
New York AaricutturaL Exprrmment SraTion. 459 
bulletin. In a bulletin on strawberries issued from this Station 
in October, 1890, special stress was placed on the ease and cheap- 
ness of growing this fruit by farmers, allowing every family to be 
able to have strawberries for all purposes with but little expense — 
of money or time. We shall endeavor, in this report, to urge — 
more forcibly this matter of small fruit growing by the average 
farmer, showing as we hope the large profit both in health and 
money to be derived from a small fruit plantation of the several 
varieties of fruits that mature early, and give paying results in 
from one to three years. One objection usually raised by farmers 
when asked to grow small fruits is the lack of time and skill. _ 
These objections may be answered by saying that the time neces- 
sary to plant one-fourth of an acre of strawberries need not be 
more than to plant the same area of cabbage or potatoes, and, as 
to skill, anyone who has set cabbage, celery or sweet potatoes, 
can set strawberry plants. The knowledge of the fact that one 
must set perfect flowering varieties with the pistillate or imperfect 
varieties is essential, but, further than that, clean tillage is the 
only very important point to be impressed on one’s mind. The ~ 
item of cost of plants is also reckoned as one of the hindrances 
to the cultivation of this fruit, and, viewed in certain ways, it is 
a very large item, but, if plants of any of the older well-tested 
varieties are selected, they can be bought by the thousand cheaper 
than any of the newer varieties can be bought by the hundred. 
One should be able to get any of the standard varieties at from 
_ three to four dollars per thousand, which, if set in rows three feet 
apart and the plants two feet apart in the rows will take 7,260 plants 
per acre, making one-fourth of an acre cost from five to eight dol- 
lars for plants. The further cost depends on the amount of tillage 
given and the expense of help, while the returns will usually aver- 
age 500 quarts on one-fourth acre, which, if calculated at ten cents 
a quart, will more than pay for plants and labor, leaving only the 
labor as the cost of the second year’s crop, which often gives the 
best yield and at the same time gives runners to set in new 
_ plantation. 

Of raspberries it will not be necessary to buy or set a large . 
number of plants. Fifty plants of both red and black raspberries, 
if well taken care of, will yield all a family of six can use, both 
