VARIETIES AND LEAF-BLIGHT OF STRAW- 

 BERRIES. 



I. VARIETIES. 



What varieties of strawberries shall I plant? This, and sim- 

 ilar questions, are alwa5's asked of the experimenter, and people 

 seem to think that it is one of the simplest questions to answer. 

 At all events, it is the universal impression that the experiment 

 station officer, of all others, should be able to answer it definitely. 

 He has the facilities and the time for making tests, and it seems, 

 upon the face of it, that he should have exact knowledge of the 

 merits of all novelties. Yet, there are so many difl&culties and 

 uncertainties pertaining to the so-called testing of varieties that 

 the results often possess nothing of permanent value ; and there 

 are certain reasons why the experimenter, if he derives his knowl- 

 edge wholly from his own tests, is less competent to pronounce 

 upon the merits of novelties than the grower himself. 



What constitutes a test of a variety ? Simply this, — obtaining 

 exact knowledge as to whether the variety is distinct from others 

 and whether it is useful for certain places or purposes. It would 

 seem to be simple enough to obtain such knowledge as this ; and 

 yet it supposes that the experimenter knows all existing varie- 

 ties, — which no one does or can, — and that he is equall}^ expert 

 in judging the merits of any and all plants which may be brought 

 to him, from strawberries to chrysanthemums and celery to 

 apples. But there are other difficulties, which inhere in the 

 subject itself. To test a variety for any purpose, it is necessary 

 to actually grow it and use it for that purpose. The chief end of 

 most varieties is for the market, but the experiment station can- 

 not grow varieties for commercial market. One crate or even 

 one shipment does not test the shipping qualities of a variety, for 

 the.se qualities vary with the season, the weather, the methods of 

 transportation, and with the different pickings of the same vari- 

 ety ; and it is therefore impossible to give any adequate test to 

 twenty or thirty or even more varieties of any one fruit, let alone 



