64 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



tops, the long, dark vistas end in light and the forest is behind me. 

 A path leads round a little hill to a forsaken camp. Tall thistles 

 grow about the door. Decay has fastened on floor and walls and 

 roof. Outside the glistening stumps stand, thick, like headstones, 

 each showing where a giant fell. Wild raspberries are everywhere. 

 The bushes have forced their way through every heap of brush, they 

 bend in pil3' over every fallen, mouldering trunk, they fill the hollows, 

 they fringe the outlines of the ridges. A new forest is springing up 

 also. Vigorous saplings are pushing themselves into prominence 

 with all the assurance of green youth. ***** 



* * Man and nature are ever at war. Here she is destroy- 

 ing the camp which he has built, and is rebuilding the forest which 

 he has destro^'ed. He is active, she is patient : he is pitiless, she 

 is merciful. But the ideal must yield to the practical till in the late 

 afternoon I recline upon a bit of grass in the midst of this forest 

 amphitheatre, ra^' well-filled pails at hand, and watch the trees reach 

 out their arms between me and the declining sun. The wild bee, 

 drunk with nectar, sways past on his homeward way, the woodpecker 

 taps upon the resounding trunk of yon dead tree. In the deeper 

 woods the night bird calls his mate. I enter the dark aisles, the ra- 

 vine, the labyrinth, the avenue ; I cross the jewelled meadow, and 

 finally emerge from the forest to see the last rays of the setting sun, 

 shining on the roof and gables of the little cottage home upon the 

 hill. 



From this poor description of one from hundreds of expedi- 

 tions, it ma^' be seen that I naturally should turn my attention to the 

 cultivation of small fruits. I have never cultivated large areas, but 

 for some twenty j^ears I have been experimenting on varieties, 

 methods, and in detail. In considering the subject in its practical 

 aspect I do not presume to instruct the nurseryman or the market 

 gardener who are already large producers, but address myself par- 

 ticularly to the novice and to the amateur. 



And first let me remark that fancy plots and showy arrangement, 

 although very desirable from an artistic standpoint, are totall}' un- 

 appreciated bj' the plants themselves. They have nothing of the 

 dude or of the exquisite in their nature. They require and will repaj' 

 good cultivation, but whether for use in the family or for the market, 

 they should be produced upon business principles. In general it is 

 unwise for any person who depends upon the soil for his support to 

 place sole reliance upon any one crop. Unforeseen contingencies 



