62 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Cuthberts in the spring ; have a few Cuthberts. They are an excel- 

 lent berry, large and of good flavor, and I think would be good for 

 shipment. Season late. 



Yours truly, 



I. C. Jackson. 



Following the reading of Mr. Jackson's letter Mr. Arthur I. Brown 

 of Belfast, a very successful commercial grower of small fruits, gave 

 his experience in their culture and marketing, in the following inter- 

 esting paper. 



A TALK ABOUT SMALL FRUITS. 

 By Arthur I. Browx. 



When the Secretary of the Maine State Pomological Society in- 

 vited me to read a paper before this body on the subject of "Small 

 Fruits and their Culture," I gave a ready assent. It is the one 

 branch of fruit culture on which I am enthusiastic and in which I 

 take a keen delight. Particularly as to the blackberry, the rasp- 

 berry, and the strawberry, which a few years ago were so plentiful, 

 growing wild without care in the fields, the pastures, and in the for- 

 ests of Maine. To-day in many sections they are well nigh extinct. 



When I was a boy, many were the dewy mornings that I followed 

 the mowers to glean the laden strawberry stems from between the 

 swaths ; many were the long still summer afternoons I spent in the 

 back lot, beside the brook, and filled my little pail — and little stomach 

 too — from the generous vines that flourished in the hollow that I knew 

 and loved so well. The glamour of those da^'S is on my spirit still, 

 and the taste of those rich berries is something more than a remem- 

 brance. 



I did not understand it then, but now I know that when the tired, 

 sunburned boy reached home, his dear old mother's smile, her arms 

 about his neck, her words of tender praise, were sweeter far to him 

 than all the strawberries in the world. He thought in his little mind 

 that mother was in raptures over the hard-earned fruit and he was 

 proud. To-day he knows 'twas all for love of him, and he is prouder 

 still. As my legs grew longer, I took longer excursions into the 

 forests, over the hills, into all the remote places where wild berries 

 were to be found. Always with the same keen enjoyment of freedom 

 and beauty and stillness, with the same love for delicious fruit ; and 

 I am forced to acknowledge, the same vanity concerning my success. 



