108 WESTERN HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



GATHERING THE FRUIT. 



In picking- for market, the fruit should not be gathered 

 while wet, as the moisture is injurious to its keeping- quali- 

 ties. Pick when the fruit is as dry as possible, and do not 

 let it become too ripe. Always leave the shucks and a little 

 piece of stalk on each berry. This will help them to retain 

 their shape and ship better than if they are removed. Let 

 the quality and rize of the fruit be uniform throughout the 

 box. Do not top off with a few large berries, and have all 

 the small nobbled mess in the bottom. It is a dishonest way 

 of doing business and a practice which will bring distrust and 

 failure upon the follower of such methods. Let quality be 

 your trade mark. 



VARIETIES. 



There are many different kinds, but there will be no dis- 

 appointment if any of the following kinds are selected : 

 Sharpless, Captain Jack, Wilson and Crescent. The three 

 first named varieties are perfect or bisexual. On the Crescent 

 the blossoms are devoid of stamens and so-called pistellate or 

 imperfect, and in order to produce fruit it is necessary to 

 plant every other row with a staminate or perfect variety to 

 pollenize the imperfect flowers. Some growers claim it is 

 not necessary to plant more than a row every eight or nine 

 feet for the purpose of fertilizing the pistellate varieties, but 

 everything is to be lost by too few staminates ; I think it is 

 safer to be on the right side. There are numerous other 

 kinds that are well adapted for this province, I know, but I 

 have not yet had the opportunity of testing them on their 

 merits. In conclusion, Mr. President, I wish to warn those 

 would-be purchasers who have been and who are so often be- 

 guiled by the enticing plates of enormous strawberries which 

 the salesman from some remote part of Ontario or the States 

 shows them. My advice is to take no stock in such pictures, 

 and do not listen to the promises painted in such roseate 

 hues. Buy your plants from some reliable man who is in the 

 business in Manitoba, who has acclimatized stock, and if you 

 wish for some newer kinds get them from some reputable 



