THIRTY-SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT. 37 



We recommend that every fifth or sixth row of a commercial orchard of 

 Kieffer or Bartlett be one of these poUenizers. 



2. PEDIGREE STRAWBERRIES. 



Eight thousand plants of five varieties, set in the spring of 1906, are being 

 used for this work. The plants came from R. M. Kellogg, Three Rivers, 

 Michigan, and M. Crawford, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. Each plant has been 

 subjected to the closest scrutiny, a record being kept of its habit of growth, 

 resistance to disease, number of runners thrown out, hardiness, number of 

 blossoms, fruiting habit, productiveness, character of berry, number of 

 berries, total weight, and other points that are of importance in the com- 

 mercial value of a strawberry plant. Each plant was allowed to set lDut 

 two runners, and the three were considered as one plant in taking records. 

 Selection has been made for two points: 



1. Productiveness, (a) The 50 plants of each variety bearing the most 

 fruit l-)y weight, (b) The 50 plants of each variety equally vigorous as the 

 above bearing the least fruit by weight. 



2. Season, (a) The 50 plants of each variety bearing the earliest fruit, 

 (b) The 50 plants of each variety bearing the latest fruit. 



Runners have been taken from these several sets of plants. These are planted 

 and similar records will be kept of them as of the parent plants. The selection 

 will be continued for at least five generations. The object of the experiment 

 is to determine how much variation there is between different plants of the 

 same variety and whether the variety can be improved in some one point, 

 as in productiveness or in lateness, by propagating only from the most 

 excellent plants, instead of from the bed at large; in other words, of how, 

 much practical value is "pedigree" — or more properly selection — in the 

 propagation of the strawberry. 



As we have fruited but one generation of plants, nothing can be said 

 about pedigree, but we can say much about the variation within the variety. 

 As we have kept a minute record of each one of the SOOO plants, our attention 

 has been called to the fact that there are great differences within the variety. 

 Thus plant No. 3 Dunlap produced 22^ ounces of fruit (161 berries), while 

 plant No. 95 produced 1 1-16 ounces of fruit (9 berries). Plant No. 50 

 Sample produced 19 3-4 ounces of fruit (108 fruits), while plant No. 94 

 producecl no fruit. The latter was "blind," although apparently as vigorous 

 as No. 50. Likewise we found plants of Gandy that ripened their fruit a 

 week later than other plants of Gandy. All this variation could not have 

 been caused by differences in the soil or care, for every effort was made to 

 give all uniform culture. Some of it, at least, must have been due to heredity. 

 The practical fact before us is this: here are certain plants in a field of straw- 

 berries that are bearing three times as much as the other plants, or excel in 

 some other important respect. Will it pay the grower to propagate from 

 these superior plants alone, just as it pays the dairymen to weigh and test 

 the milk of each cow in the herd, so that he can eliminate the deadbeats? 

 When forcing strawberries in pots in midwinter, I have noticed that many 

 plants, even those that are vigorous and lusty, come "blind," producing 

 little or no fruit. Is the commercial grower of field strawberries supporting 

 many blind plants by the profits from his productive plants? To what 

 extent will it pay him to recognize the individuality of plants, making a single 

 plant the unit in propagation, not the variety? These questions cannot 

 be answered except by years of painstaking records of individual plants 

 and their progeny, in which Ave have made the barest beginning. 



