strawberries 



The summer of 1911 was unusually dry everywhere and all plants and trees 

 suffered. Not only were crops short, but vegetation dried up and young plants 

 were stunted nearly everywhere. This was so marked in some inland local- 

 ities that few Strawberry plants are offered for sale from those sections. 

 Now for a little geography. Berlin, Md., is located only seven miles from the ocean, the influence of which can be 

 felt all the time. In summer the cool breezes make our evenings delightful. But by far the greatest effect of these gentle 

 winds comes from the moisture they carry from the ocean. While we notice the drought, and everything gets dry, there 

 is not nearly as much evaporation from the soil, and from leaves, as a hundred miles further away fiom the ocean. 

 Consequently our Strawberry plants did not suffer so much from the dry weather, and this lall, when those two-weeks 

 rains came, our plants came out in fine shape. Even we were surprised to see how good they were. 



This year we have the usual number of Strawberry plants ready for planting. Altogether, in the part of the 

 nurseries given to Strawberries, there are about 110 acres, and a conservative estimate would place the number of plants 

 at eleven millions. You likely will not want the whole number yourself, but we want to convince you that Stiawbeiry 

 plant growing is an important branch of our business and not a mere side line. We have been growing plants for twenty 

 years. At first we grew only a few thousand, then each year the acreage was enlarged, till now we do not think there are 

 many growers in the United States who produce more plants. 



The average trucker and strawberry planter does not understand a few important things about this fruit that every 

 one needs to know. Strawberry plants inherit the characteristics of their immediate paients. That is, if a plant that is 

 well fed and which produces big crops of flawless berries, makes runners and sets crowns, the new plants forired probably 

 will be good ones also, and likewise produce big crops of fine fruit. On the other hand, young plants produced by a parent 

 plants that has been starved and which do not produce much good fruit, likely will not bear well, or they may produce 

 many berries of inferior size and quality. Plants should be produced in breeding beds— never selected fiom old fiuning 

 beds if it can be helped. It is easy to double the yield of a bed by properly selecting the plants. There are other features 

 than those named, that have a bearing on the amount and quality of the berries produced. Some plants seem more subject 

 to attacks from insects and fungi. Our salt breezes make the leaves tough, and the whole plants sturdy and haidy. 

 Shipped anywhere in the country, they retain these qualities to a remarkable degree. We always have test beds, in which 

 we try new varieties, and select the best plants of old varieties. Only by this constant watching can the good character- 

 istics of any kind be kept up to standard. There are strains of the different varieties, just as there are strains of Plymouth 

 Rock chickens, or of Holstein cattle. Get Harrison strains of Strawberry varieties, particularly of Klondike and Gandy. 



