40 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



bisexual varieties of strawberries do not develojj ])()(h the anther and 

 ]>istil at the same time and that the anther may burst and throw its 

 pollen before the pistil is ready to i-eceive it; or the pistil may become 

 receptive before the autlior is fully repaired; or it may be that the 

 pollen of a certain flower may not be congenial to the pistils of that 

 same flower. 



Just why bisexual varieties should do better through the interchange 

 of pollen is more than I can say, but so long as I know that they 

 are thus improved, I propose to follow the system of mating with 

 bisexuals the same as I do in the case of pistillates. 



PLANTS. 



I will say very little about the quality of plants, because I believe 

 that all fruit growers are intelligent, and that they realize that one 

 pliint may be better than another plant, even of the same variety. I 

 will say, however, that a runner plant of a strawberry will carry with 

 it the same characteristics as the mother plant which produced it, and 

 if the mother plant is a heavier fruiting plant than other plants of 

 that same variety, it surelj^ will produce a strain of runner plants 

 more fruitful than could be produced by a less productive plant. I 

 assume, of course, that the mother plant which we are selecting from 

 has inherited its fruit-producing characteristics. If it is more fruit- 

 ful merely from certain conditions in the particular spot of soil in 

 which it grows, then, of course, the plants which were produced by it 

 might not be any better than an ordinary plant. 



Another thing that I have observed is that mother plants which 

 have heavy fruiting characteristics produce fewer runner plants than 

 mother plants which are less fruitful. I find that plants are moving 

 in one direction or the other. We cannot expect them to stand still. 

 They either are building up a heavy fruiting sj^stem or they are per- 

 petuating their kind. 



If fruit growers carefully will observe their plants while fruiting, 

 they will note a great dilference in the fruitfulness of plants of the 

 same variety, and if they will stake the varieties which build up the 

 heaviest fruit-bud systems, remove blossoms and also stake a plant 

 which has produced but few blossoms and remove the blossoms on 

 that plant, they will note that the plant which produced the heaviest 

 fruit-bud system will make fewer runners, and that the runner cords 

 will be stronger and better developed than those which come from the 

 unfruitful plant. 



In growing plants, we should consider that we are building some- 

 thing, and that the plants should be built with a full combination of 

 ])lant-food elements required for the particular plant which is under 

 [)rKcess ot building. We should have enough nitrogen to give a strong, 

 vigorous, vegetative growth; and we should have enough potassium to 

 produce the fibrous and woody parts of the plants; and a sufficient 

 amount of phosphorus to aid the plant in assimilating other elements of 

 the soil which could not assimilate without the aid of phosphorus; and 

 a sufficient amount of phosphorus to bring the plant into full maturity. 

 A plant built in this manner is bound to be more fruitful than a ])lant 

 grown without any regard to the essentials of plant life. 



