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highest quality from a well kept home garden will ever be 

 satisfied with berries as they come in the ordinary market. 



As the great bulk of the strawberry industry is carried 

 on by the commercial grower, so has the market for plant 

 growing been dominated by the commercial grower, for he 

 demands first of all that the berry be sufficiently firm so 

 as to arrive on the market looking well, as practically all the 

 berries of high quality are soft berries and poor shippers ; 

 so has quality come to be neglected. Thus the public never 

 experience the pleasure of eating a real strawberry. 



It was with the idea in mind of combining the good 

 points of the varieties popular with the commercial grower 

 and the home grower that I took up the subject. 



My experience with seedlings dates back about ten 

 years. Starting with about thirty of the best known va- 

 rieties, they were all thoroughly mixed and compactly plant- 

 ed so as to more thoroughly allow of cross fertilization. The 

 latest blossoms of the earliest varieties and the earliest blos- 

 soms of the latest could well fertilize one another. 



The finest specimens of fruit from all varieties were 

 selected and crushed and then allowed to stand until fer- 

 mentation had taken place, so as to soften the pulp and make 

 separation from the seeds easy. They may stand so crushed 

 in a covered dish for days or weeks or months. The fer- 

 mented mass is then poured into a wire sieve and pressed 

 through the mesh while running water is running through 

 the sieve. The pulp so separated being lighter than the 

 seeds, floats, allowing the seeds to sink to the bottom of the 

 dish, when the water above can be poured off carrying the 

 pulp with it. After several rinsings the seeds come perfectly 

 clean, and may be then poured out on blotting paper to dry. 



Planting may be done as soon as the seeds are dry 

 enough to scatter, or may be held until fall or the following 

 spring. The seed bed should then be prepared by leveling 

 and making as smooth as possible but not enriched, and 

 should be light and sandy. The seed should be very thinly 

 scattered on the surface and then light! v raked over and 



