have always had 

 it to a slight extent, still at the present time this little weed that 

 we all know as chickweed is just swamping out our berries, and 

 I don't know but it will drive out a good many of us from 



■growing strawberries. 



A Member : How far apart do you have your rows ? 

 Mr. Farnham : About three feet. 



