EXPERIMENT STATION REPORTS. 113 



have signified their willingness to co-operate and are now spraying 

 according to our directions. Some of these fields will be visited in 

 An gust, for the purpose of noting results. 



^^ Pedigree Straw}) erries." — Eight thousand strawberry plants of five 

 varieties, set in the spring of 1906, are being used in this work. Each 

 of the plants is being subjected to the closest scrutiny, a record being 

 kept of its habit of growth, resistance to disease, number of runners 

 thrown out, number of crowns, hardiness, fruiting habit, productive- 

 ness, character of berry, and other points that are important in the 

 commercial value of a strawberry plant. Each plant is allowed to set 

 but two runners and the three are considered one plant in taking 

 records. After fruiting, possibly two years, selection will be made 

 and runners will be taken as follows: 



1. Productiveness. 



(a) From the 50 plants of each variety bearing the most fruit 



by weight. 



(b) From the 50 plants of each variety bearing the least fruit 



by weight. 



2. Season. 



(a) From the 50 plants of each variety bearing the earliest 



fruit. 



(b) From the 50 plants of each variety bearing the latest fruit. 



3. Size of Berry. • 



(a) From the 50 plants of each variety bearing the largest 



berries (total weight of berries divided by number). 



(b) From the 50 plants of each variety bearing the smallest 



berries. 



Incidentally selection will also be made for other points, but these 

 three will be given closest attention. 



The runners taken from the several sets of selected plants will be 

 planted and individual records of them kept as regards all the points 

 concerning which the parent plants were examined. This process of 

 selection should continue for at least five generations. The object of 

 the experiment is to determine how much is gained by propagating only 

 from the most excellent plants instead of from the bed at large, the 

 common method today; in other words, of what practical value is the 

 "pedigree" idea as applied to the strawberry? 



Experiment in Strawherry Propagation. — This experiment on straw- 

 berry selection brings up the question of how to propagate from de- 

 sirable plants. Here also there is need of a thorough experiment ex- 

 tending over a series of years. We have the following test under way: 

 Two thousand plants have been planted, 500 each of Brandywine, Dun- 

 lap, Gandy and Aroma. One-third of the plants of each of these vari- 

 eties will be allowed to make runners at will, but these runners will 

 not be allowed to fruit, being taken up in the spring and set out for 

 a new propagating bed. This is the common nursery method of propa- 

 gating the strawberry. One-third of the plants will be allowed to make 

 runner plants at will and to fruit in the spring of 1907. In the spring 

 of 1908 runners will be taken that have been thrown out by bearing 

 plants in this bed and these will be used to set out a new bed. This 

 method of taking runners for a new planting from old beds that have 

 15 



