DIVISION OF HORTICULTURE 629 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



Cottage. — This grape may be recommended only on accoimt of its extreriie 

 earliness and relatively good quality. On accouwt of its dropping habit, it is useless 

 as a commercial grape. For home planting, however, it is especially recommended. 

 It is a large, light blue grape, of very mild, sweet and pleasing flavour. 



STRAWBERRIES. 



Much attention lias been paid in the past to variety testing of strawberries at 

 this Farm and the result of a two years' test is given in the following pages. The 

 results here recorded are for 1912 and 1914. The fruit table (No. 1), gives the best 

 fifty varieties of strawberries, based on average yield for the two years. Table No. 2, 

 gives a list of tlie best newer varieties, which fruited for the first time in 1914. For 

 comparison, the yields of a few well-known varieties have been appended to this table. 



In detcrinining which is the best variety of strawberries, we cannot go entirely 

 by yield, there are other factors to be considered, such as season, quality, firmness, 

 appearance and ability to retain size for a considerable time. 



Season. — Refers to the time when the variety yields its crop, such as whether it is 

 an early, main crop, or late variety. As the markets at the commencement of the 

 strawberry season invariably offer higher prices for finits than they do a few days 

 later, a grower is always anxious to have a good crop of early fruit in order to 

 command the top prices. In selecting an early variety, therefore, it might be advisable 

 to sacrifice quality and total yield for the sake of earliness. On the other hand, in 

 selecting a main crop variety, a better balance of all these factors is necessary for the 

 main crop berry is in keener competition than the early berry and to yield profitable 

 returns must be a good all round berry. That is to say, it should be a good yielder, a 

 good shipper, must have good appearance and should be at least medium in quality. 



Besides early and main crop varieties, there are many ben-ies which yield a 

 considerable portion of their crop at the very latter end of the season. As at the 

 beginning of the season, the market then is quite often much higher than during the 

 height of the season, so that late berries often pay as well as early ones. 



As the records at the Central Farm show the date of each picking of each variety, 

 together with the amount picked, it has been possible to average the varieties according 

 to their merits as early or late berries. Table No. 3 gives the standing of the best 

 early varieties, arranged in order of total yield during the first week of the straw- 

 berry season. This method or system of arrangement has been adopted in preference 

 to the arrangement by the date of the first ripe fruit on account of the fact that many 

 varieties, which ripen a few days earlier than some others, will not continue to yield 

 early fruit in any quantity, and, therefore, are misleading. As the searson is dated 

 from the first picking made from the plantation, all varieties are thus fairly compared 

 as to relative earliness. Table No. 4, on the other hand, gives the standing of the 

 best late varieties, arranged in order of total yield during the last week of the straw- 

 berry season, the end of the season dating from the last picking made from the 

 plantation as a whole. Over three hundred and fifty varieties were in this test. 

 These tables, therefore, convey a fairly accurate idea of the points of merit of the 

 different varieties in so far as earliness, lateness and total yield are concerned, while 

 Table No. 5, giv^ a test of those varieties which maintain their size for the longest 



period. 



This leaves the points of quality, attractiveness, and firmness to be discussed.. 



As space will not permit of a discussion of these points for aU varieties, lists have 

 been appended of the varieties recommended for different purposes and in connection 

 with these lists, notes are attached concerning these three points. If a variety, which 

 is a high yielder, does not appear in these lists, it has been left out on account of its 

 very poor quality or some other very important point in which it lacks. 



Ottawa. 



