Small Fruits. 373 



one is very likely to see just what he wants to see. The man who 

 believes that a horse chestnut carried in his pocket keeps off the rheu- 

 matism, or that a horseshoe over the door keeps off spooks, can not be 

 convinced to the contrary; so the man who knows that selection is the 

 great thing in strawberry culture, especially if he has plants for sale, 

 can never be moved. These positive people have lots of followers, be- 

 cause the majority of people like to have some one to do their thinking, 

 and so, truth has to be pushed aside for a time. I am not prepared 

 to say that there is nothing in selection. The man who is thrifty, and 

 selects well-known plants and nice, shapely potatoes, usually comes out 

 ahead but these improved ( ?) varieties are very dependent oil good cul- 

 ture. There should be a great difference in favor of plants that have 

 been improved ( ?) for years by selection, but we do not see it. I do not 

 believe it exists. I would suggest that the editor of ''The K. X-Y. 

 obtain some of these improved ( ?) plants and an equal numlier of the same 

 variety from another grower who sells good, common, every-day plants, 

 grow them side by side and report results. 



M. Ceawford, 



Ohio. 



A Wisconsin Experiment. — The common practice of taking plants 

 for setting from vigorous matted rows would not tend to develop strains 

 of straAvberries. This could be accomplished only by setting individual 

 plants at considerable distances from each other, and permitting each one 

 to form a family of runners. By comparing these families, we would be 

 able to detect any differences in vigor or in other characteristics, and by 

 selecting the family that comes nearest to our ideal, and planting the indi- 

 vidual plants of this in other beds for further selection, we might, for all 

 that has been proved to the contrary, develop a superior strain of any of 

 our cultivated varieties. Prof. Bailey's theory that each bud is a distinct 

 variety certainly offers encouragement for this line of Avork. 



