92 MISSOURI STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



REPORT OF W. M. HOPKINS, SPRINGFIELD, MO. 



Ladies and Gentlemen of the Missouri State Hoj'ticnltnral Society : 



The executive committece have assigned to me a very laborious 

 and knotty subject : " Best Straivbcrries for South Missouri and 

 Why. " You will perceive this covers a large area of territory — from 

 the Missouri river to the Arkansas line, embracing three degrees of 

 latitude and a great diversity of climate and soil. The strawberry is 

 very capricious and a few miles often makes a great difference in its be- 

 havior and productiveness. I have always tried to be loyal to the pow- 

 ers that be, but in this case shall rebel, and confine myself to the lo- 

 cality in which I now reside — Greene County, Missouri, being near the 

 center of the territory embraced in the above query. I have fruited 

 this season six or eight of the newer varieties, which some fruit men 

 with less brains than experience or knowledge are pleased to term *' fine 

 haired, " by way of derision. I am aware the " Crescent Seedling " has 

 been proclaimed the *" best " berry for all purposes all over the country; 

 that most people take it for granted and still continue to plant it, 

 Why, says some friends of the " Crescent, " is he going to attack that 

 berry, and if so, what will he recommend to take its place .'' I answer 

 the "Jessie." And I have three other varieties that are its superior — 

 The Jewel, Monmouth and Bubach Seedling No. 5. I place the Jessie 

 ahead of any berry I have ever fruited in my seventeen years' experi- 

 ence. Some friend of the '' Crescent " says, give us the reasons why. 

 Best is the superlative of good, and if the Crescent has more than two 

 good points, I have never been able to see them: Its earliness and iron 

 clad plant. Why, some one asks, is it not productive } Yes, too much 

 so. That is one of its greatest faults. It sets more berries than it can 

 bring up to any size. You get three or four pickings of fair-sized ber- 

 ries, too mean in quality for the table, entirely unfit to ship, unless pick- 

 ed when half ripe, then its berries ripen up in about ten days, and as the 

 masses have been taught to believe it the berry for the money, everyone 

 has them, and this causes a glut and breakdown in the market, and has a 

 bad influence on good berries. Berry growers know how hard it is to 

 spring a broken down market. It has b^en correctly named the lazy 

 man's berry. Like many berries that have had their day, its end is ap- 

 proaching, and then let berry growers shout and sing its funeral dirge. 

 So mote it be. 



