FES. 3 
MOORE'S BUBAL NEW-YORKER 
|3 ontological. 
SMALL FRUITS. 
A paper Read before the Pennsylvania 
Fruit (5rowers’ society by A. 9. seller, 
Jan. 18th, 1872. 
Your President, has thought proper to 
invite mo to read a paper on Small Fruits. 
This is certainly a broad Held to occupy, 
with plenty of light and shade, hills ami 
valleys, through which 1 propose to ramble, 
and ask your indulgence if I should happen 
to tarry at some of the gloomy and barren i 
places, jfot that I wish to place, small l'ruit 
culture in an unfavorable light, but in as 
bright a one as possible and keep truth lu 
view. 
We have had this branch of horticulture 
constantly spread before us in glowing col¬ 
ors, and although no one desires to place a 
bad picture upon exhibition, still it is not 
exactly fair to ignore legitimate evils tliat 
cannot always be avoided. W.-nre all more 
or less prone to wait until our fellow man has 
fallen into the ditch before warning him of 
its existence, especially if we are to gain 
something bv the unfortunate mishap. 
Our great fault as a people in our impel u- 
oils nature, constantly exhibited in being 
ever reaily to follow a leader. It mattejs 
little what direction the leading goose takes, 
whether to t he gold fields of California, or 
after a new blackberry, (he flock blindly 
follow. 
A few years since small fruit culture as a 
distinct branch of horticulture was entirely 
unknown. Hut a man here and another 
there started off berrying, each followed by 
a numerous group, all cackling their very 
best to attract attention. The results we 
all know. Some have failed to til! t heir crops 
and are gloomy; others, being more shrewd 
or industrious, made money, consequently 
are happy. 
The Market Overstocked.—T believe 
that it may be asserted without fear of suc¬ 
cessful contradiction, that the markets in 
many of our large cities have been for the 
past two \ears overstocked with the lead¬ 
ing kind of small fruits, particularly with 
strawberries, raspberries and blackberries 
—at least there has been such an abundance 
that prices were so low as to leave very lit- | 
tie margin for profit. These evident results 
may be traced directly to several causes, 
among which I will name a few. 
1. The feverish excitement created through 
the introduction of new varieties, with esti¬ 
mated profits claimed or anticipated in their 
culture. _ . , ,, , 
2. The rapidity with which most kinds 
can be propagated, Strawberries, as is well 
known, may be multiplied l<> an unlimited 
extent without the application of any skill 
beyond that of making the soil rich, and 
since the somewhat modern mode of propa¬ 
gating the raspberry and blackberry, by 
cuttings of the roots, came into general use, 
the number of plants produced is only lim¬ 
ited by the demand. 
3. The range of country over which these 
fruits succeed is so extensive that no one. 
locality can for any considerable length of 
time retain a monopoly. 
have made a most serious mistake in the 
culture of the small fruits. At the begin¬ 
ning they have probably produced a few 
hundred quarts of tine fruit upon u small 
plot of land, and this being disposed of at a 
home market, they resolve to extend opera¬ 
tions In the same direction without taking 
into consideration the amount of capital 
necessary t o purchase baskets and orates, ns 
well as the extra amount of labor required 
in production. Even if these things are 
considered, the fruit grower is very liable 
to forget that there is sometimes a run of 
bail weather during the harvest season, also 
parent in but a small number of our culti¬ 
vated small fruits. This in itself should 
not discourage any Otic, but prompt every 
horticulturist to t ry and make some advance 
upon the best known sorts. 
We have done something toward improv¬ 
ing the strawberry and raspberry, a very 
little for the gooseberry, aild less for the 
currant, there being no American variety 
equal to the best, foreign ones. Of black- 
berried we have several valuable sorts, but 
they are all natural seedlings, found in the 
woods or by the road sides. The same is 
true in regard to the huckleberry, cran¬ 
berry and many other small fruits which 
lmv nricpK and a short CVOD. uerr.v aim many uun.-i -.man iuum ...... .. 
1 Vrhaps some may accuse me of drawing should have been improved by us long ago. 
too strongly on the negative side of this Wc can truthfully claim to possess the best 
question, i beg themto remember that for fruit. ui 
boxes, or 418,492 pounds. On the corre¬ 
sponding days of 1871 they were 7,040 boxes, 
or 473,305 pounds, showing an increase of 
53,873 pounds. 
