534 
similar training. It is no doubt this 
ability together with an accurate con- 
ception of the requirements of a good 
commercial variety that has led to his 
success. 
The parentage of Mr. Cloud’s straw- 
berries was given by him as follows: 
Cloud. . 4.2 Crescent x Wilson. 
Big Bob. ...Cumberland Triumph x Neuman 
Lulu. ......Crescent x Neuman. 
Pickerproof . Lulu x Hoffman. 
Klondike. ... Pickerproof x Hoffman. 
Payday..... Unnamed seedling x Klendike. 
Perfecto. ... Unnamed seedling x Klondike. 
THE WORK OF LOUIS HUBACH 
Another very successful strawberry 
breeder in the southern States also be- 
gan his work when only a boy. Louis 
Hubach, to whom I refer, made his first 
cross-pollinations when he was 14 years 
old. That was in 1886, and he is still 
making them. 
He was born in Prussia on June 15, 
1872, and came to this country when he 
was 9 years old. His father, a nursery- 
man, both in Germany and after com- 
ing to this country, trained him in the 
nursery work, and since his father’s 
death he has run a small nursery of 
his own at Judsonia, Ark. 
In addition to managing the nursery, 
Mr. Hubach has been a grower and 
breeder of strawberries. When only 20 
years old, he originated the Excelsior, 
the best known of all his varieties. This 
was introduced in 1897, and is still the 
standard berry of its season in the 
South as well as in some parts of the 
North and West. 
Mr. Hubach’s first cross was the 
Crescent x Chas. Downing. From this 
he secured the Bush Cluster, a pistillate 
variety used in his later breeding 
work. In 1892, he secured both the 
?xcelsior and the Hathaway (also called 
Zarly Hathaway and Texas), as the 
result of a cross between the Hoffman 
and the Wilson. In 1893, he originated 
the Fremont Williams (Bush cluster x 
Gandy), a very late variety which is 
proving to be desirable in the extreme 
northern part of the eastern United 
States. 
The Hathaway and Hubach were 
introduced in 1902. In 1903, other 
The Journal of Heredity 
varieties originated by Mr. Hubach were 
introduced under the names, Arkansas 
Black, Annie Hubach, Early Market, 
Peerless, Alice Hathaway, Mellie Hu- 
bach, Sunny South, Oscar’s Early, Ford, 
Minnie, Evergreen, Maggie Watts, Car- 
rie Dumas, Myriad, Brundidge, and 
Johnson’s Early. Of these Mellie and 
Early Market are still grown commer- 
cially to a slight extent. 
Later Mr. Hubach originated the 
Eureka which he sold to the Judsonia 
Fruit and Vegetable Growers’ Associa- 
tion. Although still grown it did not 
prove to be as good as standard varie- 
eties. Other varieties introduced by 
him are the H & H, Benancie, Newman, 
Wide Awake, Mountain View, Alvin, 
Early Harvest, Jim Dumas, and Cham- 
pion K. The Champion K is his most 
recent introduction and is a _ cross 
between a pistillate variety and the 
Klondike. 
Mr. Hubach uses only pistillate 
varieties as mother plants in breeding. 
His experience has been that when he 
has crossed perfect-flowered with per- 
fect-flowered varieties the progeny 
lost in productiveness. In an experi- 
ment in which he tested this, he found 
that the decrease in yield continued for 
several generations. On the other hand, 
when an imperfect-flowered variety was 
used as the mother plant, an increase 
in productiveness often occurred. 
Because of this experience, Mr. 
Hubach developed several varieties hav- 
ing imperfect flowers which are used in 
breeding only. One such variety with 
very firm fruit seems to be able to 
transmit this firmness to all its progeny. 
Others of these varieties are used when 
other characters are desired in the seed- 
lings. 
Mr. Hubach’s breeding methods are 
interesting. He grows, in a separate 
plot, four plants of each pistillate 
variety which he wishes to use. At the 
beginning of the flowering period, he 
encloses the four plants in a wooden 
frame covered with a white cloth of fine 
weave—preferably silk cloth. When 
a cross is to be made, a flower from a 
plant having perfect bloom is picked 
early in the morning and is placed in an 
inverted position on one of the flowers 
