Page 14 



BETTER FRUIT 



December, ipiQ 



WITH A PURPOSE 



TO ATTRACT ATTENTION 

 ^ ^ AND CREATE SALES 



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LITHO 



SAN FRANaSCO 



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 UALITY 



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 '^^ SEATTLE- rORTlAND 

 ^ 9ACRAnENTo -FRESNO 

 LQ? ANGELES- HONOLULU 



The Origin of the Ettersburg Strawberry 



By Albert F. Etter 



BECAUSE ordinary strawberries 

 would not grow to amount to any- 

 thing at Ettersburg, I decided to try 

 to grow some that woukl. I took tht- 

 native plants and some other wild 

 species, considered worthless, and out 

 of these and certain varieties of our 

 cultivated strawberries I have made a 

 wonderful collection of strawberries 

 of hybrid origin. One can nol cbn- 

 ceive just what I mean unless he be a 

 visitor to Ettersburg in strawberry sea- 

 son. 



There is no question but that I get 

 all that is in the variety generally, but 

 the astonishing thing to all visitors is 

 that these hybrids are so vigorous and 

 prolific when the regular varieties 

 amount to little under exactly the 

 same conditions growing along side. 



One thing that should be constantly 

 remembered is this: that while Etters- 

 burg strawberries are capable of flour- 



ishing where other varieties are a fail- 

 ure, does not imply that if other varie- 

 ties are a success, they should do still 

 better. They may do better and they 

 may not do at all well. Their require- 

 ments are different and conditions 

 may suit them or they may not, it all 

 depends. They have excessive vigor 

 and robustness and like their wild 

 ancestors are capable of growing in 

 poor land with little cultivation, far 

 better than ordinary varieties, while if 

 planted in rich moist land they run all 

 to foliage and runners, the fruit will 

 be small and poorly flavored, and the 

 foliage susceptable to attack by leaf- 

 spot fungus. There is so many ways 

 that a strawberry plant is affected by 

 soil and climate that it would take a 

 whole book to go over it all. One gen- 

 eral remark might be made on Etters- 

 burg strawberries, and that is this: the 

 poorer the soil the more moisture the 



plants will tolerale and still produce 

 line fruit, and the richer the soil the 

 more the moisture in the soil must be 

 regulated if one be successful. I meet 

 with the best success by giving perfect 

 care the first season and after that let 

 them shift pretty much for themselves. 

 I never plant closer than 30 inches 

 each way, and on a richer soil 36 

 inches would be preferable. 



My first attempts to grow strawber- 

 ries from seed was about 30 years ago. 

 I crossed the old Sharpless with a 

 variety known as the Parry. I grew 

 second and third generation seedlings 

 of this type. At about this time I got 

 in a roundabout way a few plants of 

 a peculiar fuzzy leaved strawberry. 

 Captain Cousins, of Eureka, Calif., had 

 picked up and brought it to Eureka 

 on one of his trips on a lumber 

 schooner to Calao, Peru. It was years 

 afterwards that I accidentally dis- 

 covered the identity and history of 

 this Peruvian Beach strawberry. It 

 was not only an odd plant, but it was 

 an exceedingly shy bearer. The second 

 attempt it made to fruit, I emaculated 

 the primary blossom on the truss and 

 pollenated it with a blossom of one of 

 my third generation Sharpless-Parry 

 plants. Eleven seedlings were grown 

 from this seed and among these was 

 the Rose Ettersburg, one of the most 

 peculiar strawberries ever produced. 

 Mind you, this variety was produced 

 in the cool foggy climate of Eel River 

 valley, yet it will endure the exces- 

 sively high temperatures on the desert 

 in Southern California at Thermal and 

 Wagner where it goes up to 120 de- 

 grees in the shade, and resists the 

 alkali where the ground is white with 

 it. 



Wiy Orchards Must Be Sprayed. 



"What's all this new fangled talk 

 about spraying?" says the oldest in- 

 habitant. "When I was a boy ." 



That is the difference. Grandfather 

 did not have to contend with the 

 swarms of pestiferous insects, that 

 make orcharding so difficult for his 

 grandson. Spraying was not neces- 

 sary in those days because apple orch- 

 ards were more widely scattered and 

 as a result insects were not so numer- 

 ous. With the increase of orchards, 

 insects became more numerous not 

 only from multiplication but by im- 

 portation from infested territory and 

 from foreign lands. For many years 

 insects were permitted to multiply un- 

 hampered and as a result they made 

 orcharding unprofitable. They are so 

 numerous and destructive now that 

 spraying, pruning, and the best cul- 

 tural methods must be practiced to 

 make the orchard pay. 



The University of Missouri College 

 of Agriculture is now engaged in a 

 campaign to show that small orchards 

 such as are usually found on every 

 farm can be sprayed with profit. If 

 you have only one or two fruit trees 

 the small cost in spraying them will be 

 repaid many times over in a more 

 abundant yield of higher quality fruit. 



