10 
9 
take the place of the Wilson for profit. 
His crop this season consists of about two 
acres, which are about one-lialf Sharpless 
the balance Crescent Seedling. One notice¬ 
able peculiarity of the Shai pless is the fact 
that the fruit holds out large—enormously 
large—to the end, and continues in fruit 
much later than the older varieties. The 
Glendale was also fruited on a small scale. 
It is a beautiful berry, very firm and solid, 
but too sour to suit our taste. It is, no 
doubt, a desirable variety for late shipping, 
but not for home use. Mr. Sisson always 
sets his plants in the spring, as early as 
possible, on slight ridges three feet apart, 
and the plants about one foot apart in the 
rows. These are kept well cultivated 
through-out the first season, a few new 
plants being allowed to take root and grow 
around the original. As soon as winter 
sets in, the ground is completely covered 
with first a coating of forest leaves and a 
light scattering of straw or swamp hay, 
to hold them in place. This covering has 
a tliree-fold purpose and can by no means 
be omitted. First it protects the plants 
from freezing out or winter killing; second 
by being left on as long as possible in 
spring it keeps the plants back so they 
will escape our late frosts, which often 
completely ruin all prospects of’ fruit on 
those not covered, and bring the ripe fruit 
in market at a season when they are not 
so plentiful as earlier, thus securing better 
prices; and thirdly, the mulching keeps all 
fruit out of the dirt and prevents sand 
from spattering on them dnring showers 
Mr. S. usually sets a new bed every spring, 
never fruiting them more than two years, 
and in case they become very weedy, but 
one. When through fruiting the mulch 
ing has to be removed and the ground 
dressed out with cultivator and hoe, and 
in fall the new mulch applied. This, he 
claims, is often more labor than it is to set 
a new bed, but from the present appear¬ 
ance of the Sharpless plants, we should 
think the prospect for another year’s fruit¬ 
ing better than the present and should, by 
all means, let them stand. Mr. S. finds a 
ready market, for all he can grow, in the 
larger towns and cities from 10 to 30 miles 
distant at an average net price of about 
12cts. per quart, and we think it pays him 
3etter than any other farm crop. His 
farm is on a hill, the land being a beech 
and maple tract with no sand, but a stiff 
clay subsoil. ‘Any good corn land well 
manured will, undoubtedly, grow a fine 
paying crop of strawberries, and we see 
no reason why the production of them 
should not largely increase. 
^- 
—A few days since we selected a number 
of the largest and latest specimens of the 
Sharpless Strawberry, and planted the 
seeds in a box previously filled with a com¬ 
post of equal parts of finely pulverized 
leaf mould from the forest and pure sand 
well mixed. We dont know that we shall 
succeed in producing the “coming straw¬ 
berry” but shall come nearer to it than he 
who does not try. Certain it is that great 
improvement has been made during the 
last few years on strawberries, and it is not 
likely that the end has been reached. 
Lateness is an essential feature in a straw¬ 
berry, It is useless for us to compete with 
growers fifty or a hundred miles south of 
us on earliness, and as we do not want to 
be in the 4 ‘glut of the market.” if there 
ever is one. the next best thing to do is to 
come in as far behind the crowd as possi¬ 
ble. All gardeners agree that to increase 
or keep up the earliness of tomatoes, it is 
necessary to save seeds from the first ripe 
specimens, and we believe that earliness 
is a quality which may be bred up in this 
manner. Then to produce a late straw¬ 
berry wdiv not select and plant seeds from 
the very latest specimens as we have done? 
The Sharpless is, in size and quality, all 
that can be desired so we select it for a 
parent. If we can procure an offspring 
from it that equals it in these respects and 
gain a little in firmness and solidity, a little 
more brilliant in color and somewhat later 
in ripening, will we not get paid for our 
trouble? Time will tell. Thinking that 
some of our friends may also wish to try 
their hand at growing seedlings from such 
seed we have saved a quantity from this 
late picking and have succeeded in wash¬ 
ing them out clean. We will send a pack¬ 
et by mail for lOcts which barely pays for 