VVe tind that as a shipping point Little 
Falls may safely challenge any other point 
in this country. The large increase of the 
shipments of these two corresponding days 
may be considered aB an index to all other 
market days of the season. 
The product of the dairy as an article of 
commerce wo see is growing into Increased 
importance, and is not likely to become 
less. The consumption of American cheese 
is becoming more general abroad, and new 
markets are opening to it from year to year. 
It iB becoming more and more an article of 
many years there lias been a st rong team on 
the other side. I do not wish to discourage 
any one from engaging in the culture of 
small fruits, but merely desire to put them 
on their guard against expecting too great 
results. 
Varieties.—Probably it will be expected 
that I shall say something about tlie dif¬ 
ferent species and varieties in cultivation. 
1 think, however, that this part of the sub¬ 
ject has been pretty thoroughly' dUoussed, 
not only before this Society, but in all other 
similar organizations, to say nothing of the 
continuous stream running through the hor¬ 
ticultural and agricultural press. VVe have 
as yet. very' few varieties suited to general 
cultivation. Among strawberries, a half a 
dozen sorts may be selected that will com¬ 
prise all the valuable properties known to 
this fruit. If this be true, and few will 
doubt it, what good excuse can there be for 
cultivating several hundred? 
With blackberries a less number of sorts 
will give us all the good qualities known in 
the entire list of cultivated Sorts. With the 
raspberries we may be excused for extend¬ 
ing the list, on account of the variability of 
the different sorts in their adaptation to 
soil and climate. There arc but few varie¬ 
ties which succeed over a wide range of 
country, and they are either native sorts or 
seedlings therefrom. 
Tile Hudson River Antwerp succeeds no 
where else as well as in the region of coun¬ 
try from winch it receive* its uaroe. Simi¬ 
lar instances of the adaptation of varieties 
to localities are familiar to all fruit cult iva¬ 
tors. Knowing those things we shonld al¬ 
ways be extremely careful in deciding upon 
the value of new varieties. Even conmiit- 
small fruits in the world, but modesty aud home provision, and it is extending its mar- 
honest V would sceui to dictate that we kot from city to city and village to village 
tees appoint ed by our horticultural societies 
frequently err in making up their reports, 
aud it is not. a very uncommon occurrence 
that discarded or condemned sorts become 
eventually the most popular. Merits of 
which we were entirely ignorant in the be¬ 
ginning are often developed as the plants 
are propagated and disseminated. 
Taste. The difference ill taste inis also 
much to do with the reception or rejection 
of any variety. If I were called upon to de¬ 
cide which was the very best raspberry, 
flavor to rule, I should select the wild red 
of our woods ami fields. Another man 
would probably lake Rrincklc’s Orange for 
his standard, while a third would choose 
the wild black raspberry, aud at this point 
the question of taste would certainly come 
up for discussion. As we have no recog¬ 
nized standard of taste, and in fact there 
should not claim very great honors for the 
little we have done in producing them. 
Evident lLcHtiltn. — Results cannot be 
weighed, measured, or even fully' known. 
The raising of a new seedling strawberry is 
in it self a very insignificant act, but the re¬ 
sults may in themselves be of great import¬ 
ance. The production of the Hovoys seed¬ 
ling strawberry caused a complete revolu¬ 
tion in the culture of this fruit, in America. 
Previous to its production we looked to 
Europe for t he new sorts, and never dream¬ 
ed that all we required was native sorts to 
make strawberry culture take a high stand 
in our pomology. The experiments of the 
late Dr. Hrinckle of this city (Philadelphia), 
in raising new raspberries, produced results 
which established the same facts In regard 
to this fruit, and 1 am happy to know that 
the raspberry mantle, of this much-lamented 
nomologist is likely to fall upon another cit¬ 
izen of this great city. 
The new varieties produced by 1). W. 
f11'rstino are already making their mark 
iu many gardens of choice fruits. It is 
from such apparently small beginnings as 
the experiments of Hrinckle, Clarke, Ar¬ 
nold and Herstiue that Anally culminated 
in the feverish excitement that prevailed a 
few years since for new varieties. 
