ISO STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



in a particular soil and make a great record, but when transferred to other 

 soils people saj they are not good for anything. There is no question but 

 Mr, Loudon, in producing the Jessie strawberry, made a record, and men 

 of reputation beyond all question testified to the excellent crops he pro- 

 duced of Jessie. I have been in correspondence with people who say Jessie 

 is one of the best berries that ever grew ; and yet, where I have one letter 

 giving such testimony I could get a hundred that it is absolutely worth- 

 less. That does not reflect on Mr. Loudon; but if that variety had been 

 tested by these fruitgrowers and evidence taken from such tests, it would 

 never have been introduced. It is going out of cultivation today; it is 

 not safe to recommend it; it has peculiar weaknesses; it is a local berry, 

 it does well in some places. 



Mr. Morrill: I saw Jessie on Mr. Loudon's place, and you could pi(;k 

 quarts right along running but twelve to fourteen berries each. I never 

 saw anything like it. 



A Member: The practical strawberry-grower who wishes to grow his 

 ow'n plants, what would be the best course to pursue if you take the blos- 

 .soms all off of the spring-set i)lants? 



Mr. Kellogg: The trouble with the growers is that they usually do not 

 take otf the blossoms at all. I am satisfied that continual propagating 

 from plants indiscriminately in that way causes some of them to become 

 exhausted. You plant right along here in a row, all receiving the same 

 cultivation, comparatively, with no insect injury; for six or eight tet't the 

 berries are nice on all of the plants, and a little further on you find hardly 

 any berries. Why should these plants, two feet apart, comparatively 

 on the same soil, differ so greatly? You find one plant came from some 

 plant that had either not recovered from a former w^eakness or was simply 

 in better condition. My experience is that you can spend your time i)rofit- 

 ably keeping posted. When you see a plant that is giving you many ber- 

 ries, it shows it has good blood. The next year your plant will give you 

 good fruit if you do not let it exhaust itself and become a worthless plant 

 by over-breeding — that is what it is, simply over-breeding, and all the 

 laws that obtain in animals obtain in just the same way. You should keep 

 your plants in proper shape. It is the most profitable thing you can do. 

 I would propagate my owm trees if I were going to set an apple orchard. 

 The whole system of nursery business has been jjrostituted to the man 

 who can produce trees for the lowest price. I have catalogues that offer 

 me trees for three cents apiece. When you expect to get something for 

 nothing you are always cheated, and trees are not an exception to the 

 rule. When fruitgrowers are willing to pay nurserymen a fair price for 

 producing a good thing, they will get it; but the tree-peddler going 

 through the country can offer trees that will do wonderful things, and 

 he has no backing. He is doing all this mischief. I do not mean to say 

 anything too harsh against tree-peddlers. They are one of the means 

 for distribution of nursery stock. But go to some local man whom you 

 know, who has a reputation at stake, and you will do better. 



O: AYliat does it cost to raise a pond tree and put it on the market? 



Mr. Kellogg: You can not do it for three cents; you can not do it for 

 ten cents, either. 



]\[r. ]\rnrrill : Yes, you can. 



]\[r. Kellogg: Well, iinssibly yon can. doing it in a wholesale way. 

 These quotations were on jieaches and a])ples. 



