92 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



stock for the new plantations? From where and what plants shall 

 we select? Shall we turn to the much advertised " Pedigreed " 

 or "Improved Strains" or can we by selection build up a class of 

 plants superior to the ordinary run? Time forbids a detailed dis- 

 cussion of these questions. Briefly stated, strong, vigorous, stocky, 

 apparently healthy plants, with a good root system will start into 

 new growth more quickly than weaklings, and stock should be 

 taken from vigorous, beds which have not become exhausted by a 

 yield of fruit, selecting the larger, more mature, and older runner 

 plants in preference to those developing late in the season, found 

 along the outer border of the strawberry row. Experience has 

 alread^^ taught growers to look with suspicion at the well-written, 

 glowing accounts of the great value of "Pedigreed" stock or "Im- 

 proved Strains" which are usually quoted at a high price. Many 

 times such plants are no better than those close at hand of the type 

 just described as a desirable stock. Would that we were certain 

 by careful, continued selection to build up improved strains. 

 Apparently a correct and plausible theory, and one which naturally 

 commends itself to all who are desirous of raising the standard of 

 excellence, yet no indisputable proof has been brought forward that 

 such is the general result, while strange to say some of the most 

 painstaking and careful experiments carried on continuously for a 

 dozen years or more have left the experimenter in the dark as to 

 the correctness of this whole theory and this statement holds true 

 with tree fruits as well as with the strawberry. All efforts, however, 

 to improve the plants should be encouraged, for the best are none 

 too good. 



Sex of Varieties. Some attention must be given to sex. The 

 grower should know whether his varieties are perfect or imperfect, 

 flowering or staminate or pistillate as they are sometimes called. 

 The present tendency is toward the perfect-flowering kinds although 

 some excellent varieties like the Sample and the Columbia are 

 among the imperfect-flowering kinds, and where such kinds are 

 grown provision must be made through the selection of other 

 varieties to provide for the cross pollination of the blossoms. The 

 fertilization of all strawberry blossoms is made possible mostly 

 through the work of insects as they journey from flower to flower. 

 As a rule more efficient pollination may be expected if more than 



