The chairman called upon Henry T. Williams, as the next speaker, who responded as follows:

" It is four years now since I purchased my farm at Dover, Del., and within that time little Delaware has come up in the estimation of the people as a pretty important State for peaches, strawberries, and small fruits. I have gathered some statistics about the strawberry crop of Delaware. The amount shipped from Norfolk, Va., to New York, is 1,500,000 quarts; from Delaware Peninsula, 3,000,000 quarts. The strawberry trade from New Jersey, including those sent to Philadelphia and New York markets, reaches nearly 2,000,000 quarts, and the strawberries raised on the Hudson river, and sent to this city and Boston, amount to 1,000,000 or 2,000,000 quarts more. So we have an aggregate of berries raised within a reach of 500 miles of 7,000,000 to 10,000,000 of quarts yearly for three or four markets only.

" Strawberry culture is not overdone; but there are a great many peculiarities and difficulties to be overcome; growers need, more than anything else, better transportation and the earlier arrival of trains. During the four years that I have raised strawberries, I frequently lose a large portion of my fruit, from no other cause than the arrival of the trains too late for market. One day this season the shipment to New York reached 256,000 quarts, but the train arrived one hour too late. And the decline in price created a loss to the growers of fully 915,000. If one hour, or one day, does that, what must the aggregate be for the season ? My loss during the season was $300. The commission men tell me: ' If you will all get your fruit here by four o'clock in the morning, even if you have 300,000 quarts, we can always work them off. The grocers of the city get impatient at the delay of the train, and when the first dray-load appears on the scene they snap off one crate, and off they go. If there was plenty of time they would select two or three.

Hence, the grocerymen don't purchase the fruit in sufficient quantities, and take no pains to stimulate the sale.' If plenty of time was allowed in the market, 50 to 100 per cent more fruit could be worked off, at still better prices.

"Mr. Lyman has referred to Norfolk, Va., as the best section to grow strawberries for the New York market. Yet, Norfolk fruit has its disadvantages. Last year there was a serious glut of this fruit, and the season was generally discouraging. The Norfolk grower has to pick his fruit all day to-day, say. Then he brings it into the depot, where it is to be shipped to-night, and it is twenty-four hours in reaching New York. You will see that it is two days old from the time it is picked until it reaches the New York market. Hence, it is unfit for shipment. Now, a very large proportion of the strawberries received here are reshipped to Northern and Eastern cities. One dealer alone buying from 100 to 200 crates per day. As long as the weather is cool, this Norfolk fruit is fit to ship, but the moment rains come, or warm weather appears, the berries rot and wilt, and can be sold only to the street peddlers. So that often a large arrival of Norfolk fruit has a glut of itself, and must be sacrificed. A moderate quantity will always have a good sale. This year they have had a splendid time. Their fruit has not fallen below twenty cents, and they had good two weeks before Delaware fruit arrived. The weather was cool and dry - no rain.

But when Delaware fruit arrives, the Norfolk fruit is closed out at any price. And Delawares have a splendid run. My fruit brought thirty cents steadily, while Norfolks could not rise above twenty. The difference is, that our fruit being one day fresher, is in better demand for shipping, and brings a better price.

"The system of growing small fruits in Delaware, and marketing them, is working up into fine railroad and shipping facilities. Two strawberry trains run during the height of the season; one at the lower end of the road, and the other at the upper; both connect together at Gray's Ferry, and proceed to New York on express time.

I have traveled on it at the rate of thirty miles per hour.

" But it often happens, that when there are the biggest pickings and shipments, the train is late, and next morning there is a fearful glut. This glut is not one of over-supply alone, but because of late arrival after the market hour is over. This late train business is doing more to endanger the strawberry trade than all things else put together.

"With regard to culture and profit, after an experience of four years, I must candidly say, that there is no business under the sun that takes so much capital, and is attended with so much risk, so much labor, and that gives so little satisfaction, as strawberry culture. There is one fact in regard to seedling strawberries. There is a rage every now and then for new fruit. It gets a big price, and figures in the papers. I have been familiar with this system, and think that the seedling strawberries, as a rule, are successful only in the localities where they originate. I have tried forty or fifty kinds of strawberries, and I can grow only one - the Wilson; and that has its faults. The first year it is fine, the second year a little medium, and the third year they will hardly bear inspection. In regard to the cost and profit: It has cost me $500 to every acre to lay out my strawberry bed, and it takes a capital of $150 to every acre for crates and baskets alone. I am satisfied if I can clear $100 to an acre.

It hardly pays for the capital invested, but still it is profitable.

"There is a fact with regard to strawberries that has not been noticed here to-night - that is, mulching the ground. Four or five years ago nobody thought of mulching his ground. Now every one does it. What is the result? We are having better fruit. It is rather the exception to see sandy fruit in the market, where formerly it was the rule. The strawberry growers suffer from varying seasons. Last year I had to pick every day in the rain; it arrived to market in the rain, and it was rainy all the season. This year we have not had a drop of rain, and the fruit is small, as well as very inferior in quality. That accounts for the fact, that so many of the strawberries this year are not fit to be eaten. The Norfolk, Delaware, and Jersey growers have made money. In my opinion, the best place to grow strawberries is not alone in Delaware, Jersey, or Norfolk, bat right along here on Long Island Sound, from Bridgeport toward Boston. Some strawberries that we raised in Delaware, and sold here for thirty cents a quart, were reshipped to Boston, and sold there for fifty to ninety-five cents.

"I have only to conclude by stating, that, in order to make a small fruit-farm pay its way, yon must have everything complete in it, from beginning to end. You must grow your own produce. Every man should raise his own potatoes, and big garden vegetables - everything for his own support. Then you must make your own fertilisers ; your own compost heaps, and do some farming as well as fruit-growing, so as to be sure of your daily bread. The future of strawberry culture is promising. I think it is to be more profitable; but the railroad companies must do their work better. The strawberry growers must understand more than ever the difficulties of their position; I think there are to be but few more gluts; there may be once in the course of the season. I am always glad when I hear of a glut, for I know that I can get a good price for my fruit to-morrow".

Mr. Fuller related his experience with the Brooklyn Scarlet. In 1862, he determined to kill out the trees in his Brooklyn garden, and plant strawberries. There was then no strawberry trade of any importance around the city of New York, excepting the wild Jersey strawberries. He commenced to plant and talk strawberry. Before that time he never had calls for 8,000 plants in a season. In less than two years from the time he commenced talking strawberry he sold 600,000 plants. He believed that the talk of a half dozen men in this country raised that strawberry trade up from what it was then to what it is now. Now everybody is supplied, and it is pleasant to know there are now times when, in the city of New York, the poorest child can get a dish of strawberries.

In reply to a question by the chairman, as to whether he had ever known a single strawberry plant to produce more than one stem, Dr. Hexamer replied, that some varieties will always produce two; that is, they will branch out and will be a mass or collection of single plants. Wherever I have seen strawberry plants greatly stimulated they have lost their flavor. A bed that illustrates this point had an open ditch all around it, and was drained besides.

Mr. Quinn rose to answer a question about the President Wilder strawberry. It had thoroughly disappointed him. It hugs the ground so much it is almost impossible to mulch it. It was not so firm as he supposed it to be. Mr. Quinn spoke of the Boy den No. 80. At his place in Newark, it was one of the most promising of the new berries. The present season he could dump them upside down, and he didn't believe there would be five bruised berries. He had no difficulty in getting thirty to thirty-two cents for it in market.