382 THE MAGAZINE OF HORTICULTURE. 



perfectly impregnated, continually demonstrating the necessity in this par- 

 ticular kind (and according with all other evidence also) of a very close and 

 numerous fertilization. There can be no doubt in the minds of your Com- 

 mittee that this variety is among the kinds of the very largest size at present 

 known, is greatly productive, and the berries carrying out well their size 

 from the first and largest berry on each truss — that the flavor is rich and 

 most agreeable — that it can be carried with care ordinary distances — that 

 it is very hardy and sufficiently vigorous in growth — that the color is rich, 

 if it is not brilliant, and that, although its shape is irregular, its bulging 

 and swelling form conveys the idea of luscious richness. Your Committee 

 did not enjoy the opportunity of seeing Longworth's Prolific anywhere 

 except on Mr. Ernst's grounds. Even there, generally unadapted as this 

 gentleman's soil is for the strawberry, this grand hermaphrodite flourished 

 in great luxuriance, prolificness, vigor and beauty — in the words of Mr. 

 Longworth, " bearing a full crop of good fruit standing alone." This at- 

 tractive berry is constantly rising higher and higher in the opinion of the 

 most competent judges, and your Committee cannot fail to observe its many 

 valuable qualities, the chief of which are its uniting the great characteristics 

 of an impregnator with good flavor, great size, productiveness, vigor and 

 hardiness. 



With regard to Hovey's Seedling, your Committee — until other berries 

 have been properly and completely tested in the same soils and under the 

 same favorable circumstances, or under those circumstances, at least, best 

 suited to their particular requirements — cannot but arrive at the conclusion 

 that, under all the respects in which they have been able to examine it, it 

 is at this time one of the very best fruits of the kind for general, or, at any 

 rate, market cultivation; for, its large size and uniform shape, its very good 

 and sweet flavor when fully matured, its fair yield of large berries, even 

 after the largest one of the bunch, its brilliant color when nearly ripe and 

 its rich deeper shade when fully ripe, its firmness for carriage and main- 

 tainment of firm texture and fine appearance for many hours after being 

 gathered, its hardiness and vigor, its general adaptation to nearly all soils, 

 and its easy impregnation, combine to render it, in your Committee's esti- 

 mation, one of the most prominent, valuable and reliable berries in the 

 country, in general cultivation, with which we are acquainted. 



S. S. Jackson, 

 E. J. Hooper, 

 RoBT. Reillt, 



M. M'WiLLIAMS. 



To the President and Members of the Cincinnati Horticultural Society : — 



Gentlemen, — It is indeed a matter of surprise that the great " strawberry 

 question" cannot be settled. But surprising as it may seem, it is still more 

 surprising that gentlemen engaged in collecting and disseminating informa- 

 tion upon this much-vexed and agitating question do not confine themselves 

 strictly to the facts as they present themselves for investigation. 



When this Society, at its meeting on the — th of June, appointed the 



