THE CANADIAN HOHTICULTUUIST. lO'J 



Rochester, as we had always done, for our berries, whenever our religious 

 necessities called for a church festival. It was all of no use. Wyoniinsjj 

 ])eople ain't caught twice in the same trap ; they now keep pretty much 

 clear of the strawberry business. It is apparent, even to the most casual 

 observer, that they can't be grown without much labor. That of itself 

 should condemn them as a domestic institution. We ave willing to woi-k, 

 and to work hard, but we want to work for something that will bring 

 jnoney — something that will buy more land. 



It is agreed in our county that small fruits must take care of them- 

 . elves. Blackberries and black raspberries conform to our arrangement. 

 They set themselves out in the spare places, and do everything but pick 

 themselves. If your society vants to do anything respectable they will get 

 up a sort that will pick themselves. Our women pick them now, but we 

 are sorry to say our modern women are not what their grandmothers were; 

 they don't meet their responsibilities so cheerfully. Coming in about noon 

 in a hot day in July with a few berries, they are apt to remark, and some 

 times rather tartly, " It don't pay to ramble all over creation for a quart of 

 berries, when they can be raised in the back of the garden iu half the 

 time." We get along pretty well with that, but when they make a wider 

 circuit just in the I'ear of another foraging party, and come in tired and 

 hungry with a dozen berries, we think it better to go out and hoe those 

 beans immediately. 



We all had currant bushes that took care of themselves and srave us 

 plenty of rather small currants ; but finally the worms ate them all up. 

 Professor Morse told us to give the worms hellebore, but the skeptical 

 folks said they didn't believe there was any such medicine, and the ortho- 

 dox said they would not waste it on worms. 



We have a small, sour, red cherry, good for cooking and preserves. 

 We have it because a sprout came in with the pioneers, gi-ew and multi- 

 plied in spite of us. On the principle of "the survival of the fittest," it 

 ought to be the best cherry. It always survives, always sprouts, and makes 

 a free nursery for the neighborhood. There are three obj ections to it : 

 First, it is not fit to eat ; second, it will not carry itself around and set 

 itself out as well as raspberries and Canada thistles do ; third, instead of 

 growing like a currant bush it grows higher than women can reach ; and 

 since, from the force of circumstances, they are bad at climbing trees, we 

 are obliged to furnish a boy to pick the cherries. As it is all the kind we 

 have, wo wish to speak well of it. 



Our villages furnish exceptions to these statements. Clergymen don't 

 abjure the good things of this life as much as their sermons lead us to 

 suppose. As for lawyers and loafers, they take all they can get. Only 

 the farmers and day laborers, who rise at four o'clock in the morning, finish 

 their chores at nine o'clock at night, and go to bed worrying about the 

 next day's business, confine themselves to bread and butter, pork and 

 potatoes, with apple sauce and mince pies on Sunday, and a dessert of soui- 

 cherries once a year. 



Continued in August xVo. 



