THE STRAWBERRY JANUARY 1906 



the protests the name "sticks", and we 

 believe the plant will hold its place in 

 horticulture as Hon. H M. Dunlap is 

 destined to do amongst broad-minded 

 men and patriotic citizens. 



So many untried and worthless plants 

 had been put out under a great flourish 

 of trumpets that producers had become 

 suspicious of any new thing. Martin 

 Miller, of Blue Mound, Illinois, had 

 tried it three years by the side of the best 

 standard varieties. He gave it high com- 

 mendation, pronouncing it ahead of all 

 others. Proposals were made to several 

 commercial growers for the introduction 

 of the new candidate for public favor, but 

 most of them offered very discouraging 

 inducements. I had fruited it six years 

 and knew what it would do on my soil, 

 but was not certain of its behavior else- 

 where. Most of those who received it 

 on trial either neglected it or failed to re- 

 port. Finally, however, one strawberry 

 plant grower decided to stand as god- 

 father to the infant, and it was put into his 

 hands for introduction. It has required 

 seven years for it to work its way to the 

 public favor which has been awarded it. 

 It has some short-comings and some 

 over-steppings, but as Goldsmith said of 

 the faults of the village parson, most of 

 them "lean to virtue's side". 



My experiments in plant-breeding are 

 not so elaborate as those of some others, 

 but we are always glad to welcome vis- 

 itors who come to inspect our seedlings. 

 I allow no plant to go out for introduc- 

 tion until it has been thoroughly tested 

 for at least four years. My aim is to 

 know, as far as possible, what the plant 

 will do under all kinds of conditions. It 

 is worse than folly knowingly to throw 

 upon the market a variety which has not 

 some point of excellence above anything 

 already there. 



Urbana, III., Nov. 17, 1905. 



Electrical Experiments With Plants 



ONE of the great delights of the 

 horticulturist is found in the 

 infinite variety of interesting 

 fields of exploration and experimentation 

 which never disappoint one if the work 

 be carried on with patienceand intelligence. 

 Nostudentof theskies, who looks through 

 the towering telescope upon the magnifi- 

 cent procession of the stars, finds greater 

 satisfaction in his calling than does the 

 devoted student of plant life, with its 

 myriad variations, its complex combina- 

 tions and undreamed possibilities. 



Recently an English scientific gardener 

 has been conducting some interesting ex- 

 periments with electricity, and among 

 the lines of work undertaken was the ap- 

 plication of electrical treatment to some- 

 thing more than a thousand square yards 

 of strawberries. Of this particular branch 

 of his experiments this gardener, C. J. 

 Newman, of Bristol, reports that the in- 



crease in yield was remarkable, and says that 

 he cannot account for the increase in any 

 other way than because of the free use of 

 electricity. He says: A far greater 

 number of runners have been produced 

 from the electrified than from the unelec- 

 trified plots. The current was first put on 

 March 24. All plants flowered together, 

 and there was no marked acceleration of 

 the ripening of the berries. Whether the 

 increased weight was due to a larger num- 

 ber or a greater size of the berries per 

 plant I cannot say. I am inclined to 

 think both causes operated, the latter rather 

 more than the former." 



The net results of his experiment show 

 an increased yield over the ordinary of 36 

 per cent of old strawberry plants, and of 

 80 per cent of first-year plants. Mr. 

 Newman says that the electrical part of 

 the installation throughout gave little 

 trouble, being comparatively easy to man- 

 age, though some care in keeping the 

 wires clear of cobwebs, odd tendrils, 

 shoots, etc., was necessary. 



Who may foresee the possibilities 

 which this experiment suggests.'' And 

 there are others containing as great prom- 

 ise of results. We would wish that 



every reader of The Strawberry might be- 

 come an experimenter on his own account, 

 not with electricity, perhaps, but along 

 simple lines of selection and cultivation. 

 The pleasure he would find in it, and the 

 possible profits as well, are indeed allur- 

 ing to the nature lover. 



QUALITY counts in strawberry pro- 

 duction quite as much as in other 

 lines, sometimes vastly more. We 

 came across an instance illustrating this in 

 an exchange recently. The narrator re- 

 sides at Reading, Mass., a well-known 

 center of strawberry production, where 

 the growers take pride in putting only the 

 best on the market. He writes: "When 

 ordinary berries have been selling in Bos- 

 ton as low as ten cents a box, some of 

 the Reading berries have been sold as 

 high as twenty-five and thirty-five cents a 

 box, consequently it has paid the farmers 

 here to devote as much time as they 

 can in developing the strawberry to a de- 

 gree of perfection which has met the 

 highest competitor, going into the largest 

 markets and practically selling at their 

 own price." That's worth thinking over. 



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