The Canadian Horticulturist. 7 



$300. The exact yield in bushels was over 100, or considerably over 200 bushels 

 per acre. We sold to dealers only, or to families who wanted a half-bushel 

 drawer. I fixed the price of our best selected berries at $3.20 a bushel, and of 

 the small ones for canning at $2, and held it there without any regard to how low 

 others were selling. Our town people after the first day took all we had, so that 

 we did not have a single quart of berries spoil after they were picked. 



Nothing in the world but extra quality gave us this good market in this season 

 when berries were so plentiful. The markets were all glutted with common ber- 

 ries ; but such as ours were not crowded in the least, and never will be. I went 

 through the market in Cleveland during the best of the season, and through most 

 the fancy groceries on Euclid Avenue : and in all that great city there was not 

 half a bushel of berries that would match what I was furnishing to our grocers. 



I drove to Akron (12 miles) with three bushels, to see what I could do, not 

 dreaming that Hudson would take all we had after that. Before I got there I 

 met men returning who said I might as well turn around, as Akron never knew 

 such a glut of berries before, and no more could be sold at any price. But I 

 went on. I thought to myself, " Here is just the chance I want to prove — whether 

 or not excellence pays." I drove up before a grocery, the owner of which I knew 

 appreciated a good article. I found him at his desk, and it was with much diffi- 

 culty that I at last induced him to come out ; he was utterly sick and disgusted 

 with berries. But he finally came. I uncovered them. He bought them. I 

 went home. Before night of that same day he wrote me to bring him four bush- 

 els more of these berries, offering an advance of twenty-five cents a bushel, and 

 one dollar if his market should recover any so that he possibly could. But our 

 home trade wanted them all, and I did not go to Akron again. 



As for cultivation to raise such fruit, we set out the plants as early in the spring 

 as the ground was fit to work, and let the runners grow as soon as the plant was 

 able to throw out strong and thrifty ones in abundance, which was about the 

 20th of June. We went over the piece two or three times, training the runners a 

 little, after they got well started, so they would as soon as possibly cover all the 

 surface with plants. We cut the runners just near enough so they would not 

 cross and get mixed. About the middle of October, we stretched lines through 

 between the rows ; and one man with shears cut runners, and another, with a hoe, 

 cleaned out paths sixteen inches wide. This left two-thirds of the ground covered 

 with plants. Next we went through these plants and took out the old ones set 

 in 'the spring, all the little weak ones, and enough of the strong ones so that what 

 were left stood not less than six inches apart on an average. 



I am more than ever convinced that the very heavy manuring practiced by some 

 is all unnecessary on good soil where clover is grown in rotation and the best of 

 tillage is given ; also that fresh manure plowed under is better than rotten manure 

 harrowed in on the surface. The latter will be more likely to grow an excess of 

 vines, on my soil, with small fruit yield ; and the former moderate vines and 

 abundant fruit. 



