:288 Missouri State Horticultural Society. 



them ; they are not even good enough to sell, to say nothing about 

 eating them ourselves or giving them to our friends. Shaffer's is 

 the best market berry I have ; last year I sold a few for canning 

 purposes to people of good sense, and this year they were in great 

 demand at the price of the best reds. Without question, it is the 

 best canning berry we have. 



I planted Cowing's Seedling strawberry with twenty-five other 

 sorts, and allowed friends, on going through the plot, to taste of all 

 and vote as to quality; Cowing's was ahead of everything. I picked 

 out eight of the best sorts and planted them on a larger scale, and 

 our families always keep Cowing's clean of ripe berries. Why has 

 this old berry been so neglected ? I grew it at Lansing some years 

 ago upon clay loam ; it was of the same good quality, but assumed 

 monstrous shapes ; no worse ihan the Sharpless. however ; ujdou 

 the sand it is very comely. Were I to name the strawberry " grade 

 marks" in the order of their importance, I should put comeliness 

 among the first. I think only quality and color come before it. — 

 Chas. I'F. Garfield in Rural Neiv Yorker. 



STKAW MULCH POR STRAWBERRIES. 



Mr. C. A. Green, in the Fruit Grower, says : " We shall 

 never mulch bearing beds of strawberries with straw again. Though 

 a good winter protection it can not be made free from grain and 

 weed seeds, and thus to re-seed soil made clean by long culture, is 

 vexatious. Aside from this the mulch is made the breeding place 

 of insects. We found thousands of small worms hatched under 

 the straw before the frost was fairly out of the soil. It is expected 

 that the damage done to Parker Earle's (Cobden, 111.) ^Dlantation 

 by an insect eating into the berries is owing to the straw mulch, as 

 when no mulch was applied no injury was done." 



Mr. Jared Topping, of Colorado, is reported "in the Tribune as 

 raising 400 quarts of strawberries on a plot 20 by 60 feet. This 

 would be at the rate of 14,520 quarts, or 454 bushels per acre. A 

 prolific country certainly ! 



Although the color is not in its favor, yet its superior size will 

 secure its sale at the best prices. Plants of this variety are now- 

 pretty plentiful at the nurseries and can be procured at low rates. 

 The high prices which have' prevailed for this, also for those best 

 early black-caps, the Souhegan and Tyler, have restricted their 

 planting for home use. 



The season of the Shaffer is rather late — extending the rasp- 

 berry season well up to the blackberry season. I am now using 



