An Kssay delivered before the Annual Meeting of the Pennsylvania Fruit Growers' Society, at Chombersburg, Jan 18, 1871.

SMALL fruits, not small in value, bat so-called because they are found growing on small bushes, vines and plants, were formerly considered as properly belonging to the garden, but now are grown in such large quantities as to require broad acres for their cultivation, and on some farms more land is devoted to their culture than to any other crop.

The first fruits of the season, and the most healthful and delicious in cultivation, are strawberries, which are easily grown, and when sent to market in good order command fair prices ; the varieties of which have become so numerous that it is very difficult for one who has had no experience, to determine which to plant, by merely reading the descriptions of those offered for sale. After testing over one hundred kinds, I have come to the conclusion that for profit, a very few varieties are sufficient for any one section, so as to keep up a succession from the earliest to the latest ripening. Some varieties do remarkably well in some locations, with certain treatment, when in other sections they are of but little value. The high reputation that some strawberries have obtained, where the soil, climate and surrounding circumstances were all congenial, is a great recommendation in selling plants, but it does not follow that they will succeed when tried in different circumstances, which may suit some other varieties better.

Profits Of Small Fruits #1

An Essay delivered before the Annual Meeting of the Pennsylvania Fruit Growers' Society, at Chambersbury, Jan. 18th, 1861.

Strawberries, Raspberries and Blackberries are usually included under the head of Small Fruits, the profits of which are generally good when markets are convenient and care is taken in the selection of varieties and in giving them proper treatment. Sometimes we hear of extravagant reports, calculated from the product of a small lot up to what a ten acre field under similar circumstances would yield. A safer rule is to take the acres and see what they have produced annually. We kept a debtor and creditor account for several years with twenty-two acres in small fruits, which averaged, after deducting expenses, $262 per acre.

By reference to the Third Annual Report of the West Jersey Fruit Growers' Association, page 21, who appointed committees to collect the returns from all the fruit growers in the neighborhood, it will be found that 776 acres of land in strawberries, raspberries and blackberries, produced the sum of nearly $200,000, or about $250 per acre.