408 Pomological Gossip. 



he found perpetual in Columbus, Ga., is not so here, by our 

 ordinary mode of treatment. It will be well, however, for 

 amateurs to give it a trial. 



Mr. Pardee has plants of it growing in his garden, at Pal- 

 myra, N. Y., and another spring, or perhaps the present 

 summer, he will be able to prove its perpetual character and 

 other qualities. 



Messrs. Bissell & Hooker, of Rochester, have raised three 

 seedlings, one staminate and two pistillate, which are reported 

 " of good promise, great productiveness, and well worthy of 

 further trial." No names are given. 



All these varieties should have a fair trial before any correct 

 opinion of their merits can be formed ; and we hope some 

 of our amateur cultivators wiU give them a chance. In 

 England, the British Q,ueen and Keen's Seedling still take 

 the lead, carrying off the principal prizes ; none of the 

 recently introduced kinds, of which so much has been said 

 in the advertisements, can compare with them for size, beauty, 

 productiveness, rich flavor, <fcc. It is not possible now for a 

 small, or even a medium sized strawberry to take a premium j 

 and in this respect the judgment of the English cultivators 

 is still worthy of example. A fruit must be estimated by its 

 combined merits, and one of the greatest is size ; unless a 

 variety has this, no matter what the other qualities may be, 

 (unless something decidedly bad,) it will not obtain a prize. 

 Indeed, after thirty years of labor in bringing the strawberry 

 up to its present immense size, to go back would be a retro- 

 grade movement which no intelligent cultivator would think of. 



In awarding a strawberry a prize, it should be of such 

 merit that the judges will not have to frame an excuse for 

 the justice of their award. It should be without any quali- 

 fication THE FINEST FRUIT ; taking size, color, flavor and 

 beauty together : anything less than this will not do. If our 

 fruit committees were to give the prizes for pears on any 

 other conditions, why the Seckel would always take them ; 

 yet where is the amateur who would have more than one 

 tree of that variety in his collection, while of the Louise 

 Bonne of Jersey, Bartlett, Dix, Flemish Beauty, Marie Louise, 



