366 SLVCESS WITH SMALL FRUITS. 



I am gathering these and the Alpines into trial-beds, and 

 thus hope to learn more accurately their differences, charac- 

 teristics and comparative values. 



Chili strawberries are now rarely met with in cultivation. 

 Mr. Merrick writes of them : " Although some of them are 

 extolled for amateur culture, they are of little value. They 

 are large, coarse, very apt to be hollow, with soft, poor- 

 flavored flesh. They have been so thoroughly intermingled 

 with other species that it is difficult to say of certain named 

 kinds that they are or are not partly ChiHs." True Chili, 

 Wilmot's Superb, and the Yellow Chili are named as the best 

 of the class. 



There are very many other named strawberries that I 

 might describe, and a few of them may become popular. 

 Some that I have named are scarcely worth the space, and 

 will soon be forgotten. In my next revision, I expect to 

 drop not a few of them. It should be our constant aim to 

 shorten our catalogues of fruits rather than lengthen them, 

 to the bewilderment and loss of all save the plant grower. 

 The Duchess, for instance, is a first-class early berry. All 

 others having the same general characteristics and adapted 

 to the same soils, but which are inferior to it, should be dis- 

 carded. What is the use of raising second, third, and fourth 

 rate berries of the same class? Where distinctions are so 

 slight as to puzzle an expert, they should be ignored, and 

 the best variety of the class preser\^ed. 



I refer those readers who would like to see a list of almost 

 every strawberry named in modern times, native and for- 

 eign, to Mr. J. M. Merrick's work, " The Strawberry and its 

 Culture." 



