174 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



FIFTY YEARS IN STRAWBERRIES. 



GEO. J. KELLOGG, LAKE MILLS. WIS. 



This takes me back to the palmy days of the "Wilson's Albany 

 Seedling," which originated in 1857. A better berry than the Wil- 

 son has never been found. I hear some one say it was "too tart ;" 

 that was one of its best points ; all you needed was a little more 

 sugar. As usually picked, while it was red, it was tart; it should 

 have been left on the vines another day. But for the burning of 

 the leaf, causing rust, it might have continued to this day. Very 

 few have the genuine Wilson now, my last two efforts to procure 

 pedigree stock being failures. Spraying would probably have saved 

 the Wilson. 



When the Wilson was in its prime, Mr. J. Morse had a strife 

 with Mr. Jenks, in Janesville, to see which could grow the most 

 fruit on a square rod. One picked five bushels, the other four and 

 one-half. J. M. Smith, of Green Bay, grew 222 bushels from one- 

 half acre. Wm. von Baumbach, of Wauwatosa, picked 1,700 

 bushels of Wilson and Crescent from five acres, less ten square rods, 

 measured by J. S. Stickney. 



The Crescent originated in 1868. As a pistillate it has never had 

 its superior. Pollenization was not fully understood even at that 

 late date ; in fact, the Crescent was not without some pollen, or my 

 first planting of seven rows solid, nineteen rods long, would not 

 have produced one hundred quarts per row each picking for sev- 

 eral consecutive pickings. 



My first experience with strawberries, was picking the wild Wis- 

 consin strawberries in 1836, nearly one year after my father made 

 it his home among the Indians, near where Kenosha now is. In 

 1835 the Hovey, Early Scarlet and Boston Pine originated in Boston 

 and soon found their way west. They were productive and good, 

 though soft. Soon the Agriculturist, Jucunda, Triumph de Gand 

 and many others had their run. About the time of the Crescent, 

 came the Capt. Jack, which, if we had known how to spray, we 

 might have retained to the present time. If I should mention all 

 of the good kinds I have tried in this fifty years, it would weary 

 you. 



The Jessie started in my own town, and when the convention 

 met in Janesville to view the acres of Jessie on Mr. Loudon's 

 grounds it created a furor. We found one berry that measured 

 nine inches, seven filling a quart. On Mr. Loudon's grounds the 

 drouth was so severe that great cracks in the clay were all through 

 the beds that picking time. The failure of the Jessie to adapt it- 



