STATE rOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 65 



lighter, drier laud; other varieties will uot grow on the driest laud. 

 There is a natural selection of the soil. 



In growing raspberries and blackberries you want the most hardy 

 varieties. Many of the varieties that will thrive iu Delaware and Mary- 

 land, like the Wilson's Early blackbei*ry and the old Hudson River rasp- 

 berry, will not stand your climate. Others like the Sn5'der, varieties of 

 that kind, with a little winter protection, would fruit here every year. 

 The more hardy of the Doolittle type of raspberry, planted on high 

 ground and given a little winter protection, would undoubtedly thrive 

 here. Currants and gooseberries are hardj' enough anjway. 



The question of winter protection is not a very serious one. AVe talk 

 about laying down raspberries and blackberries, and it looks like a very 

 difficult job. But the men who do it by the acre say that it can be done 

 at a cost of eight or ten dollars per acre. For a familj' supply you do not 

 want an acre, or a half acre; a half a bushel of fruit a day is a good 

 rational supply with a clear conscience and a large family. Those of 

 you who buy two or three quarts occasionally will think this is a good 

 deal, but the difference between the fruits you buy and the choice fruits 

 raised on your own farm makes a difference with your appetite and the 

 power of consumption. We have a great many farmers who do not grow 

 any berries, but tell their families it is cheaper to bu}'. They say, "I tell 

 my family I will buj^ them all the fruit they want," but they do not 

 come up to it, anywhere near. ^Ve save back some berries on Saturday 

 for these neighbors. Some of them will drive up and say, "Have you got 

 any strawberries to-day. Hale?"' We will saj- yes. "Well what are they 

 worth?" Perhaps thej^ are worth ten or fifteen cents, and he will pull 

 out a pail and say, "What will that hold?'" We will saj-, perhaps, eight 

 quarts. "Well, fill it up."' And he paj's for it with the air of a man who 

 says, "Oh, I give ray family everything under the sun they want." He 

 gives you a sort of impression that he is wonderfully liberal. Ten chances 

 to one he dou"t get home in time for supper, and they don't have them for 

 breakfast, as the people who do not raise strawberries do not get accus- 

 tomed to having them for breakfast, and so they hang around till noon. 

 Perhaps just about the time they go to church the old man who has been 

 so liberal, will say, "Mary, I would like a shortcake for dinner to-day, 

 wouldn"t that be nice?"' She heaves a sigh and says, "Yes." And then says, 

 "I guess I wont go to church to-day." He goes to church and prays for 

 the heathen, and she stays at home and works for the heathen right in her 

 own family. That is about all the strawberries that family gets. And 

 there are a great many families where that thing is true, in New Hamp- 

 shire and Massachusetts at least. Maine may be free from it, but I think 

 you might find it true iu some part of Maine, probably down in the 

 southern part. 



This is an important question, — the supplying of your families with 

 the best of everything. There is no one on earth that can live as well for 

 a little money as the farmer and his family; and there is nothing that 



