STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



PAPERS Al^D DISOUSSIOITS. 



THE BETTER METHODS OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 

 BY MR. R. M. KELLOGG OF THREE RIVERS. 



I am fully convinced that for the w^ant of a proper knowledge of plant 

 life and the laws which govern the breeding and propagation of plants, 

 a large majority of fruitgrowers are not only throwing away their labor 

 but are putting on the market a grade of fruit which people do not enjoy 

 in small quantities, and therefore the markets are often glutted when 

 people are eating but very little fruit. They demand large, luscious, 

 firm, high-colored, "meaty" berries, instead of the small and insipid ber- 

 ries now offered them. 



The whole question of market and high prices is governed by large 

 consumption, and this can onh' be secured b}^ inducing people to eat 

 many berries where they now consume only one. No extra labor, as a 

 rule, is needed if the life habit is thoroughly understood. The cost of 

 growing our berries is too much; or, in other w^ords, we are bestowing 

 our labor on plants which have no ability to respond to our care, and we 

 must proceed to breed them up to a higher fruiting ability. 



The life principle (germ or plasm) of the plant is identical with that of 

 an animal. The diverging line has never been definitely determined. 

 Many plants possess characteristics of animal life, and move from place 

 to place, while others catch insects and feed upon them and otherwise 

 display a good degree of intelligence. All plants are male and female, 

 and their sexual organs contain every named part of those of the animal, 

 and fecundation takes place for the multiplication of their species. 

 They have an intense passion for breeding, which, if not restrained, will 

 produce seminal weakness and impotency or inability to produce fruit. 



The seeds are the eggs of the plant, and the fruit or pulp develops only 

 as a receptacle for the seeds to grow in. There are certain plants which 

 develop fruit without seeds, as the banana and some others, but they 

 are freaks. No one ever saw a large, luscious berry without the fullest 

 development of seeds. 



If the pollen and "pistil wax" lacks potency (in other words have 

 only sufficient vitality to bring life into existence), the fruit can not 

 be made to develop to its maximum size, nor take on the highest color 

 and flavor, by any process of manuring and cultivation. You can 

 increase the size of the foliage of the plant by this means, and perhaps 

 enable it to partially recuperate, but until it can be strengthened in 

 seed producing the increased culture will extend to foliage only. Abun- 

 dant evidence of this mny be had in the berry fields of the ordinary 

 grower. There is the widest difference in the size, form, and color of 



