180 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 



"THE BEST STRAWBERRY IN THE WORI,D." 

 From Gleanings in Bee Culture, July i, 1896. 



In our issue for June 15 we were inclined to give the Jessie 

 the palm for being the best strawberry if we could have only 

 one of all that are before the world now. Later on we were in- 

 clined to change our decision and give our preference to the 

 Parker Earle. Well, just after our last issue had gone to press, 

 I think it was June 12, I happened to remark to the wife of a 

 neighbor that our nice strawberries were all gone. I was just 

 on my way over to the house to take my before dinner nap. 

 After waking up and rubbing my eyes, the first thing that met 

 my gaze was a heaping quart box of strawberries the largest 

 berries that is, a whole quart of them that I perhaps ever 

 saw before in my life. Mrs. Root informed me that they were 

 sent over by Mr. Horn. She said the boy called them " Great 

 something," she could not exactly remember what it was. 



"Great American?" said I, as I picked up one of the 

 great awkward chunks of delicious fruit and sampled it. 

 11 Oh, yes ! that is it Great American." 



It was not long before I was over to my neighbor's, on my 

 wheel. Now, his strawberry -patch is not over a hundred rods 

 from my own down on the creek bottom ; and yet he has beat- 

 en me all to pieces at least on late strawberries. Why, if 

 somebody had exhibited that box of berries, and had offered 

 me a hundred plants of the same for a five dollar bill, I should 

 have handed over the bill " quicker'n a wink." Best of all, 

 these berries were grown on soil precisely like my own ; and 

 this yield of enormous berries was after even the Parker Earle 

 was almost done fruiting. The bed had been neglected, and 

 the foliage was so thick you could not see a berry until the 

 leaves were parted. The great leaf-stems were toward a foot 

 high or more, and the fruit was tangled in the foliage. There 

 was such a tremendous growth of plants covering the whole 

 surface of the ground that the heaviest storm could rot soil the 

 berries a particle. Very likely this great mass of foliage was 

 one reason for the season being Leld back, as the sun could not 

 get at them. 



Now, I have heard of the Great American before. In fact, 

 some years ago I gave it a partial test ; but my plants may not 

 have been true to name. Neighbor Horn sells his berries at the 

 groceries. He said the first pickings brought 6 ]^ cts. ; then 8 



