36 STATE HOETICULTUKAL SOCIETY. 



distant markets, its firmness, its color, its agreeable acid making it one of the 

 best for preserving or canning purposes, and by selecting a rich, moist soil, good 

 cultivation, renewing your plantation every one or two years, you have in the 

 Wilson all the requisites of a profitable market strawberry. A word of caution 

 to the planter of new varieties for market purposes: You are apt to be misled 

 many ways, the source of which may not have been intentional, but neverthe- 

 less affects your judgment. For instance, you have received 50c or 81.00 more 

 for your fancy case above the market price of Wilsons; hence you hastily con- 

 clude had your crop all been of your present pet variety you would have 

 realized so many dollars extra. Just there is where you err. I doubt if there 

 has been any of the large-sized, old time "new varieties," that did not realize 

 to the shipper a better price for a few trial cases, above that paid for the gen- 

 eral market berry of the day. Let me ask what has become of them? Why 

 so many left so far behind in the race that their names even are lost to mem- 

 ory? And those that have appeared of more recent date, why have they lost 

 the exalted position they once held in our estimation? Will these not surely 

 follow in the wake of their predecessors if they do not prove to have the 

 requisite merits already possessed by the Wilson? Allow me here to give au 

 example. Let us take the Sharpless — one of our latest acquisitions — a berry 

 that possesses apparently all the requisites of a successful candidate for pop- 

 ular favor. Its large size, beautiful glossy red color, fair flavor, and moder- 

 ate firmness gives it promise of success. Presuming some at least of my hearers 

 are growing and will ship of this variety, you will without doubt get a much 

 better price for the few cases you will ship this season, and why will you not 

 continue to do so? Among many I will give this reason : There is a class of 

 people in all our large cities with whom the price of an article is of secondary 

 consideration to the gratification of tlieir tastes or pleasure. That class will 

 take of these first things at an advanced price. You receive the benefit of 

 such from your commission man, you judge from those returns that this is the 

 coming berry, and plant all possible, and so does your neighbor, and by the time 

 the field crop comes in market, having had a touch of the Wilson manage- 

 ment, and you realize from their sales, you find you do not get as much net 

 proceeds per acre as does your neighbor that shipped select Wilsons. You ask 

 why? Let me say the Sharpless is not for the million, but for the millionaires. 

 They being few in number comparatively, the berry for the million 

 holds its sway, is sold with the first morning sales, and shipped to distant 

 points at highest market rates, while your pet Sharpless, Monarch, Boyden, 

 Downing, Jucunda, etc., etc., are left to the chance sale, for a few of the best 

 selections at a trifle above the Wilson, while the great bulk of them have to be 

 forced off at lower rates to doubting buyers, and in a short time are neglected 

 so that our poorest class of street peddlers will scarcely take them off the 

 market even at agreat reduction in price below the "Wilson. You repeat " Why?" 

 I can answer. The chief cause of their disfavor lies either in their poor, 

 light color or their want of firmness ; often both combined. You may say 

 it is a matter of prejudice which can be overcome. How has it proved with 

 the long host of pets of the past? Call it prejudice or any other name, they 

 have all lost the proud position their originators fondly hoped for them. Gen- 

 tlemen, facts are stubborn things. The merchant cannot afford to take home 

 the pale, sickly, half-ripe looking Downing and those of like color, or the 

 Monarch or Boyden with its green tip, to lose 50c or SI. 00 per bushel for the 

 sake of educating the public taste. No, they prefer to take home a well- 



