TWENTY-FIRST ANNUAL MEETING. 97 



sport from the peach. The wonderful new grape being now introduced by 

 our townsman, Geo. Hosfokd, he claims is a sport from Concord. 



The clamor is heard from one end of the country to the other, for some- 

 thing that will equal the old Wilson strawberry of thirty years ago. 

 When the Wilson has been kept pure by careful selection it has no equal 

 among the perfect-flowering sorts of today. Nothing on my farm will 

 approach it, and I have tried pretty much everything offered. Where the 

 Wilson has failed, you will find, on careful investigation, that no effort has 

 been made to preserve its purity. Dealers prefer it, and many of my best 

 customers will have nothing else. I speak of it as a perfect-flowering 

 variety. I admit the Crescent is more vigorous and more productive ; but, 

 like the Wilson, and for the same reason, it has been given a back seat by 

 many growers. As a cash-bag filler these two varieties are yet the cham- 

 pions. They have made more money for the grower than all other varieties 

 put together, where they have been kept pure by proper selection. 



A pedigree plant may be said to be one which possesses the best points 

 of its variety in the greatest perfection, with the ability to transmit these 

 characteristics to its offspring. The want of fixedness of the desirable 

 features in our new varieties is the main cause of failure when they pass 

 out of the hands of their originators. Their changed conditions and 

 different methods of cultivation render the bud variations so great that, for 

 want of proper selection and exclusion of inferior plants, their value is 

 lost. No one can estimate the loss to fruitgrowers from this cause. The 

 truth is, we have gone wild over the introduction of new seedlings. They 

 come upon us with such a flourish of printers' ink and lithographic art, 

 that we are utterly bewildered. Our fruit lists are altogether too long. 

 There is no earthly reason for continuing one quarter of the varieties we 

 now have. We have not made the substantial improvements we should 

 have made had we devoted more time to the accumulation of the good 

 qualities of the old standard sorts by propagating from those that pro- 

 duce the prizetakers, ever bearing in mind that the value of pedigree in 

 plants, as in animals, is in the long continuance of the most valuable 

 characteristics, that the tendency to variation and reversion may be as 

 nearly destroyed as possible. I do not mean to say that we should dis- 

 continue all efforts in the direction of producing new varieties; but the 

 proper testing of them is altogether too expensive. It should be relegated 

 to the government experiment stations and those who can afford to do it. 



But to the practical part: How shall we make these selections? My 

 method has been to study the variety until I had a true ideal of the type 

 to work from. Study the berries in the boxes, on the vines, the foliage 

 and its habits; fix these firmly in your mind, then go into the fruit- 

 ing field to look for this ideal plant. Having found it, examine every 

 leaf to see if its foliage is perfect, and free from all diseases and fungi. 

 If the variety is deficient in foliage, its fruit too soft, or has not the desired 

 form, select with a view to correcting these deficiencies. If a strawberry, 

 as soon as the berry is sufficiently developed to reveal its true character, 

 remove its fruit, that the plant may not be weakened, stimulate it gently 

 with liquid manure, and pot all the runners and remove them to a bed 

 especially prepared for the purpose. Next year use only plants from this 

 propagating bed, and select again, year after year. Carefully mulch and 

 give thorough culture. Never allow a plant to go to the field that shows 

 the slightest deficiency. You will be suprised at the fruit, both in color 

 and size, as well as in the prices you will command. In the case of those 

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