5<4 
am glad to have this early opportunity to re¬ 
ply, because if the specimens of the Manches¬ 
ter Strawberry exhibited by you last Friday 
area fair sample, I must frankly acknowledge 
my great error in considering it a synonym 
of the Hovey, for there is no comparison or 
resemblance only in the single fact that both 
are pistillate.” The frank acknowledgement 
of his error by Mr. Hovey settles tb© whole 
matter in dispute, and I ask for its publica¬ 
tion, not only to clear our own firm and other 
nurserymen from the imputation of having 
offered an old variety for a new and valua- 
b one, but also for the benefit of the gen¬ 
eral public, who, when its real merits are 
known will plant the Manchester more ex¬ 
tensively than any other sort, on account of 
its vigorous growth, great productiveness and 
firmness to bear transportation, as well as on 
account of the perfect form and bright color 
of the fruit. 
The one great injury that is coming from 
all this talk of its being identical with the 
Hovey is that one or two unscrupulous dealers 
are sending out old Hovey plants for true 
Manchester, and the public are buying ex¬ 
tensively of such on account of the low price 
at which they are offered, and while we know 
of no way to prevent this fraud, the public can 
protect themselves by buying only from 
nurserymen of known reliability, and of such 
I am happy to say there are plenty through¬ 
out the United States. J. H. Hale. 
South Glastonbury, Conn. 
STRAWBERRIES IN MICHIGAN—1882. 
T. T. LYON. 
The present has been a very unusual season, 
so far as the ripeniug of strawberries is con¬ 
cerned. Of the early-blooming varieties some 
were showing a few blossoms when the 
“ cold wave” that so sadly injured the bloom 
in more southern localities, visited us; and 
the loss of these has doubtless, to some extent, 
delayed the appearance of ripe fruit of such 
kinds. Others, however, have apparently 
been delayed by subsequent unseasonably 
cold weather, so that we find a very constant 
difference of seven or eight days between the 
date of ripening of the same varieties in 1881 
and 1882. 
Metcalf, which last year ripened its first 
specimens on June 6th, did not mature a berry 
this season until the 13th. 
Crystal City ripened last year on June 
6 th; but, this year, its first mature specimen 
appeared on the 14th. 
Duncan, which, with us, still maintains its 
position as the best very early berry, failed to 
ripen before the lath. I am prepared to com¬ 
mend it as early, large, excellent, and quite 
prolific—the most so of the very early sorts, 
with the possible exception of Duchesse. 
Philadelphia, a variety coming to us from 
Ohio, without a history, was only a day later 
in ripening; but may be dismissed as having 
little aside from earliness to recommend it. 
Ripe the 16 th. 
Black Giant, like so many of Durand’s 
Seedlings, although of good quality, fails in 
productiveness, and, 1 fear, must, for that 
reason, be laid aside. Ripe the 16th. 
Early Canada is a supposed seedling of 
Wilson’s Albany, by A. M. Smith, of Ontario. 
Ripe on the 16th; will bear further trial. It 
may prove desirable, if sufficiently produc¬ 
tive. 
Longfellow ripened a few berries also on 
the 16th, although the main crop matured 
several day3 later. It is a heavy bearer of 
very large, oblong-ovate fruit, of rich, dark 
color, moderately firm, and of a mild, pleas¬ 
ant flavor. I consider it of high promise as a 
market berry, especially for near markets. 
Burr’s New Pine was planted as a means 
of comparison. Its small, rich, mild fruit 
ripened this year on June 17th. Although of 
superior flavor, it is nearly or quite super¬ 
seded. 
Bright Idea is a seedling by Rev. Charles 
Arnold, of Paris, Ontario. Plants were re¬ 
ceived from him last season, for trial. The 
plant proves hardy and vigorous; fruit large 
to very large, conical, rounded; bright crimson 
in color; mild, sub acid and rich in flavor, 
only moderately firm. I suppose it is not yet 
offered for sale. In size and productiveness it 
has few, if any, superiors. It ripened on the 
17th. 
New Dominion— also an Ontario seedling, 
originating in 1873—is again bearing heavily, 
and shows desirable qualities as a market 
berry. Rip© on the 17th. 
Bidwkll, Emperor, and Champion ripened 
with the foregoing, on the 17th. 
Oliver Goldsmith also ripened berries on 
the 17ch. The plant is very vigorous, and ex¬ 
ceedingly productive, with very large, long- 
ovate or truncate conical fruit, rich crimson 
or scarlet; of mild, rich, sub acid flavor. I 
commend it both to the amateur and market 
grower as among the very few highly-prom¬ 
ising varieties. 