Small fruit culture lias now taken an im¬ 
portant position In our American horticul¬ 
ture, and alt hough 1 am inclined to believe 
that t hey are really no more profitable as a 
whole than the large fruits, still they ill! a 
place in our domestic economy which is of 
the utmost importance to the health ami 
welfare of our people. They are the mis¬ 
sionaries aud educators which are rapidly 
making the country a garden that will fur¬ 
nish the best fruits in the world, aild these, 
too, in the greatest abundance. 
1. Probably the most powerful influence can be none only in a very limited degree, 
i i - I. . . , ...... r# I ■ . 1 . .. i . . a- 1. ■. 4- ........ i , «» irn/wl q w tlllV- 
which lias opposed high prices is our facili¬ 
ties for sending this class of fruits to mar¬ 
ket. Railroads and steamboats have almost 
annihilated distance, and the man living 
hundreds of mile* away and upon cheap 
lands can and does successfully' compete 
with those located nearour best markets. 
in other words, the disadvantage of dis¬ 
tance which formerly' gave certain culti¬ 
vators an advantage over their fellow- 
laborers in the same liold, no longer exists, 
except to a very limited extent. The late 
varieties of the South must compete with 
the earl v of the North, in addition to the 
different kinds that come into competition 
with each other. Northern-grown rasp¬ 
berries must come in competition with 
Southern blackberries, and when this last 
named fruit linens with us in latitudes 
north of New York City, it meets the early 
Southern peaches, and the strife between 
localities and their product s is constant and 
often severely felt by producers. 
We are often told that the move fruit the 
people Qonsttme the more they want, which 
is all very true, but we should also remem¬ 
ber that'our fruit growers gain strength 
with experience, and the products of their 
fields increase in proportion. I fear, also, 
that many persons overlook the fact that at 
the present time there are no secrets m 
horticulture, and the musses are becoming 
well informed upon subjects relating to the 
culture and production of fruits, and act 
accordingly. .... , 
Competition is brisk, and this leads me to 
believe that there are but two classes of 
small fruit growers who can make the busi¬ 
ness 
Very Profitable.—Tho first are those 
who have an abundance of capital with 
which, in a measure, to control unfavorable 
circumstances, if they only make nprptit of 
a penny per basket and sell enough it will 
amount to considerable in the aggregate. 
Cultivators without a large capital having to 
come Into competition would be ruined with 
prices which gave the extensive producer a 
small margin for profits. 
The second class are those who have a 
home market and raise their fruit without 
any considerable outlay for labor. A man 
who works in the field himself, and has a 
family to gather and market his fruit, will 
find small fruit culture quite profitable, in¬ 
asmuch as he receives an immediate return 
for his labor, but should ho attempt to ex¬ 
tend his operations until a number of hired 
laborers have to be employed, he will very 
1 shall claim that mine is as good as any¬ 
body's, and deserves equal respect. This 
question of taste is far too generally over¬ 
looked by those who seek information in 
regard to certain varieties. 
If weave to take any one author for Our 
guide, wo must know something of his per¬ 
sonal taste before it is safe to follow him in 
selecting varieties for our own use or mar¬ 
ket. Wo should find ono man ever ready to 
extol the sweet varieties and condemn the 
acid, and of course asserting thill it is only 
the sweet sorts that are really rich and high 
flavored. A nother man, poasiug equal abil ¬ 
ities in every respect, sees richness only in 
the sprightly-flavored -sorts. Under such 
diverse opinions, who will decide which one 
has the highest midmost perfect taste? I 
cannot understand why a man who prefers 
a cabbage to n banana does not display as 
high taste as the one who may happen to 
reverse this order of selection. 
There is certainly one strong argument in 
favor of t he cabbage, and it is the well- 
known fact that the land of “Sauerkraut ’’ 
bus produced more noble specimens of hu¬ 
manity in one century than all the tropical 
countries combined have in u dozen. If a 
man happens to possess what is usually 
termed a sweet tooth, or a palate that re¬ 
volts at the approach of acid, wecaimot ex¬ 
pect, him to go into eostacy over the advent 
of a Wilson strawberry or blackberry. 
This question of taste is still an open one, 
but the masses seem inclined to go on the 
sour side. Beginning with the apple and 
descending to the cranberry, we find acidity 
Wm> ’iin.'ibnudm. 
NEW YORK DAIRYMEN. 
