214 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
never being transplanted, will make better and longer lived trees 
than transplanted ones, and it will only delay bearing one or two 
years at most. 
Now, take heed to what I have commanded, and ever remember 
that the most important commandment is to plant trees every 
year, that thou and coming generations may have plenty of apples, 
and they will call thee blessed. 
NEW VARIETIES OF SMALL FRUITS. 
R. J. COE, FORT ATKINSON, WIS. 
(Read at Sum mer Meeting, 1895, Wisconsin State Horticultural Society.) 
This subject of varieties is, to my mind, one of the most important 
questions the fruit grower has to deal with, and this is especially 
the case with the commercial grower. 
It has been my firm belief for some years that we are growing too 
many varieties of nearly all the small fruits to meet with the best 
success. This is especially true of the strawberry. Now, do not 
think that Iam not in favor of new varieties, for I most certainly 
am. I believe that every fruit grower should test every new variety 
of promise that is introduced, for by this means only can he deter- 
mine what varieties are best for him to grow. Prove all things and 
hold fast to that which is good, is good business sense for the fruit 
grower, but to discard those varieties that have no particular merit, 
or are no better than the ones you already have, is even more im- 
portant and requires a good deal more courage, for it seems hard, 
and is hard, to pay a big price for a thing and after giving it good 
care and attention find it no better, and, perhaps, not as good as some 
we already have, and have to throw it away. But this is the only 
way we can hope to meet with the best success. Everybody is 
struggling to be in the front rank, and we must keep up with the 
procession or be hopelessly lost in the crowd. Now, I thinkitis 
perfectly safe to say that not more than one variety out of every 
twenty that are introduced ever becomes popular or is generally 
profitable. 
Twenty years ago I started growing strawberries for market, and 
planted that year two varieties, the Wilson and Green Prolific. The 
next year I added Downer’s Prolific and Triumph de Gand, and the 
third year I added about sixteen more varieties, more than one-half 
of which I do not even remember the names of now. I have been 
growing berries ever since, and of all that list of twenty varieties 
we are only growing one today, the old time Wilson. If you will 
take almost any small fruit catalogue of fifteen or even ten years 
ago, you will find few of the varieties are well known and perhaps 
popular today, and by far the greater part of them are only a mem- 
ory. 
In the discussion of varieties there are three distinct classes of 
growers to be considered, all having practically the same object in 
view, namely, the best possible results for the efforts put forth. The 
