72 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



than gourds. I have faith in birds as insect destroyers, but they cannot 

 kill them all — they are too numerous. 



Mr. E. G. Pardee. — The best remedy for insects is clean culture, though 

 I would protect the birds and encourage them to build nests near the 

 house. One good prevention of insects is to compost all manure, and keep 

 everything that will make manure in the compost heap, and decompose that 

 with lime and salt mixture, which also destroys weed seeds. 



Strawberry Culture. 



Solon Robinson read the following letter from Dr. Meeker, of southern 

 Illinois, upon this important branch of agriculture: 



"Cairo, May 14, 1862. 



"Strawberries are very nice, and at this season of the year people 

 eagerly listen to whatever is said about them, particularly if there is even 

 a remote prospect of their getting any. Though they are mostly seen in 

 cities, they are raised in the country ; but country people seldom see them, 

 and our farmers may be compared to the Spaniards of Old California, who 

 had no idea that they lived in a land of gold. The longing of children and 

 young persons, and even of men and women, for this fruit, is general. 

 Some make journeys of miles in wagons or on foot, often to find scattering 

 berries, or that they are all gone. 



" A town of two thousand inhabitants will buj^, annually, one hundred 

 and fifty dollars worth of strawberries. There are, probably, 500 such 

 towns in our country, and half as many towns much larger. There are 

 thousands of farmers, who would supply the want of these towns with 

 strawberries if they knew how to raise them. I am going to tell 

 them how. Five years ago I set out an acre of strawberries, and for 

 three years I could not get enough for my family. The public shall 

 have the benefit of my experience at the cost of this paper, while the 

 cost to me has been more than I am willing to tell. Wealth and refine- 

 ment are the fruits of long labors, of many disappointments, even of 

 broken hearts. Our present world has grown out of the wreck and ruin of 

 a former world. Let every one hasten, before he too lie in ruins, to impart 

 what will be useful to others — what, to obtain, cost him more than, when 

 young, he thought himself worth. 



" THE KINDS TO RAISE. 



" For market purposes, and for distant shipments, no variety is equal to 

 Wilson's Albany. For productiveness it far excels. It is sour, unless dead 

 ripe, but people in cities have money and can buy sugar; besides, people 

 who cannot tell scum from cream, are not likely to be particular, nor will 

 they much care for anything but looks. Being sour, it is not easily hurt by 

 frost; and for size, hardiness, or weight, it is celebrated. For family use, 

 the Hooker is superior, and it is nearly equal to the Wilson for other quali- 

 ties, but, for the first year it requires more care. Neither of these require 

 any attention regarding sex. I doubt whether any berry, except the wild 

 cue, has the exquisite flavor of the Hooker. There are several new varie- 

 ties, but, except for family use, I doubt whether they are equal to either of 

 these. Fine fruit is almost always soft. Some varieties are earlier by a 



