Addresses — Strawberries. 137 



the Wilson as the best for constant use. One lady chose the No. 

 30 and stood by it until the last box of them was picked. So much 

 for quality; still 1 am willing to admit that we need a berry of a 

 better and a different quality. How shall we get it? Shall we 

 keep right on buying, haphazard, every new variety that comes along, 

 and happens to be pretty well puffed up by those who are inter- 

 ested in its sale? Are we likely to succeed any better in the future 

 than we have for the last fifteen years? 



Suppose we look back for a few moments and see what we have 

 been doing; perhaps I should say what I have been doing; for it 

 is to be hoped that you have not all been as foolish in this direction 

 as I have. Soon after the Wilson became established as the lead- 

 ing berry, new varieties began to make their appearance in great 

 numbers. Each new variety was claimed to be better than any of 

 its predecessors; and its owner would generally close the story of 

 its marvelous value by telling how much better in every respect it 

 was than the Wilson. To name them all, would be to fill pages 

 with names that you would not care to hear or I to read. Some- 

 times it is one of wondrous size, like the Dr. Nicaise, or Russell's 

 Prolific, either one of which will bear an occasional berry of im- 

 mense size, but it will generally have- the slight failing of being 

 thoroughly ripe and rotten on one side, while it is as thoroughly 

 green and sour upon the other. Perhaps it is the everlasting bearer, 

 found upon the high lands in Mexico, which the peddler brings 

 around, with samples of berries preserved in bottles of alcohol, ac- 

 companied by the wondrous story of their constant bearing, from 

 early spring until the snow comes and covers both ground and ber- 

 ries. Here is perfection surely. I hasten to try this new wonder. 

 After years of careful cultivation, upon as good soil as I own, I 

 learn that it will bear an occasional berry during the whole season; 

 and that by keeping, say half an acre of them in the best of order, 

 I might once in a week have a quart of berries, though I think 

 they did not do as well as that with most people. I remember my 

 largest picking, a small tea cup, half full of berries about the size 

 of peas; and then the pleasure that wife and I had in learning that 

 they were scarcely fit to eat. 



Another package of plants comes from a gentleman in Ohio, 

 with a request to cultivate with great care; and, also, the injunc- 

 tion never to sell or give away one of the plants, except by his di- 



