VI PREFACE. 



the most common causes gf failure seem to be the 

 following, viz: 



1. Allowing two or more varieties to grow and mix 

 in the same bed. This in two years will prove fatal if 

 allowed to run. Permit but one kind in a bed. 



2. Allowing the plants to grow too compactly. If 

 you keep every single plant ten or twelve inches distant 

 from every other, it will remedy this evil. 



3. Keep clear of weeds, without maiming the plants 

 by chopping off the little fibrous roots. Do not hill up 

 the plants, but give level culture; use the spading fork 

 and mulch well. 



At the head of the new proved varieties I would cer- 

 tainly place Wilson's Seedling. In Ohio, last June, I was 

 told that Wilson's was twice as productive as any other 

 variety. Illinois and Indiana told me the same story ; 

 while strawberry growers of Wisconsin insisted that it 

 would bear four times as much as any other kind. I 

 have never seen so productive a berry. It is large in 

 size, brisk acid, but good flavor when fully ripe, and 

 hardy. 



Triomphe de Gaud is an excellent Belgian variety, and 

 has become a great favorite. It is sweeter, pleasanter 

 flavor than Wilson's, very large, often coxcomb shape, 

 and is very productive. 



Mr. Fuller's Seedlings, the Brooklyn Scarlet, Colonel 

 Ellsworth and the Monitor, generously sent out by the 

 New York Tribune Association, are large, fine produc- 

 tive varieties that promise well. 



The same may be said of Mr. Burgess's Seedling, Gen* 

 eral Scott and others. 



