THE SECRET OF PROFITABLE STRAWBERRY 



GROWING. 



''^ HAVE long ago come to the con- 

 clusion that the great secret of 

 growing strawberries profitably, 

 and the one most difficult to solve, 

 is to find out the varieties which are 

 most suited to the particular soil and 

 climate in which they have to be raised. 

 Not only has this been my own per- 

 sonal experience, but I have noticed in 

 studying the numerous reports of the 

 various experiment stations, that while 

 one variety may be most productive at 

 one place, it will be utterly worthless in 

 another. The varieties not only differ 

 in vigor and prolificacy, but they seem 

 to vary sometimes in firmness and I 

 often note that one variety is reported 

 as firm at one station, and soft at 

 another. Varieties, however, that are 

 large or small, late or early, have good 

 fruit stems or poor ones, seem to have 

 these characteristics nearly everywhere 

 It is mainly in the quantity and not the 

 quality that the strawberry varies, and 

 out of 80 varieties you may often notice 

 whereas the 5 or 6 best varieties yielded 

 at the rate of 5,000 or 6,000 quarts per 

 acre, the remaining 75 will not average 

 2,000 quarts. 



These variations occur not only in 

 the newer and untried varieties, but 

 even in the old standard sorts, although 

 to a less extent. Frequently one sees a 

 certain variety at the very top of the 

 list at some one station, and always 

 doing well there, while I fail to find it 

 favorably mentioned any where else. 



In the selection of varieties it is al- 

 most useless to go by the description 

 given in the nursery catalogues, as a 

 variety may do exceedingly well on the 

 particular spot where it originated and 

 yet be utterly worthless nearly every- 



where else. Furthermore, the descrip- 

 tions given are seldom impartial. The 

 only safe plan is to select those varie- 

 ties which will give the best results in 

 the greatest number of neighborhoods, 

 as the chances are in favor of some of 

 them giving the best results on your 

 own farm. Get 100 of each variety and 

 note the results, and then grow only 

 those which have turned out well. 



The above is, as I say, the safest plan, 

 but it is not the best way of getting the 

 very best varieties, because your selec- 

 tion will only be made from old stan- 

 dard sorts, whereas my own experience 

 is that the very best results are from the 

 newer varieties, that have only been 

 propagated some 5 or 6 years. This is 

 partly due to the fact that varieties are 

 apt to degenerate or run out after many 

 years of careless propagation, and partly 

 due to the fact that some other newer 

 varieties are undoubtedly an improve- 

 ment upon the older ones, especially in 

 size and number of quarts to the acre. 

 Some three years ago I made a selection 

 from about 60 of the most popular varie- 

 ties and only Enhance, Greenville, 

 Beder Wood, Warfield, Captain Jack 

 and Gandy gave good results, and the 

 latter was by no means prolific, although 

 the quality was the very best. These 

 were, however, altogether beaten by the 

 Bismarck and two or three new varieties, 

 not now in general cultivation. 



This has led me to make a. still 

 further trial of some of the newer varie- 

 ties, which have given the best results 

 in some particular sections, and it may 

 interest your readers to go over my 

 selection, bearing in mind that the 

 qualities which I aim at are vigor and 

 productiveness, combined w^ith a large 



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