Excelsior, Captain Jack, and Wood¬ 
s 
ruff’s Nos. 1 and 2 ripened together on the 
ISth. The first are profitable market sorts ; 
but I doubt yet if the Woodruff Seedlings 
wil I prove productive enough. 
Kirkwood and Mount Vernon, both re¬ 
puted to have had their origin in New Jersey, 
and by many considered identical, are really 
very near!y identical, both in plant and fruit, 
except that, in my case, the latter has ripened 
a week later than the former. This apparent 
difference, may, however, be due to the fact 
that the former is growing in warm, sandy 
loam ; while the latter is on moist, clayey 
loam. 1 regard them as valuable market 
sorts—bow valuable may depend on the hardi¬ 
ness of the plant and its ability to adapt itself 
to a variety of circumstances. The formal’ 
ripened on the 19th; the latter on the 26th. 
Little s No 10 came to me from John 
Little, of Ontario last season. It is appar¬ 
ently identical with Cumberland Triumph, 
with which there may perchance have been 
an admixture of plants, the latter having 
been seut by mistake. 
Neu nan’s Prolific, the variety so popular 
in the Charleston, South Carolina, market, is 
also a heavy bearer here ; but of only me¬ 
dium-sized berries, soft in texture and quite 
acid. It may, of course, improve in a more 
favorable season. 
Warren, a fine, rich, dark dessert berry, 
from Kentucky, ripened also on the 19th. It 
is of only medium size, rather firm, juicy, 
rich, mild. So far it is hardly productive 
enough for market culture. 
Reed’s Kansas Mammoth I fear is too far 
out of its latitude here. It is rather large, 
but variable, bo met 1 mas cockscombed, pale in 
color, firm, poor in quality. Ripened on the 
21 st. 
Little’s No. 5 is another novelty received 
a year since from Mr. John Little, of Ontario. 
It is a moderate bearer ; fruit long, ovate- 
conical, knobby, dull, light crimson ; much 
like Kentucky in plant as well as fruit. So 
far, has borne but moderately. Ripe on the 
21 st. 
Queen of the West would seem to be a 
misnomer, since it is reputed to have origi¬ 
nated in New Jersey. The plant is vigorous, 
but bears lightly. The fruit is large, and in¬ 
clined to grow irregular or cockscombed; 
of mild, pleasant, sub-acid flavor; bright in 
color, but must improve considerably in pro¬ 
ductiveness to become popular. Ripens with 
the foregoing. 
Turner's Favorite is hardy and vigorous, 
with medium-sized, rich-looking, but soft 
fruit. Too unproductive to become popular. 
NEW STRAWBERRIES. 
A party was recently invited to test the 
newer strawberries, on the ground of Ellwan- 
ger & Barry, at Rochester, N. Y. Mr. W. C. 
Barry volunteered to guide us about. Though 
this was one of the largest collections I have 
over seen, 1 found few among them of good 
quality. Most of them were of poor flavor, 
and a number were absolutely bad—not eat¬ 
able—bitter and repugnant. A number of 
Mr. Jones’s Seedlings (LeRoy, N. Y.) were 
shown, all very poor in quality. 
Jersey Queen was the best in quality of 
any we tested, and it was growing well, with 
fine glossy foliage. It would lie safe to mark 
it very good. 
Manchester was not in the collection, but 
on my grounds it appear© to be vigorous and 
productive, good to very good, and exceedingly 
promising for market. 
Bidwell varied in quality to a remarkable 
extent, some specimens being good, some poor. 
On my grounds it is more uniformly of good 
quality, vigorous and productive, rather early 
and moderately firm. 
Sharpless Seedlings. One of the interest¬ 
ing sights was a bed of strawberries, say three 
feet by 20, composed entirely of seedlings of 
the Sharpless as they sprang up from the seed¬ 
bed, without any selection. These numerous 
varieties were, on an average, of better quality 
than the novelties shown previously, and of 
about the same size—all healthy and vigorous. 
One of the seedlings was remarkable in shape, 
and of good quality, and this was marked by 
Mr. Barry as we passed. This bed showed 
what might be accomplished in seeking new 
varieties, by judicious selection of seed of the 
strawberry. There is every inducement for 
striving for success (not luck) in obtaining new 
varieties, not only of straw berries, but of all 
the other fruits. 
We were shown a large and handsome seed¬ 
ling that originated with Marshall P. Wilder, 
and which has not been disseminated. If less 
modest men possessed a variety of as much 
merit, it would have been widely distributed 
ere this. But too much care cannot be dis¬ 
played in sending out new strawberries, con¬ 
sidering the valuable varieties we now have. 
Since we have a berry so good and easily 
grown as the Sharpless, quality must be taken 
into account, and in this regard the straw¬ 
berry varies as much as the apple. 
