36 Wisconsin State Horticultural Society. 



ican which was designed for a large strawberry and then 

 have used another strawberry for quality. The Great 

 American is a beautiful shaped berry. We want good 

 shaped berries. The shape of the Sharpless is all that can 

 be asked for. I have had seventeen of the Sharpless that 

 would make a quart. That is all I can ask in size. It 

 is a very uncouth strawberry. Its size is tJie only thing 

 that recommends it. Nobody claimed that it ever yielded 

 over 100 bushels to the acre. The Jessie, I know, has yielded 

 at the rate of over 400 bushels to the acre. 



Question — Having your seed ready for planting what is 

 your method of procedure? 



Mr. Loudon — I sow it in the spring. The plants come 

 better to sow immediately. Select those berries that have 

 a perfect leaf. Berries should be dead ripe when preserved 

 for the seed. They will grow by watering and shading. 

 The seeds will come up in about 12 days and must be sowed 

 right on top of the ground. I give them total shade and 

 don't cover them at all. I set them in the ground just the 

 width of the seed. 



Mr. Stickney — Do you any more than crush the berry? 



Mr. Loudon — I will tell you how I do that. Take dry 

 sand and make it as fine as possible by running it through 

 a fine sieve. You want it perfectly dry. Then I take the 

 strawberry and crush it and am careful that no other variety 

 gets with it. This is so as to know what my variety is. I am 

 careful to keep it distinct in that way. I crush them till I 

 see the seed in the sand. Then I sow the seeds in a small 

 patch and in two or three weeks they come up. They can 

 stand it there then until the next spring, but I prefer to take 

 them up and keep them until spring. I had rather give $3 

 for one plant in the fall than $ } for a dozen plants in the 

 spring. You must keep the runners down, you cannot test 

 it unless you do. I don't care how large a berry is, if you 

 don't keap the runners down you cannot attain the size. 

 Don't use any manure, for if you manure a strawberry, and 

 it requires manure to attain its size, you get fooled, for the 

 manure is what makes the strawberry large. I use as poor 

 soil as I can find; I put them in there without manure for 



