Proceedings of the Farmers' Club. 251. 



Strawberries and all kinds of berries, promise to be a most prolific 

 and profitable crop. Last spring, strawberries shipped in small quan- 

 tities to IS'ew York, brought one dollar and twenty -five cents and one 

 dollar per quart ; the price gradually declined to seventy-five cents, 

 then fifty cents ; and forty cents was the lowest price obtained, the 

 last berries bringing the same price which the earliest from Ilammon- 

 ton obtained. 



From one-third of an acre at Dover, there were sold, net, the hand- 

 some little value of $680. Three acres yielded $2,000 over all 

 expenses ; four acres at Smyrna, brought $4,000, the purchaser doing 

 his own picking. At Milford, four and a half acres yielded one year 

 $2,800 ; another $3,000. 



The secret of these prices is in tJieh^ good condition. Pickers can 

 pick till three or five p. m., put their fi-uit on an express train, and it 

 is in Washington market before six the next morning, sweet, fresh 

 and uninjured. It is safe to say, for a series of years to come, twenty- 

 five cents per quart will be as low as prices Mall go. With good 

 cultivation, $500 and $1,000 per acre will be common results for 

 Delaware. 



Currants and gooseberries have not been tried on a large scale, but 

 they thrive splendidly wherever gi'own in gardens. I think either 

 will be a success, and give munificent returns. 



Cherries are exceedingly early. From a single young Morello 

 eight dollars worth have been taken, ^o disease has yet afilicted 

 this tree here. 



Apricots and plums will pay to raise and hire a man to do nothing 

 else but pick over the trees every day to keep them free from disease 

 or insects. 



Mr. James Lord, of Camden, in 1867, had a small apricot tree 

 about six 3'ears old, that bore four bushels of apricots. The first 

 bushel was sent to a commission merchant of Kew York, who gave 

 him one dollar per quart. Had the entire fruit been carefully picked 

 and marketed, the tree would have yielded $128. 



The Concord and Hartford Prolific are the only grapes that will 

 succeed. All others are failures. 



Extraordinary results are accomplished in vegetables. One grower 

 told the writer that from tlu-ee-fourths of an acre, loithout manure^ 

 he had taken 275 bushels of Irish potatoes. Another planted Irish 

 potatoes after spring frosts, gathered the ripe tubers in June, planted 



