Addresses — Strawberries. 135 



HORTICULTURAL 



ADDRESSES, PAPERS AND DISCUSSIONS 



BEFORE THE 



JOINT CONVENTION, 



AT THE 



Annual Meeting of the Society, held at Madison, February 4-7, 1879. 



SHALL WE CONTINUE TO EXPERIMENT WITH NEW 

 VARIETIES OF STRAWBERRIES? 



J. M. SMITH, President State Horticultural Society, Green Bay. 



I have been urged to say something on this question, and it has 

 occurred to me that a few words on this subject would not be inap- 

 propriate at this time. It is now about twenty years since Wilson's 

 Albany Seedling began to be known among the strawberry growers. 

 Previous to that time, the cultivation of this, the finest of all ber- 

 ries, was confined to comparatively few persons, and the aggregate 

 yearly crop of the country was probably not one-fifth, if it was, in- 

 deed, one-tenth, of what it is at present. The varieties then most 

 generally cultivated were Hovey's Seedling, in New England, and 

 the Early Scarlet, or New Jersey Scarlet (which I believe are one 

 and the same), in New Jersey and other places adjoining our large 

 cities. In other portions of the country there were but very few 

 grown, as compared with the present. The introduction of the 

 " Wilson," as it is now termed, was such a vast step in advance of 

 any variety then known, that in the course of a few years it worked 

 a complete revolution in strawberry culture. Thousands upon thou- 

 sands of those who had previously looked upon this delicious fruit 



