Vermont State Horticultural Societt. 47 



which is sold on the tree at public auction. Is not this European 

 practice worthy of introduction into this country? Apples are, 

 however, inferior to standard American fruit, and the Europeans 

 may well take lessons from us in their culture. In France, the 

 ideal horticulture is found in the mushroom caves where every 

 cultural practice is reduced to precision and every condition 

 surrounding- the plant is under the fullest control of the gar- 

 dener. Moisture, light, fertility, temperature are all fixed or 

 controllable factors. The one element of possible variability is 

 the "spawn." The last thing to reduce this culture to scien- 

 tific perfection will be the use of "pure culture" spawn, the 

 methods of which have been recently perfected by our U. S. 

 Department of Agriculture. The caves of M. Thore, near 

 Paris, aggregating one mile in length, require the manure of 

 900 stable-fed horses, and yield 2,200 pounds daily of the dain- 

 tiest white mushrooms. 



An observation of more practical importance concerns the 

 successful development in France of an ever bearing strawberry. 

 The variety, "St. Joseph," originated by a French village priest 

 in 1897, is being so improved and developed as to carry the 

 fruiting season well through autumn months. Plants in the 

 trial grounds of Vilmorin Andrieux & Co. were well loaded 

 with flowers and green fruit as well as ripe berries in August, 

 and the Paris markets were offering the berries then at reason- 

 able prices, showing that the market gardeners are finding the 

 culture practicable and profitable. Strawberry specialists in 

 this country should hasten to profit from this French success 

 and we shall hope to share in the gustatorial pleasures. 



The most important part of the mission concerned potato 

 culture and diseases and especially the matter of disease resist- 

 ance in potato varieties. The interest in potato culture in Ger- 

 many has been stimulated of late by the ambition, credited to 

 the Kaiser, of producing potato alcohol so cheaply as to rescue 

 his empire from the grip of the Standard Oil trust. Varieties of 

 enormous starch production are being developed. In the 

 British Isles the present interest is at fever heat in the matter 

 of disease resistance as shown by some of their recently originat- 

 ed varieties. The most successful varieties today have been 

 sent out by the Scotch breeder,, Findlay, and the English firm, 

 Sutton & Sons. Last year two pounds of Findlay 's "Eldorado" 

 sold at public auction at $1,500.00, and even higher propor- 

 tional prices were paid for smaller amounts. These were, of 

 course, speculative prices, but as Mr. Findlay is now asking 

 and getting 3 guineas (nearly $16) per pound, there is fair 

 margin for possible profit to the bold purchasers of the pre- 

 ceding year. 



