THE SECRETARY'S PORTFOLIO. 359 



pion. Mr. Miller, I believe, received his plants of Windsor Chief from a gen- 

 tleman in Michigan, who claimed to have grown it from seed, and from Mr. 

 Miller I received my ])lants of it. Possibly the experienced fruit growers who 

 have found such a dilference between these varieties may have begun with 

 spurious plants of Champion. 



Geo. W. Bridgman, of Berrien county, Michigan, says: If it be true that 

 the Windsor is a direct descendant of the Charles Downing and the Champion, 

 certainly its parentage would premise a successful future for the variety, so far 

 as latest probabilities based upon blood are concerned. I concede that the 

 weight of publislied testimony apparently tends to show that the Windsor is 

 simply the old Champion Strawberry, under a new name. It would be pre- 

 sumption to treat with disrespect the opinions of gentlemen, eminent as 

 pomologists, who insist that they can discover no-difference between the Cham- 

 pion and the Windsor ; but there is surely mistake or mystery about this 

 variety somewhere. Ic was my fortune to be a member of the Committee on 

 Fruits, at the meeting of the State Pomological Society at Muskegon, where 

 this variety was first brought to the attention of and named by tlie society. 

 See Pomological Eeport, 1879. If there was one strawberry more than another 

 with which that committee had an affectionate acquaintance, that berry was 

 the Champion : and it is, to say the least, problematical that such veteran 

 pomologists as Mr. Buell and Mr. Holt should have been deceived. 



Mr. Gardner, who chiims to have originated this berry, was I think a stranger 

 to every member of the committee; he was not present at the meeting, but 

 forwarded to the society by express about two quarts of the ripe fruit, each 

 berry being almost the exact counterpart of the other in color, size, and form ; 

 as nearly alike as peas from the same pod. 



In the fall of 1879 Mr. Gardner sent me seven plants, which were set upon 

 dry, sandy soil, during the extreme drouth. Every plant lived, but no especial 

 attention or examination was given until after the variety had been called in 

 question. 



It is true that the plant with me bears striking resemblance to the Champion, 

 but I think there is a little difference in the color of the leaf. The Windsor 

 seems to be a stronger grower than the Champion, and tends to make wider 

 rows, and on the same soil to have more fibrous roots. 



During the winter of '81 and '82, in the same field, a row of Champion was 

 nearly destroyed by heaving, while the Windsor came through comparatively 

 uninjured. 



An examination with a glass of a number of the blossoms in 1881 revealed 

 what seemed to be stamens supplied with pollen, quite different from the 

 Champion. The fruit when ripened was unusually even in size and regular in 

 form, approximating very closely in appearance to the sample exhibited at 

 Muskegon, while with me the Champion delights to show its finest specimens 

 odd and irregular. 



JAMES VICK STRAWBERRY. 



Inasmuch as the James Vick is brought to prominent notice this year we 

 give the following estimate of it made by P. C. Keyuolds of Eochester, New 

 York, who visited various plantations: 



One of the first things that struck you in looking upon the fruit, next to 