First Annual Convention of the New York State 
Dairymen's Association and Board of Trade. 
IContlmied from Page 70, lust No.] 
Commercial Aspect of the Dairy.—J. 
W. CnoNKHiTE of Little Falls presented 
an able and interesting paper upon the 
commercial aspect of the dairy, lie com¬ 
menced with the early history of cheese 
making in Herkimer, and traced it, step by 
step, up to the present time, lie said:—In 
the steady increase of this product new de¬ 
mands have been made upon it, and new 
avenues of commerce have opened to its 
growing interest. And yet. the supply has 
not. exceeded the demand,but a ready mar¬ 
ket at remunerative prices is ever within 
your reach. The magnitude of the dairy 
product of this country lias called out more 
extensive arrangements for t he transaction 
of tills important business. So that from 
the commerce of a canal grocery and a vil¬ 
lage provision dealer (a pitiable commerce. 
Indeed, in t hose dark (lays of t he dairymen) 
urn of this country, has suffered from wick¬ 
ed and corrupt government to an extent 
that is alarming the world. The develop¬ 
ments from day to day are astounding. Re¬ 
tributive justice seems at length awakened. 
Her ports and her laws arc being investi- 
all through this country. 
You have consolidated the milk of your 
herds and established factories nil over the 
country, so t hat the poorer dairy man, with 
his half-dozen cows, is placed on u pro rata 
basis with the wealthy landholder. So, too, 
it is within your means to again consolidate 
for the marketing of your products, by es¬ 
tablishing your own house in New York ami 
Liverpool, aud take commerce in your own 
hands, and thus save the profits of the “mid¬ 
dlemen," as well us a host ol' shorts aud 
leakages that are “charged buck” to you 
all the way from here to the other side of 
the Atlantic. 
The next speaker was Mr. L. D. Arnold 
of Tompkins who gave a well written ad¬ 
dress upon 
The Future of Dairy Husbandry.— 
Mr. Arnold said there was evidently now a 
better use made of milk than formerly. At 
the constant rate of increase of population 
iu the United States, the year 1.HH) will find 
us with a population of 100,000,000 inhabi¬ 
tants. If we contrive to consume cheese at. 
no greater rate than at prenent.it will re¬ 
quire two and one-half times the quantity 
we now consume to supply t lie aj in uni homo 
consumption of that day, or 450,000,000 
pounds. The shipping demand must also 
increase. Cheese contains more than twice 
the nutrition, pound for pound, that meat 
does, while more pounds of cheese than 
of meat can be produced from a given quan¬ 
tity of food. Cheese, therefore, he thought 
would very naturally grow in favor with 
the masses, uh being far the cheapest and 
best animal food for laboring people. 
He estimated tliat. in the year 1900 our 
people would require a billion and ft lmlf of 
pounds of but ter for their yearly use. The 
question then was, “Where are all those 
dairy products coming from? Under our 
present system of managing, milk dairying 
can never be crowded into warm climates 
profitably. Except upon elevated and moun¬ 
tainous tracts, dairying must be excluded 
from the .South. Hut he thought, the de¬ 
mands of the year 1900 would be easily met by 
the people of"that day, and have dairy lands 
to spare after that. He said the future of 
dairy husbandry in the United States hangs 
on nothing so dependency as upon t he qual¬ 
ity of the goods to be thrown into the mar¬ 
kets wc would hold. Efforts at improve¬ 
ment must he constant, unremitting from 
year to year. If we would rise higher, we 
‘must strive harder to improve in our art. 
i Science must be called to our aid; a con¬ 
stant watchfulness iu observing results ; 
communication between dairymen should 
be more frequent and full. Organizations 
like the one here inaugurated are among 
the most efficient means of advancement. 
lie at tributed the low prices this year iu 
part, to tile large amount of poor cheese 
| made in 1870. The great bulk of the bad 
cheese was disposed of at home, it was 
scattered everywhere and lodged on llie 
shelves of the retail grocers. Their patrons, 
after partaking of it a few timCB, grew cau¬ 
tious and purchased sparingly, if at all, for 
people will not eat poor cheese freely. In 
this way people got out of the habit of eat¬ 
ing cheese, and the home demand was in¬ 
jured. He looked forward with bright 
hopes for the future of dairy husbandry in 
the United States, and these hopes were 
not based on any limitation of butter ami 
cheese producing territory, but upon the 
steady expansion required to meet the con¬ 
stant increase of our population. 
