THE STRAWBERRY 285 



The varieties already in the market were many 

 of them of enormous size, but for the most part 

 they lack flavor. 



Anyone who has known the small wild straw- 

 berry at its best must always experience a cer- 

 tain disappointment in eating the cultivated 

 varieties. 



Moreover, most of our market strawberries 

 are hard, being judged by the growers and the 

 dealers by their shipping quality rather than by 

 their flavor. 



It seemed desirable, particularly for home 

 use, to develop the strawberry for its appeal 

 to the palate as well as to the eye; in other 

 words, to restore to the fruit something of its 

 pristine flavor, while retaining the good quali- 

 ties introduced in recent times by selective 

 breeding. 



Such an endeavor to improve the flavor of 

 the fruit, combined with the idea of all-the-year 

 bearing and ultimately of seedlessness, may be 

 said to suggest the lines of improvement along 

 which the plant developer of the immediate 

 future should work in perfecting the strawberry. 

 But the production of the seedless strawberry, 

 as already pointed out, must be the final stage 

 of the process of development. When the seeds 

 are gone, there will obviously be no further 



