Extracts from Address of Josiah Hoopes before Annual Meeting of Pennsylvania Fruit Growers' Society at Chambersburgh, January 17, 1871.

THE cultivation of small fruits with us is necessarily accompanied with considerable expense, owing in a great measure to the character of our soils, which are remarkably adapted to the growth of weeds; but I always regard weeds as blessings in disguise, to teach men lessons of cleanliness and thorough cultivation. What we lose by extra expense in labor, we certainly gain in the size and beauty of our fruit, and this is decidedly an important auxiliary. Strawberries in my native county of Chester, pay well in the majority of seasons. We are near a good market, and quick transportation speedily delivers them to the consumers, fresh and handsome.

A successful strawberry grower for the Westchester markets, reports his experience with that variable variety, the Triomphe de Gand, as follows: "In the spring of 1864,1 planted 4,800 Triomphe de Gand on ground previously planted with potatoes, which were but slightly manured, the ground receiving nothing whatever when planted to strawberries. They were set two and a half by one foot apart, and all runners kept off, and worked by a horse. In the year 1865, I sold 778 quarts for $174.73.

After the crop was gathered, the bed was merely cleansed, from weeds,and running the year 1866 again without manure, yielding 487 quarts, selling for $151.44; the latter year a very bad one for strawberries. I consider the care I gave them but ordinary, and am satisfied the yield would have been greater had I given proper attention. I believe had the quantity been large enough to have warranted shipping, I could easily have realized fifty cents per quart, as I have since wholesaled the same variety for forty cents, with prices not so high as a general thing.

You will observe the distance I plant will require 17,424.plants.per acre;we have therefore for 1865, 2,824 quarts, selling for $634.24; for 1866, 1,586 quarts selling for $549.72.

I have since cultivated by the acre, and have had very good success; have never yet had sufficient to supply the demand. I consider the above statement as applying to field culture, and am sorry my time will not permit me to dissect my account so as to give my larger experience.

An extensive cultivator for the Philadelphia markets, states that he sells strawberries annually to the amount of from $2)000 to $4,000, from about three acres, but as the cultivation is attended with considerable expense, he is of the opinion, that good opportunities for disposing of the crop, is a requisite to insure adequate remuneration. With him they are a paying crop. The same grower says in regard to raspberries, that " they pay well, for although they do not yield as much per acre, they are less expensive to cultivate than strawberries." He furthermore remarks. "I have about two acres of raspberries, and they will average one year with another about $500 per acre. Currants and gooseberries about the same."Other cultivators are in favor of the production of small fruits here, with reports of greater or less amount of net profit on the same. Any one who is at all acquainted with the extensive Knox plantations at Pittsburg, in this State, needs not to be told, that under the system of cultivation pursued there, small fruits are exceedingly profitable.

In the orchard, pears have generally been discouraged as about the poorest crop we could possibly grow; some entertain now a very different opinion, as the following extracts from a recent letter, written by a prominent Pennsylvanian pomologist will show. He says: "It is about twelve years since I commenced planting pear trees, with a view of growing the fruit for market, and since that time I have set out near 5,000 trees. They are spread over near thirty acres, but in most of this ground the rows of trees are wide apart, and all the ground is constantly occupied with other crops; the rows themselves being filled up between the trees, with currants, gooseberries, raspberries, rhubarb, or other things, and for any thing that I can see, the ground has produced as much as if there had been no trees there. So that although I cannot base the cost of my orchard on this account at much more than the original price of the trees and outlay for planting, the latter of which not being heavy, as I went to no extraordinary expense in preparing the ground. All the manuring my pears have ever had, is the annual dressing I give the ground for the other crops. As I have generally had a fair crop of pears, and have always been able to obtain good prices, I consider them remunerative.

I am not able to give any data except-ing for the current year, and that without being very exact. At least 1,000 bushels have been disposed of during the present season, with a portion remaining unsold, the average price ranging about two dollars per bushel. Owing to the extraordinary warm weather, all varieties ripened quite early, and even the best keepers had to be disposed of, or they would have rotted. From this cause the price was considerably reduced".

One of the most productive pear orchards in this, or any other State, is the celebrated collection of Tobias Martin at Mercersburg, Pa., now ten years planted. The cost of the land was forty dollars per acre, and the expense of preparing the same was ten dollars per acre more; this, with the additional cost of 400 trees to the acre and planting the same, makes a total outlay of $150 per acre after the trees Were set. The trees were planted ten feet apart each way, alternate rows having alternate standards, making the standards twenty feet apart, with dwarfs between them in either direction.

For the first three years, the orchard was devoted to the growing of potatoes, two tows between each row of trees; the average annual yield of which was $100 per acre. Afterward the ground was used for cabbage and tomatoes, with a much smaller yield, say fifty dollars per acre.