INDIANA HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 227 



The sandy, the heavy clay, the marsh and the mixture, or the alluvial 

 soil, composed of sand and clay mixture. This is the only proper soil 

 for successful strawberry culture, soil that is easy worked, pliable, and 

 that is capable of taking and holding fertilizers, and that can be worked 

 in almost all kinds of weather, soil that is good for all kinds of cultivated 

 farm crops. With such soil as a foundation, a man should make a suc- 

 cess of strawberry culture. 



There are two kinds of strawberry gi'owers in our section of country: 

 The strawberry farmer and the strawberry gi-ower. Any one who visits 

 South Water street, Chicago, will see that the strawberry farmer is in 

 evidence to the great detriment of the business. Our neighbor on the 

 north furnishes most of these strawberry farmers, where the poor soil 

 and the poor grower makes the poor market, the poor prices, and demoral- 

 izes the business in general. I have kept close tab of the Chicago market 

 for several years, and I have noticed that as soon as the Michigan berries 

 come on to the market the price goes down, down, down, until the bottom 

 drops out, and any up-to-date grower can see the reason. Too much poor 

 fruit. I can safely say that one-half of the berries that go on to the 

 C-hicago market would be better in the bottom of Lake Michigan. I saw 

 beiTies picked in old stained boxes and old weather beaten crates, and 

 the berries compared favorably with the clothes they were in. Michigan, 

 the home of the "pedigree," ruining all the strawberry growers tributary 

 to Chicago by the inferior class of fruit put upon the market, either as 

 the result of poor culture, poor soil, or poor pedigTce. What does varie- 

 ties count against such opposition as this? First teach the man how to 

 grow berries, and he will have no trouble in finding the varieties that 

 are best suited for him to grow. After you have the man and the proper 

 soil to gi'ow them on, and the right methods of culture, you can begin to 

 think about varieties. The business gTower will soon find the varieties 

 best suited to his locality, his methods of culture and the wants of his 

 customers, the same as the business man knows what kind of goods his 

 customers want and that he can make the best profit on. 



The strawberry grower that relies upon his neighbor's advice or what 

 the catalogues say in reference to the varieties to plant, will never make 

 a success of his business. Experience is the only teacher here. Every 

 grower must find out for himself what does best on his soil, and then 

 make the best use of it by good culture, proper restrictions and good care. 



There are several qualities that every variety must have to make it 

 profitable. The first of these is productiveness. No variety Is worthy of 

 consideration that will not produce a sufficient quantity of berries, and 

 the more the better, provided they are marketable. The second qualifi- 

 cation is beauty, a good lookei-. For family use quality vfould come 

 before looks, but for market looks comes first. For market I will take 

 the Ben Davis type of a strawberry. Productiveness, good looks, a good 

 keeper or shipper, one that takes the eye and catches the pocketbook. A 



