VARIOUS SPECIES OF FRUITS 



195 



are thus adapted, so the 

 uninitiated should in- 

 dicate the type of fruit 

 he wishes to grow and 

 leave the selection of va- 

 rieties to them. These 

 men are not merely in- 

 terested in selling a few 

 plants ; more than perhaps 

 any other group of nur- 

 serymen, they seek the 

 good will of their customer 

 so as to secure repeat 

 orders and / orders from 

 the customer's friends. 

 Often when the nursery- 

 man sees that the custom- 

 er is making a mistake 

 in selecting he will suggest 

 changes that should be 

 more satisfactory. 



Another advantage 

 in relying upon the judg- 

 ment of the nurseryman 

 is that because the varie- 

 ties of Strawberries change 

 more rapidly than do 

 those of any other fruit, 

 one can be surer of 

 getting up-to-date varie- 

 ties. The significance of this 



Fig. 132. The six-box carrier basket is convenient 

 for gathering Strawberries 



will be apparent from two 



instances: First, during 1894 and 1895 the Michigan Experiment 

 Station at East Lansing tested about 400 varieties of Strawberries, all 

 then offered by nurserymen all over the United States. Since then 

 so many new varieties have been introduced, and so many of the old 

 list found wanting, that of the 400 scarcely a score are now offered by 

 nurserymen and perhaps less than a dozen are at all popular. Second, 

 Dr. S. W. Fletcher in technical bulletin No. 1, of the Virginia Exper- 

 iment Station, discusses North American varieties of the Strawberry 

 and "includes 1879 names." Among these he picks out 34 "most 

 prominent," but of these scarcely more than a dozen were known 

 prior to 1900. Such facts as these suggest the inadvisability of dis- 

 cussing Strawberry varieties. 



