STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 77 



or two plums were also set out. Of the Russian Mulbeny, I may 

 be permitted to say a word, since so many of our nurserymen are 

 widely advertising it, and every tree agent ^'ou meet urges j-ou to 

 bu}' it. It has made a slow growth and at the present time is not 

 more than four feet in height, and I have given it a good chance to 

 establish a reputation. It grows slowly and after several years of 

 cultivation has borne no fruit. From my own experience and what I 

 read of it, it is of no earthly value in Maine. It was sold b}^ Purdy's 

 announcement and I cannot refrain from urging others in Maine to 

 let the Menuonites raise tlie mulberries. The fruit crop this year 

 began with strawberries, of which we had quite a surplus after eating 

 an abundance ourselves. There was a small bed of Downings, as 

 beautiful a sight as I ever saw in any fruit garden. As a curiosity 

 the product of this bed was carefuU}' measured and it was found to 

 produce fine berries at the rate of two hundred bushels to the acre. 

 The apple trees bore more than the year before. The currants and 

 gooseberries also produced fruit and we had all we needed of both. 

 For scA'eral weeks in small amounts we had most excellent rasp- 

 berries, though not as many as we wanted. There were also a few 

 black caps, which for the lack of better berries seemed very good. 



THE FOURTH YEAR AND ITS FRUITS. 



The fourth spring more work was done upon the apple trees, a few 

 being grafted and a few new trees being set. We were now ready to 

 try some more raspberries and blackberries ; of course we kept up our 

 strawberry beds, for we couldn't do without them after the family had 

 enjoyed them for two years. We ransacked the books, catalogues and 

 papers to learn the hardy varieties, and of black caps in the spring we 

 set both Gregg and Souhegan, as well as some Early Harvest blackber- 

 ries. Early in the autumn we cleai'ed a strip wide enough for four rows 

 of bushes on the easterly side of our lot, a little less than fourteen rods 

 long. The ground was well manured, thoroughly plowed and harrowed. 

 Here we set one hundred bushes each, of Turner and Cuthbert rasp- 

 berries and Snyder blackberry. These varieties were selected for 

 earliness and hardiness, two very essential qualities in producing the 

 fruit successfully. They were set as early in the fall as the stock 

 could be obtained from a New Jersey nursery. People as they drove 

 by wondered what I was doing there in the fall. I remember telling 

 one man I was getting ready to plant beans, which was not very far 

 from the truth, for I raised two crops of beans among the bushes the 



