PEDIGREE STRAWBERRY PLANTS. I95 



a far better yield the second year. They are then good, vigorous 

 plants. Such varieties as the Bubach and Crescent have millions of 

 little plants that are too small the first year. It is their nature. If 

 you will examine the crown, you will find they have an individual 

 fruit blossom in center ; if you take a Bubach plant and exam- 

 ine it you will find it has half a dozen flower buds in the center. 

 You take young plants of the Brandywine, and you will find that 

 half of them have no flower blossom at all, and that is one reason 

 why some people said this morning the Brandywine was not profit- 

 able. It requires age to be established, and at two years old it is 

 wonderfully productive. 



Mr. Hoyt : I have had as good a crop of berries the second year 

 as I have had the first where the plants were clean, but where the 

 plants are allowed to become weedy it is cheaper to plow them up. 



Mr. Moyle : Referring to cornstalks as a mulch, if we should 

 pile them on the strawberries early in November with these rains 

 we have been having they would all rot. They would settle down 

 on the plants, and the plants would rot. We do not put on mulch 

 to keep the frost out of the ground, but we mulch to retain the frost, 

 and it is not necessary to put on four inches ; one and one-half 

 inches is just as satisfactory. 



Mr. Henry Husser : Last spring I bought from a man who 

 claimed to raise pedigree plants. They came, and they had hardly 

 any crown on. My wife said there was no use planting them, but! 

 I did plant them, and all the plants we had on the place, even those 

 we got from New York and were four days on the road, all grew. 

 Our idea was that if the plants are not advanced a little in the spring, 

 so that they have at least a few leaves, it is not worth while to bother 

 with them. 



Mr. Hoyt : On account of the heavy freezing the last two or 

 three winters I have noticed that plants sent out early in the 

 spring did not have the vitality of those that were sent out later 

 after they had made some growth. A larger percentage did better 

 set a little later in the spring. 



Mr. A. Brackett : That was on account of the roots being in- 

 jured. By letting them stand until they get new roots started they 

 will do better. Up in this country strawberries are alwavs hurt 

 more or less in the winter. 



Mr. C. C. Hunter : From strong plants that are growing for 

 one year, do you recommend picking the blossoms ? 



Mr. Hoyt : I do in every case. I have seen where once in a 

 while a plant would escape the boys, and they would set as many as 

 thirty, forty or fifty berries, and before they would become large 

 berries they would become practically stunted. 



Mr. A. B. Lvman : In these ten years, have you noticed anv 

 marked change in the varieties or in any variety? Is the fruit of 

 any variety different from what it was ten years ago? 



Mr. Hoyt : Well, as I told you, in the case of the Brandywine 

 I have noticed quite a difiference, I think. The fruit is if anything 



