The Selection of Your Plants and Seed 



The Best Plants Brings the 

 Best Returns. 



Why Certain Varieties Are 

 Running Down. 



The Way to Breed Better 

 and More Fruitful Plants 



Be Sure You Get Plants 

 That Will Grow. 



This is the first thought with me. I want to know that the 

 seed I am going to plant is as good as can be grown, no 

 matter what the cost. I count the price of good seed a sec- 

 ond consideration. The same applies to all kinds of plants 

 and nursery stock. The cost of production being the same 

 whether we get 2,000 quarts of strawberries per acre or 

 whether we get 10,000, the few dollars spent in the way of 

 bette?- seeds or plants in the beginning is soon lost sight of 

 in the V)ig yields and big profits in the end. 



In regard to strawberries I am asked this question many 

 times during the year: "Can you tell me why certain varie- 

 ties are running down?; why they do not bear the crops they 

 formerly did?" This is a very easy question for one to an- 

 swer if he has given it a little thought and has been a close 

 friend of his berry patch. Here is the answer: When straw- 

 berry plants fail to fruit it indicates that they have become 

 weakened through careless breeding and imyjroper selection 

 of the breeding bed. Runner plants always inherit the 

 characteristics of . the mother plant, therefore plants that 

 come from unfruitful plants will be unfruitful. If a plant 

 becomes so weakened that it no longer sends up a fruit, but 

 system, its energies will be thrown to the multiplication of 

 barren plants, and as these barren plants make a great 

 many more runners than the fruitful plants, they soon have 

 a monopoly. And plants taken from these beds year after 

 year, without any selection whatever, it is but a natural 

 consequence that the variety must sooner or later run out, 

 as it is called. Labor and money spent in the growing of 

 those kinds of patches is but thrown away. 



On the other hand, if a grower is particular enough in the 

 selection of his plants he can always improve any variety 

 instead of letting it run down. Here is the method I use in 

 order to build up better and more fruitful strains of plants: 

 I have a special plot each season that I use to grow my stock 

 plants. I never set out the plants in this plot until the plants 

 in the old breeding bed have made sufficient growth so that 

 I can easily select my best plants, always sure to get noth- 

 ing for this plot but what has a good strong fruit bud, se- 

 lecting the heaviest crowns and always the plants nearest 

 the mother plant. By this means 1 know personally that 

 every plant is a fruitful plant. This method is carried on 

 from year to year and is proving very successful for me. I 

 am not only keeping my plants up to the standard but I can 

 see a marked improvement in the most of the varieties in a 

 few years' breeding up of this kind. I find by this method 

 of breeding thatnhe higher breed the plant is the fewer run- 

 ners it will make, as a large part of the growth is spent in 

 building up a crown of fruit buds instead of making runners 

 freely, as is done in the wild berry or the variety that has. 

 almost become wild or barren through carelessness. 



We want to say to our prospective customers, before closing 

 this catalog, DONT buy your plants and seed just because 

 the price is cheap. But know the reputation of the man that 

 you place your order with. The BEST plants are cheapest 

 at any price. We can furnish you with the addresses of cus- 

 tomers that make stronger clauns for our plants than we do. 

 If you are not our customer, start now. No one can give 

 you more value for $1.00 than Townsend. And remember 

 our Free Services are yours for the asking. 



A Comparison of Townscnd's With Common Ordinary Varieties That Arc Sent 



Out Broadcast Every Year 



Mr. Suggs, of Columbus County, N. C, writes after giving our Thoroughbreds a fair trial 

 under the same conditions exac tly same variety tested, that our selected plants produced over 

 four times as much fruit as the common grade of plants did, and not only this but that the ber- 

 ries grown from our Thoroughbreds was of far better quality, and brought a much higher price. 

 We have received the same report! from almo«t every section of the Country. 



