130 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



of enormous yields, but the most surprising statement is 

 that a crop of strawberries can be produced as cheaply as 

 any farm crop, not even excepting ruta-bagas. The same 

 person tells us that potash and bone and ammonia as found 

 outside of stable manure are burning manures^ that burn the 

 roots of our plants and fail to make them grow. From the 

 same source I learn that ashes are almost pure potash. I 

 think there are many fruit growers here that would like to 

 know where they could buy such ashes, or even those that 

 would analyze ten per cent potash, and take all the chances 

 of burning up their crops. Maybe it is for want of all this 

 knowledge that I have continued growing most of my fruits 

 with commercial fertilizers in years past. This I have done 

 because I have found it cheaper to use them than to buy 

 stable manure. 



I do not think I can bring an acre of strawberries up to 

 picking time for less than $100 per acre on my soil, and ex- 

 pect to get paying returns. The best results were in 1893, 

 when the sales from four and one-half acres of strawberries 

 amounted to $2,378, over $530 per acre, besides what were 

 consumed by the famil3^ I received last year, 1890, from 

 one acre of blackberries, $420 ; from live-eighths of an acre 

 of Souhegan black caps, $427 ; and from one acre of Marl- 

 boro raspberries, $350. 



I alwaj's plant in the spring, excepting currants and red 

 raspberries, which I prefer to plant in the fall ; and have 

 never had returns sufficient from summer or fall set straw- 

 berries to pay for the extra labor involved, except by cut- 

 ting a shovelful from the row that has borne a crop, and set 

 in hills in furrows freshly prepared in moist soil. 



The grape next claims our attention ; and I have been 

 something of a pioneer and maybe a crank in advocating 

 certain ways of pruning and training the vine. I first 

 trained the vine on what is termed the Kniffen system, 

 four arms to the vine on a trellis of two wires three to six 

 feet from the ground. I observed that the best fruit grew 

 upon the upper arms, and the older the vine the greater the 

 difference in size, lustre and value of the fruit. I removed 

 the lower arms and lengthened the upper, with the result of 

 producing larger clusters of better quality, and consequently 



