season -when they are showing— hoeing them off just as you would weeds. If you 

 thus prune them back, no stakes will be required, and if very heavily mulched right 

 along in the rows, with coarse litter of any kind through the winter season, no weeds 

 will grow to speak of, directly in the row, so that if they are merely cultivated each 

 season twice or three times, when you are cultivating out the potatoes or beans neai 

 them, you can rely on a beautiful crop." 



* * * * * * ***» 



"As for the kinds to plant, I cannot at this time name them or their peculiarities, 

 but would simply give you a short list that has proved productive and hardy every- 

 where ; and in giving this list I shall leave out many varieties that succeed well here, 

 or there, or in this soil or that, or with this kind of cultivation or that, merely giving 

 you the names of a few old standard sorts that will bear well even with neglect. Of 

 Strawberries, for early, the old Early Scarlet, or Early Washington ; medium, Wilson's 

 Albany; late, Green Prolific, or in rich, heavy soil, the Triomphe de Gand. Of Rasp- 

 beries, of the black sorts, Doolittle and Mammoth Cluster, or Seneca Black Cap ; and 

 of the red sorts, Kirtland and Philadelphia. Of Blackberries, Dorchester, for early ; 

 Kittatinny, for medium; and Lawton, for late. Currants — Red Dutch, Or if you 

 want larger and finer sorts, the Cherry, White Grape, or La Versailles. Of Goose- 

 berries, Houghton Seedling. Grapes, Hartford Prolific, Concord and Isabella, or 

 Diana — the last two for keeping fresh in the winter." 



The address closed with an exhortation to farmers to use all practical means to make 

 their homes attractive : to make neighborhoods social by the exercise of kindly, feel- 

 ings, and to pay more regard than they have done to the selection of persons to repre- 

 sent them in the halls of legislation, that the tendency to extravagance and corruption 

 may be checked, and public morals improved. 



ADVICE TO NEW BEGINNERS. 



We are in receipt of a great number of letters making enquiries as to Small Fruit 

 growing— how to be successful, &c. These are hard questions for us to answer, 

 for all Idealities and all persons. Many fruits that are profitable in one locality 

 are not in another, while varieties that will Bucceed and prove profitable in ttia 

 hands of one person, with his manner of high culture, &c, will prove a failure in the 

 hands of his more careless and slovenly neighbor. Our first advice is : Procure land 

 as close to a town as possible. If you intend to go into fruit largely, you must calcu- 

 late to locate where plenty of pickers are to be had. We would prefer to pay two 

 hundred dollars per acre for land, for this purpose, that lay within a mile of town, 

 than one hundred dollars per acre if over a mile, or fifty dollars per acre if over two, 

 miles. • Let any one calculate the difference in interest on the cost of such land, and 

 compute it with the disadvantages one works under with it away from all the conven- 

 iencies that surround the first named locality, and they will see the force and import- 

 ance of our statement. Help must be convenient and plenty if you would be success- 

 ful. Manure should be as close by as possible. The market, express office, and 

 railroad or steamboat station, near by ; all of these have their importance, that cannot 

 be fully appreciated and valued until tried. 



The best soil for growing Small Fruits, is of a light, sandy or loamy nature, one that 

 is easily worked. - 



The next thing after securing your land is to go around among fruit growers in that 

 locality, and learn from them what varieties succeed' best with them. Bead different 

 works on the subject, and last, but most important of all, visit the grounds of some 

 successful fruit growers, and "have your eyes and ears open." A few hours on suck 

 grounds will be of more practical value than reading all the works on Small Fruit yet 

 published 



There are certain Pried sorts tbat have proved profitable and a success wherever 

 grown. ' These we will endeavor Jo point out in our description of different sorts. ; 



Another important thing to be remembered is, to set an assortment of Small Fruits, 

 — strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, currants, gooseberries, and grapes, and of 

 these early, medium and late sorts. By so doing, the grower can be more independent 

 of ihe seller, lie is more certain of making his businessman, for if one sort fails, 

 another will not. The great trouble with many growers is that they will set out neai ly 



