52 Missouri State Horticultural Society. 



It has been correctly called the lazy man's berry. I have a neighbor 

 who raises it in stools, fertilizes it with Bidwell. Its berries are 

 all large. It is very productive and quite profitable. After feasting 

 on a dish of the Manchester for dinner I pronounce it the berry for 

 all purposes. It possesses nearly all the requisite points of the ideal 

 berry. It may not prove firm enough for shipping long distances, 

 but will always command the highest price for a near or home 

 market. W. M. HOPKINS. 



The following letter was received : 



Kansas City, Mo., June 10th, 1884. 

 Me. W. M. Hopkins : 



Dear Sir : — There seems to be a variety of evils that afflict 

 the strawberry plants you handed me. 



1st. The roots have an excess of woody tissue and a lack of 

 small fibres. 



2nd. The foliage seems to be out of proportion to the fruit- 

 bearing stems. 



3rd. The leaves are unhealthy, which comes first from the 

 poor roots, second from overwork, third and most important from 

 the presence of a fungus which clusters around the base of many of 

 the hairs and seems to occupy a large proportion of the surface, so 

 much so as to interfere with the action of the stomata or mouths, 

 which of course renders respiration incomplete and impoverishes 

 the sap. 



4th. Premature age or a reverting back of the variety seems 

 very probable. 



Without knowing the condition of the other plants in the 

 neighborhood, it would seem that the trouble arises fi-om first 

 advanced age of the plant, which accounts for the condition of the 

 roots and partly for the condition of foliage. ' Second, overwork, 

 one plant having 24 berries large and small on it which would 

 weaken the vigor of anything with sexual organs. 



You know best if the ground is properly enriched for this 

 drain. With an enlargement of 50 diameters the fungus looks very 

 much like the one that destroyed so many house flies last year in 

 the east. You can frequently see them on the posterior part of the 

 flies and its great use is to kill them by suffocation by sto^jping the 

 trachea or breathing holes in their body. 



If you will bring around another plant I will try a magnifying 

 power of 500 diameters on the fungus and see if I can locate the 

 species. 



