302 Pomological Gossip. 



Hovey's Seedling was announced as the standard of good 

 in flavor, by the committee. 



We have beds of each set out in the fall of 1851, and now 

 bearing many quarts, and we venture to say as large as any 

 ever seen in Ohio, coming full up to the measurement as 

 acknowledged by Mr. McAvoy himself, viz., fow and a half 

 inches in circumference. 



McAvoifs No. 1. — This variety is pistillate, it does not set 

 freely even with a good staminate variety beside it. It is 

 only a moderate bearer of fair size. The color is too 

 dingy and the watery nature of the fruit renders it almost 

 useless as a market berry ; the flavor is rather insipid. 



Schneike's Pistillate. — The committee only recommended 

 this as of medium quality, but it is not even that ; it is one of 

 the sourest strawberries we ever ate, and not only sour but 

 bitter, and disagreeably flavored ; it is of a pale scarlet color, 

 and the berries, even before they are ripe look as if they had 

 been picked and begun to decay. We consider it quite a 

 worthless variety. 



Longworth''s Prolific. — A very good bearer but only of fair 

 size and medium quality — being rather acid. The color is 

 dull and the general appearance of the berry inferior. 



McAvoy'' s Superior. — Very little diff"erent from No. 1. 

 The berry is only of fair size, and of a very dark dingy 

 color like the Hautboy, with yellowish seeds. Flesh thin 

 and watery, and the flavor only of medium quality. It has 

 the same fault of No. 1, does not set and fill up well. The 

 footstalks of the berries are quite long and slender and the 

 whole cluster loose. Though the best flavored of the four 

 it is far inferior to many of the older varieties. 



A few days since, the Garden Committee of the Massa- 

 chusetts Horticultural Society visited several gardens in this 

 vicinity, where these varieties were in fruit, and we under- 

 stood the chairman to say, that after eating them from the 

 vines and with sugar and cream, they thought them quite in- 

 different strawberries. 