James Vick, a new strawberry named in 
remembrance of our lamented townsman, has 
attracted much attention here the prist season. 
Chas. A. Green. 
--- 
The Crescent Seedling Strawberry. 
I am not sure that the Crescent is the 
poorest in quality of any strawberry that ever 
grew, hut if there is a poorer one it has not 
been my fortune (or rather misfortune) to 
meet with it. That it is a rank grower, and a 
profuse bearer—when fertilized by some other 
variety—all must admit, and yet the Capt. 
Jack will heat it on both points, and has the 
additional merit of beingof good quality. The 
Crescent is often called “the lazy man’s 
berry,” but I vote the lazy man’s berry, 
like the lazy man himself, a nuisance. I 
have several varieties that are advertized to 
be earlier than the Wilson, but. the latter will 
pei slstently ripen as early as any of them. 
Perhaps the Wilson has so long stood at the 
head of the list as a market berry, that it dis¬ 
likes to give way for any new-comer. I think 
that if a syndicate owned all the Wilson, it 
would be puffed up sufficiently, to set the 
whole community " daft.” Nelson Ritter. 
Onondaga Co.. N. Y. 
farm (Tomes. 
J 
THE TRUTH ABOUT IT. 
IThk object of articles under this heading Is not so 
much to deal with " humbugs” as with the many un¬ 
conscious errors that creep into the methods of dally 
country routine life.—E ds.I 
FARMERS’ SONS. 
W. I. CHAMBERLAIN. 
I want to say a few words about praise and 
blame in the training of our children. Praise 
should, I think, he bestowed often and un¬ 
grudgingly and blame very considerately and 
very seldom. My own father was a kind and 
good old gentleman. I was the child of his 
old age, and he died at the ripe age of 86, and 
I used often to think he had forgotten that 
ever he was a boy and that he had no con¬ 
ception how boj s felt, or that they ever 
wanted a little fun. We boys never got any 
time for ball, or marbles, or fishing, except 
what was gained by a hard-earned stint. I 
am sure I revere bis memory, aud would not 
speak one unfilial word of him now that the 
green grass grows upon his grave; but he had 
lost his sympathy for childhood. He had 
forgotten that “all work and no play” makes 
Jack a dull boy, and I am sure he failed to see 
that he was doing his sons a serious injustice 
by keeping them so constantly and unremit¬ 
tingly at work in childhood. Aud 1 have 
come to feel from my childhood’s experience 
that it is a serious mistake to keep a boy at 
work on the farm more than half of each day, 
on the average, until he is past 14 years of 
age. There is danger of overwork, and of 
giving a distaste for farm work. If our little 
sons work nicely all the forenoon, why not let 
them have “some fun" in the afternoon, or 
when they are least needed? 
But I begun to talk of praise and blame. I 
remember that my father had a most aggra¬ 
vating way of praising us. He would say 
“Why, j'es, boys, you have done that work 
pretty well—for boys.” One day my brother 
and I were proud of a job we had done. We 
had done it “on purpose,” and knew it was 
done just as well as father or any other man 
could have done it. So we showed the work 
to father and said, “Now, father, haven’t we 
done this work firstrrate and no boys about 
it?” “Well, really, boys," said he, “you have 
done first-rate;” and we thought we had for 
once got some unqualified praise; “You’ve 
done it very well indeed—for— for boysl" It 
hung fire a little, like one of those old fashioned 
muskets, but it bad to come at last, and, like 
a kicking musket, it knocked over all the good 
his honest praise might have done. I’ve been 
a little “mad” about it ever since! Felt 
defrauded of my dues, you seel Now what I 
say is if our boys do well, let us give them 
hearty, unqualified praise. It will “ do them 
good like a medicine.” Even “the brutes that 
perish” love approval aud do better when 
praised. 
Then, too, in regard to blame\ let it be con¬ 
siderate. Let us not blame our children or 
young “help” severely for mistakes of inex¬ 
perience, natural mistakes, the very things 
we should quite iikdy do ourselves under the 
same circumstances, or with their lack of 
experience. I have lately read The Diary of 
a Bad Boy. It contains many amusing and 
some very wise things. This is one of the 
wise ones The hero says one day, after being 
“ trounced” for one of these bluudors of Inex¬ 
perience, he says, “Grown folks seem to 
’spect little boys to know things afore they've 
found ’em out!" 
Our next neighbor in Connecticut was 
Esquire Pardu. I remember him only by the 
many stories my father was always telling of 
him. Two of those stories I recall, that just 
illustrate these two points of praise and blame. 
