THE STRAWBERRY DECEMBER 1906 



adhere as will do so, and set in the holes. 

 The mother plants and those which are 

 left will produce some berries, while those 

 reset will fill in the vacancies so that a 

 full crop will be secured the following 

 year. The reset plants should be given 

 frequent hoeings until the berries have all 

 been picked from the other plants. In a 

 case of this kind we would not recom- 

 mend burning over after fruiting season. 

 Merely mow off the tops of the vines 

 that fruited, leaving all the foliage on the 

 reset plants, then cultivate the entire bed 

 the rest of the season. 



2. Ground that recently has been in 

 sweet corn will be a desirable place for 

 strawberry plants next season. Give it a 

 light dressing of manure this winter, then 

 plow next spring and mix thoroughly be- 

 fore setting plants. 



3. Brandywine, Dornan, Pride of 

 Michigan and Sample will be good late 

 varieties for you to set. We regret that 

 you did not become a reader of The 

 Strawberry earlier, as it would have saved 

 you heavy loss. 



L. J. G., Batavia, 111. In selecting mother 

 i/lants for the breeding bed do you take the 

 ones that produced most berries in fruiting 

 bed first season they bear? Do you trans- 

 plant them immediately after they are through 

 bearing? Do they produce young plants that 

 fall that are right to set in fruiting bed the 

 following spring? If not, how do you pro- 

 ceed? 



2. How many crops of plants can be taken 

 from one mother plant? 



3. I have about 100 plants started from seed 

 planted June, 1906, in various sizes from 

 nearly nothing up to good-sized plants. 

 Kindly give full directions how to proceed 

 with them in spring regarding runners, fruit- 

 ing, etc. 



In making selections from mother plants 

 with a view to improving varieties, we 

 must first make a study of the particular 

 variety in hand to learn what are its strong 

 and its weak points. Then proceed to 

 eliminate the undesirable and to develop 

 the points desired. After twenty years' 

 experience we have discovered that it is 

 unnecessary to allow the mother plant to 

 fruit before making selection. While it 

 is quite impossible to outline a complete 

 method of plant breeding in the limited 

 space at command, we can yet give you 

 a few fundamental rules that will serve 

 you at the outset. If you have a variety 

 that possesses many good points, such as 

 perfect foliage, and produces good fruit, 

 but appears to be lacking in the power to 

 produce as great a quantity as it should, 

 the proper way to improve this variety is 

 to make a close inspection of all the 

 mother plants about the 1st of August, 

 staking the plant which at that date has 

 built up the most crowns, and numbering 

 each stake. The plants should be gone 

 over every two or three weeks and a close 



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watch kept upon the plants you have 

 staked. Take with you a record book 

 and make notations of the number of 

 crowns each staked plant has made since 

 the last inspection. Also the number of 

 runner plants each mother plant has made, 

 and the vigor and general performance of 

 all should be recorded. Each staked 

 plant should be allowed to produce at 

 least ten or twelve runner plants, as this 

 will determine whether the particular 

 plant has power to produce crowns and 

 runner plants at the same time. At the close 

 of the season, the mother plants that have 

 the largest and most vigorous runners 

 — in other words, the plants that make the 

 highest records — are the ones, of course, 

 that should be given preference. No 

 doubt there will be several mother plants 



Page 256 



that will show superior qualities over all 

 the rest. The following spring from each 

 of the mother plants showing the greatest 

 gains take six or eight of her progeny and 

 set in another bed, giving each set the 

 same number as that borne by the mother 

 plants from which they came. In re- 

 moving these plants be careful that the 

 mother plant or the other runner plants 

 be not disturbed, as these are to be left 

 for fruiting purposes to show their worth 

 in that particular. After the fruiting sea- 

 son is over, if you have kept a close 

 record of the mother and her progeny, it 

 will be easy to determine which one of 

 these has given the largest yield of fruit. 

 Then go to the several transplanted plants 

 taken from this particular mother plant 

 and stake it to indicate that it stands at 



