340 MINNESOTA STATE HOKTTCULTURAL SOCIETY. 



this amount of attention. Assuming that our plants are to have the best 

 of culture and attention (and without this you had better not attempt 

 to grow berries), then we should select such varieties as will readily re- 

 spond to good treatment. If we think we shall neglect them just a little, 

 select hardy kinds that will bear unimproved conditions, battle with 

 the weeds and still produce something. A Texas steer will thrive where a 

 thoroughbred short-horn would perish, so the Crescent and Michel's Early 

 will live and produce some berries when better kinds would die. 



If we desire to produce five hundred dollars worth of strawberries per 

 acre, when corn and wheat average but ten or twelve, we must supple- 

 ment intensive culture with a selection of plants possessing a large feed- 

 ing and fruiting capacity, and furnished with a root system capable of 

 quickly converting into fruit the contiguous food supply. Don't go to 

 some old bed and get 99 per cent, of mixed pistillates and seedlings, the 

 way I did once, just because they looked well and the owner told me they 

 were Crescent and Downing, and offered to give them to me! But get 

 the best young home-grown plants you can buy of some reliable grower, 

 not a peddler; and, if you are not well posted in varieties, tell him your 

 soil, location and what you want to do. and he will make you a better 

 selection for your purpose than you can do yourself. All honest dealers 

 desire to see their customers succeed. 



In short, furnish the best plant food, and set plants that can use it. 



The progress made in the improvement of varieties in recent years far 

 exceeds that in any other branch of pomology, in fact, we lead the world 

 in size and productiveness, if not- in quality. With our improved native 

 species— and among these we may find kinds to suit the taste and soil of 

 every cultivator — three of the best among perfect-flowering varieties, 

 that have been sufficiently tested to establish their merit for fruit as well 

 as pollen production, may be described as follows: 



Beder Wood is the best early bi-sexual berry yet introduced; plant 

 strong, vigorous and healthy, with an abundance of long runners; fruit 

 large, conical, bright red and of excellent quality but, like all good ber- 

 ries, rather soft for long shipments. 



Parker Earle. The best late variety; unlike the Beder Wood produces but 

 few runners, but develops large crowns and a magnificent root system, and 

 has exceeded all others in yield for two years at the Michigan experiment 

 station; fruit, medium to large, bright red, long, conical and of good 

 quality; my favorite of over forty varieties on trial. 



Gov. Hoard. — A very desirable, large, vigorous, rust-proof plant, 

 witli desirable characteristics; fruit large, roundish-conical, deep brilliant 

 red and firm for a berry of such excellent quality; season, medium. 



Among the pistillates we have a number of good ones, but perhaps none 

 better than the Haverland, Bubach and Warfield to mate with the 

 Beder Wood, Earle and Hoard for all purposes, and whoever plants the 

 Beder Wood and Haverland for early, the Hoard and Warfield for medium 

 and the Earle and Bubach for late will make no mistake, although they 

 may be disappointed in finding them all ripen, at nearly the same time. 



When I consider the fact that some of our best horticulturists, less than 

 ten years ago, failed to recognize the importance of the different functions 

 of the perfect and imperfect blossoms, perhaps I should say at this time 

 that pistillate varieties should never be planted except in connection with 



