85 



berries. Both are profitable. The Triumph de Gancl and the Colonel Cheeny are old ber- 

 ries, but they are profitable. Two new strawberries, by Mr. Arnold, called his Pride and 

 his Bright Ida, are also profitable. They are very fine fruit too. The Glendale and Bid- 

 well are comparatively new, but what is known of them is very favourable. They are very 

 fine in fruit and in flavour. The Sharpless is pretty well known. It is of large size, and is 

 considered to have some good qualities. It is not a profitable variety for the market. 

 The Kentucky is a good variety, coming later than the varieties I have mentioned. It 

 is not a very heavy bearer, but with good cultivation it will pay abundantly for the 

 trouble. It commands a good price in the market, being the last with us on the list. I 

 think I have gone over the most profitable varieties that we are acquainted with. 



Mr. a. M. Smith. — I do not grow many strawberries for market. I grow more for 

 testing varieties and raising the plants. If you want my opinion on the different varie- 

 ties, of course I am willing to give it. If you want the varieties that have paid best during 

 the last year in our locality, as far as I know the first has been the Early Canada. It 

 has been the most profitable of any that I have seen or heard reports from. The next 

 two that I have fruited have been the New Dominion and the Sharpless. The Crescent 

 Seedling has paid very well. I have a good many new varieties that I have just tested 

 for one year. I have not grown them for market. Some of them are very promising. I 

 have three or four varieties of our friend Arnold's, that as far as quantity is concerned, 

 and as far as appearance goes — and that is what generally takes in the market — I should 

 judge would be very profitable market berries for not very distant markets. The most of 

 them are a little too soft for shipping long distances. I have lost the names of some of 

 them. The most promising are what he calls Arnold's Pride and the Bright Ida. The 

 Glendale would, I should judge, be quite profitable for a late strawberry. It ripens 

 about the time of the Kentucky, and is a little improvement on that variety. If I were 

 going to select about four varieties, I would select the Early Canada, one of Mr. Arnold's, 

 the Dominion, and the Sharpless. For market they would stretch the season through. 



Mr. Gott. — Which of Mr. Arnold's would yon prefer? 



Mr. a. M. Smith. — Arnold's Pride as far as I have tested it. 



Mr. Honsberger. — I am not a very extensive grower of strawberries ; yet I have 

 grown quite a number of varieties, and as I am compelled to grow them for profit I have 

 dispensed with endeavouring to experiment, because I could not afford it. The earliest I had 

 was the Herculean. That was a good berry if parties did not care much about size. It 

 was a nice flavoured berry. Then came the Wilson's Albany, which was the standard with 

 me until the past year. Then I grew the New Dominion and the Captain Jack, the Jucunda, 

 the Triumph de Gand, which was a nice flavoured berry if not allowed to over-ripen, and 

 the Kentucky. The Colonel Cheeny for a time grew very well with me, though not of 

 late years. The New Dominion I grew very extensively, and found it to pay very well ; 

 but up to the last year I kept discarding one after another, and after picking my straw- 

 berry crop of last season I turned under the last of them but one. The last one I turned 

 under was the Wilson's Albany. Now I have none but the Early Canada. Yet I would 

 not propose for market to confine myself to that one variety. I would take the Early 

 Canada, and the New Dominion for late. . Those two 1 should confine myself to for pro- 

 fit. I have not fruited the Sharpless or Crescent Seedling, but I have seen them fruit to 

 my perfect satisfaction. 



Mr. a. M. Smith. — I was going to ask Mr. Honsberger the time of ripening of the 

 Early Canada, as compared with the Wilson. 



Mr. Honsberger. — I planted them on the same ground and gave them the same 

 treatment, and found that we picked the Early Canada at least six or seven days before 

 the Wilson's Albany. My pickers were beginning to complain, thinking they were 

 never going to get done picking it. 



Mr. Dempsey. — How many thousand quarts would it produce to the acre under good 

 culture ] 



Mr. Honsberger. — It depends a good deal on how far the rows are apart. I had 

 just about an acre of ground planted with the Early Canada. I had the strawberries 

 planted between peach and apple trees. I had something over four thousand quarts this 

 year. 



