22 STRAWBERRY HAND-BOOK. 



No particular variety can be recommended which will 

 be the best under all conditions ; improvements are being 

 made all the time. It will be best to get the advice of some 

 reliable nurseryman as to the kind to plant for any given 

 locality. 



DISEASES OF THE STRAWBERRY. 



All of the ills of the strawberry may be directly traced 

 to neglect in one form or another. The most common evil 

 is due simply to starvation. The strawberry plant produces 

 an enormous quantity of fruit on a very small framework, 

 and starvation is very quickly followed by plain signs of 

 impaired vigor or vitality. So general is incomplete 

 fertilizing, that it is common talk that strawberry beds are 

 only profitable the first year. The following comprise the 

 most injurious diseases: 



Leaf Blight. This is recognized by the withering of 

 the leaves, usually accompanied by the formation on the 

 leaves of spots, brownish at first but soon becoming dry and 

 whitish with a circle of red, and finally the entire leaf 

 assumes a red-spotted or red discolored appearance. The 

 injury is caused in summer after the fruit is off, by 

 preventing leaf development and thus lessening the power 

 of the plant to make a proper growth of fruit crowns for the 

 next year. It generally affects plants which have made a 

 heavy growth of foliage from a too free supply of available 