The Squire had an uncouth boy working for 
him, whom he usually complimeuted by call¬ 
ing him a fool. One day the Squire was try¬ 
ing to bore a hole for the handle in a new 
iron-ringed maul or "beetle.” It was before 
the days when every farmer had a shop and 
work-bench an l patent vice, and he was try 
ing in vain to hold the beetle head between 
his feet. It was hard and would twist with 
the boring in spite of all be could do Jim 
stood by and watched, ami finally said, “Why, 
Squire, why don’t you put it in the pig’s 
trough?’’ The end of the hewn trough struck 
out from the pig peu near by. The Squire 
put the beetle head into it, and it held it per¬ 
fectly. So when he straightened himself up 
after finishing the boring, he thought ho must 
show his appreciation of Jim’s happy thought, 
and so be said, “Well, Jim. a min can learn 
something, even from a fool!" Wasn’t that 
a delicate compliment to pay to the boy that 
had “helped him out?” But the “fool’s’’ 
reply was quite as delicate. “ Yes, yes,” said 
he, “ I ’spose one fool can learn another fool!" 
Now the Squire “got as good as he gave.” If 
he had been a gentleman, and said, “I declare, 
Jim, that was a bright thought, and I’ll never 
call you fool again as long as 1 live,” why the 
boy would have been on good terms with him 
for the remainder of his uatural life, unless he 
forfeited his good esteem. 
The other story illustrates unjust censure, 
blaming children for the very things we should 
quite likely do in their circumstances. The 
8 quire had often told Jim he must never chop 
frozen green wood on a very cold day with a 
frozen axe; that he must take the axe in and 
take the frost out of it, or he would break the 
“ bit ” of the axe. But one very cold morning 
Jim came in from his barn chores arouud pas t 
the pile of green beech and maple logs, that 
were chopped in daily installments for “dry 
wood” to keep the good wife sweet-tempered, 
and saw the axe standing by a log that was 
chopped off all but three or four blows. Quick 
as thought be jumped upon the log to finish 
it, and at the first blow he broke a big chunk 
out of the frosty “bit" of the axe! “ Won’t I 
ketch thunder now!” said Jim to himself- 
“But I’ll bet the Squire would ’a’ done the 
same thing himself! You see now! I’ll fix 
him!” So be took the axe to the pump near-by 
and neatly froze the piece in, set the ax down 
in the snow beside the same tempting log, and 
climbed up into the corn house over the pig¬ 
pen to watch the progress of events! He 
didn’t have to wait long; the Squire soon 
finished his barn chores too,and came past the 
tempting log, yielded to ihe same temptation 
and with the same results, of course. So he 
sorrowfully picked up the ax and the broken 
piece, and went into the house. Jim was 
down in a trice from his post of observation 
and came into the house in a very nonchalant 
way as not expecting to ftud anything in par¬ 
ticular anywhere in particular. Suddenly he 
noticed the axe standing by the fireplace, (just 
where ho expected to find it.) “Hello! Squar 
ef you ha’n’t broke your new axe! How on 
’arth d’d’ye do it?” And so the Squire told 
just how it happened, and concluded by 
saying, “Aud now, Jim, you see why I’ve so 
often told you never to chop frozen wood with 
a frosty axe, and don’t you never do it again 
as long as you live." “ Ho! ho! ho!” says Jim, 
“Wot V ye blamiu’ it onto me. fer! Jest 
owned up how ye broke it j’erself. But ef I 
hed ’a broke it, Squar,” continued Jim with 
great impressiveness, “ wouldn’t you ’a’ gi’en 
me thunder!” 
And he probably would. And this is about 
how we look when we blame our children’s 
unreasonable mistakes, things we should quite 
likely do ourselves under the same circum¬ 
stances. This story of Jim and the Squire has 
served me as an excellent looking-glass in this 
respect. Perhaps it may serve the same pur¬ 
pose for other parents. It ruins even a free 
colt to keep constantly urging him or yanking 
on the bit. 
Improving a Very Poor Farm. 
Through a late Rural “Dorset” asked me 
how to improve a very poor farm he described. 
Having never owned land like that of which 
he speaks, I do not consider myself competent 
to answer his question satisfactorily. But as 
he simply asks what I “ would do to improve 
such land "I reply as follows: The first step 
is to get the land iuto a condition to grow 
a clover crop. To acquire the knowledge to 
secure this condition I would adopt the follow¬ 
ing plau:—Take, say three plots of an acre 
each. Plow and cultivate each plot as nearly 
alike as possible. Sow to barley, as it is a 
quick-growing crop, and seed down to clover. 
On plot No. 1, sow two barrels of gypsum. 
On plot No. 2 sow a barrel each of gypsum and 
salt well mixed. To plot No. 3 I would give 
a good top-dressing of well rotted manure. 
See which of the three plots gives the best re¬ 
sults and, next year, increase the quantity of 
ground for that experiment, not neglecting to 
