Small Fruits. 397 



clover seed per acre is little enough. A clover carpet over the ground 

 through the fall and winter if a great protection to peach roots. Seed 

 down in the fall with clover seed, at the last cultivation, plowing the 

 clover under early the next spring. The growth of all trees is most 

 vigorous in the early spring. Therefore, give early cultivation. 



Prune so as to leave a partially open head. Do not shorten 

 branches too much the first year. The second year shorten liberally 

 all the longer branches. Promptly dig out and burn all trees af- 

 fected with the yellows. Thinning the fruit is very important. Pick- 

 ing, packing and marketing are the next important matters to be con- 

 sidered. — Greens Fruit Grower. 



GRADING UP STRAWBERRIES BY SELECTION. 

 (R. M. Kellogg, Michigan.) 



Variation in plants is an important factor in fruit growing. 

 Plants grown from seeds have a father and mother the same as an 

 animal. When we propagate by buds and runners we have only a 

 ''mother" in a figurative sense. It is really a division of the nodes in 

 its own body which contain the protoplasm, yet they are new crea- 

 tions just as much as the plants grown from seeds. Being a division 

 they contain the vigor or weakness of the parent plant. They us- 

 ually closely resemble and bear fruit the same as the plant from 

 which they are taken and yet under changed conditions they often 

 make remarkable variations; sometimes so much as to constitute a 

 distinct'variety. 



Now we may take advantage of these variations and fix in our 

 mind the kind of plant and berry we want to produce and continuously 

 select plants which we find here and there in the field approaching 

 most nearly to the ideal we want and propagate from these, keeping 

 them under restriction to prevent pollen exhaustion and greatly im- 

 prove them. 



Sixteen years ago I adopted the following plan : I always set 

 my plants in spring and then keep sharp watch during the summer 

 when hoeing and cultivating for plants wjiich show qualities superior 

 to follow and set a numbered stake by them. A record is kept 

 in a field book on a scale of one to ten. Careful examination is 

 made at stated periods during the season. Foliage, disposition to 

 make strong fruit buds and few runners are carefully noted. The 

 next spring when buds begin to show many of the plants staked are 



