298 WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
and size to plant. Always prefer low heads. Such trees will 
grow better, bear earlier and live longer. An excellent prac¬ 
tice—but one often neglected—is to protect the south side of 
the body of the trees, the summer after planting, and for sev¬ 
eral winters following, with straw or other material, from the 
sun. In summer this guards against excessive heat, and in 
winter against sudden changes when we have freezing nights 
and warm, sunny days. 
Small fruits yield the most immediate returns and should 
receive their full share of attention. First in season are the 
strawberries, and they come at a time when we are hungry 
for something fresh and new. They find a hearty welcome 
when placed on our tables, even though it be three times a 
day. During the strawberry season I daily see my farmer 
friends taking home their quart or two of berries from the 
market, and I feel like asking them to stop and explain how 
it is that, instead of these occasional quarts of stale and injured 
fruit, they are not daily using from four to eight quarts of 
much finer quality, grown in their own gardens. Certainly it 
cannot be because the good wife would object; nor because 
the children do not like them ; nor because they are unhealthy. 
It would be unsafe to hint that men lacked either the knowl¬ 
edge or force to supply this need if they thought best, still 
there must be a cause for the general neglect of this and the 
other small fruits. Of course the larger interests of the farm 
must not be neglected; seed time and harvest must be promptly 
met and provided for ; the farm stock must receive daily and 
careful attention; but there still should be time to attend to 
things that yield us so much comfort and luxury as do these 
fruits, and there should also be a spare hour, in which our 
thoughts might rest from the question of dollars and cents, 
and go pleasure seeking among the beautiful flowers and noble 
trees. These are called little things; and so are our lives 
made up of little things. If therefore these have been neglected, 
let it be so no longer. Make your plans now for a garden, if 
only of ten or twenty square rods, in which you will grow all 