Mr. Lewis of Herkimer followed with a 
very excellent and practical address upon 
Howto Improve our Dairy Stock.— 
He mentioned four methods employed at 
methods employed at 
gated; her commerce driven away, except present to increase the quantity of milk, 
when it would contribute t.n the personal by the purchase of cows; 2d, by high 
aggrandizement of a thieving ring. Tt. is feeding; 3d, by adding water; aud 4th, by 
said that, they successfully opposed every breeding. He thought that, careful and Ju- 
im pro vein out of the commercial facilities of diclous breeding was the only legitimate ana 
the city by priva te enterprise, and made t he satisfactory method by which the desired 
urgent demand for such improvements the improvement in our dairy stock can beef, 
means of plunder aud robbery. The wharves | footed. He woulduse, with our native cows, 
nf the city, the gateways of its commerce, 
were made the means to rob and plunder 
her trade, while they were so neglected that 
•very instance to lead, in spite of the i aooroinittiioof the 
. " .. , ' , i i» j .. . l,,. I 1.1. . it.11*1 
sweet-toothed critics. But we should be 
careful not to confound taste with quality, 
fur a fruit maybe cither very sweet or very 
acid, and still be very inferior. It is only 
when all the elements known of a particular 
species are present, iu abundance that a va¬ 
riety can truly be considered rich and high 
flavored. I have been thus explicit iu men- 
tioning tbih question of Iftsto and <jutility, 
because there are persons who have been 
misled in making selections of fruits for 
their own use, through following the advice 
of a person with a different, taste. 
Origin of Varieties. — I hope our small 
fruit cullurists will not lose sight of the 
fact that they have as yet done very little 
towards producing Improved varieties. 
We have certainly made some progress in 
the methods of propagation, cultivation and 
marketing these fruits, but nature has given 
ns about all that wc have in the way of lm- 
j they wen- so neglected that , )tt f 
Lite Legislature in 1807, stated Jut 
“that the condition of the piers, wharves, 
bulkheads and slips of the harbor of New 
York were most deplorable, aud a disgrace 
to such a commercial emporium as the city 
of New York." This condition of the 
wharves, by reason of exposure of goods to 
the weather and thieves, and the unneces¬ 
sary cost of carting, imposed a burden of 
more than $5 per ton upon all the goods 
shipped over them, creating a loss, iu the 
aggregate, of more than ^50,()OU,0<Hi annually. 
It is not unreasonable to suppose that the 
a thorough-bred bull of that breed best 
to our rwpoctivc farms, suiu thflt 
particular branch of the dairy business we 
intend to pursue. For a butter dairy, would 
use a thorough-bred Devon or Jersey bull, 
and raise calves from those cows which 
would produce the greatest amount of but- 
ter, irrespective of tiic ouautity of milk. 
For milk to sell, he Avould cross his best 
cows with the Ayrshire or Holstein, raising 
the cal von as before. On level and rich pas¬ 
tures, he would prefer a cross with the 
Short-Horns from a good milking family, 
and upon such lands he was of the opinion 
the Short-Horns produced the greatest 
amount of good milk, butter, cheese and 
likely find the profits growing gradually proved sorts, except in a very few instances. July l2 UI1( i 13 i860, the shipment was 0,755 
less. It is just here that so many persons The skill of our horticulturists is not ap- I JU1 Y “ uu 0 > F 
dairy interest, exporting a large amount of meat of any grades or full-bloods living. In 
its products, has contributed Us proportion conclusion, he dwelt upon the constitution 
to this loss. Five dollars per ton is an itn- of the cow, which he said must be good, and 
porta lit item. Let us be thankful that per- this was quite as important us her milking 
slstent vigilance in exposing these frauds, qualities. 
has led tne people, in love of justice aud -♦*-*-- 
Belf-protection, to unite in breaking this , t 
thieving ring. Inquiry N., Clarendon, Vt„ asks some 
When we examine the records kept in our of our readers to give then* ^xpenence in 
warehouse at Little Falls, wo see that on churning milk lor butter. He iwkailman 
.Tnl v 12 and 13. 1869. the shipment was 6,755 butter is made and its comparatn 0 qual y. 
