DOES PLANT SELECTION PAY? 



RECENT research has shown that the fruit 

 buds of the strawberry are formed in the 

 crown of the plant from September to November 

 of the season before the blossoms appear. It is 

 important therefore, to give the plants such care 

 as will develop strong crowns during the first 

 growing season. An application of a well bal- 

 anced fertilizer during September will be more 

 profitable to the crop than the usual spring 

 application. We prefer the fall application and 

 leave off the spring manuring. Plants should 

 always be started as early as possible in the 

 Spring, and the first runners that appear rooted. 

 The first two plants that form on a runner will 

 always produce more fruit than the later plants. 

 For best results the late runner plants that are 

 made after a sufficient bed of plants is grown, 

 should always be removed either by a runner 

 cutter attachment, or with the hoe. If allowed 

 to grow thick on the side of the beds these sur- 

 plus plants take away the moisture from the 

 larger fruiting plants and never produce very 

 much. Neither should these latter plants ever 

 be taken up and reset for the same reason as 

 mentioned above. They are only weaklings and 

 will only produce weak off-springs. In order to 

 keep any variety up to the standard of produc- 

 tiveness, nothing but the strongest heavy crowned 

 plants should be set for breeding stock. By fol- 

 lowing this rule any variety can be made more 

 productive. While at the same time, the same 

 variety will soon run out if no selection of breed- 

 ing stock is made. 



A plant grower with nothing at stake, who 

 chooses to pay no attention to plant selection, 

 but rather take his planting stock from the 



middle or side of his rows can grow about twice 

 as many plants per acre as the person who prac- 

 tices the selection of his breeder plants, but 

 quantity is all he has, and he depends solely on 

 prices year after year to sell his stock. Many 

 thousands of our customers know this to be a 

 fact. Hundreds of our customers have stated to 

 us that plants purchased from certain growers, 

 grow as good or better bed of plants than Towns- 

 end's plants, but when fruiting time comes they 

 get plenty berries from our plants, and only a 

 few small berries from the other stock. It costs 

 just about twice as much to produce good strong 

 healthy fruiting plants as it does to produce the 

 common stock. 



Our warning is to lay off the "cheap John 

 plants." It doesn't pay to buy plants and seeds 

 simply because they are priced low. For in the 

 end they may mean the most expensive to you. 



The fact that the average yield of strawberries 

 taking the country over is less than 2500 quarts 

 per acre (This is according to government fig- 

 ures) . Many of our customers reporting yields 

 of 10,000 to 14,000 quarts per acre and seldom any 

 repost less than 5,000 is proof that the Townsend 

 strain of plants have much higher average yields 

 than just ordinary plants. 



A yield of only 2500 quarts of strawberries per 

 acre will barely pay the cost of growing straw- 

 berries, while a yield of 5,000 to 14,000 quarts per 

 acre will usually net from $500.00 to SI 400.00. 

 This is a handsome profit, even the lowest figure, 

 and much more than is being made on the aver- 

 age truck crop. Our customers are making bigger 

 profits every year, because our plants are being 

 made better all the time. 



VARIETY SUGGESTIONS 



It is a pleasure for us to make selections of varieties for 

 our customers. We have been doing this for over twenty- 

 five years for thousands of our customers every year. 

 Usually we are better acquainted with local conditions in 

 your own section, than the average grower there. We say 

 this because we not only get the reports from all the lead- 

 ing growers throughout the country, but from all the 

 leading State Experiment Stations. We know the soil, and 

 climate, in practically every strawberry section in the 

 United States. We have been making variety tests in most 

 of the important strawberry sections for a good many 

 years. Generally before a variety is ever offered by us for 

 sale, it has had years of tests right in your own locality. 

 In this way we are better qualified to make selections of 

 varieties for you than you would be yourself. We are not 

 asking for the privilege to do this in every case, but simply 

 offering our services to those who are not exactly familiar 

 with what varieties to plant that will make them the most 

 money. 



This service is absolutely free. We are always ready to 

 take up your proposition, and make out your list, just as 

 particular as if we were preparing our own plantings. If 

 you were to pay us $100 we could not render you a more 

 valuable service than we give to thousands every year free. 

 We always exert every effort to make your experience in 

 growing strawberries profitable. 



In writing our descriptions we try to make them as plain 

 as possible in order that our customers can make their own 

 selections, but there are so many factors that enter into the 

 strawberry growing that it is not possible for us to write 

 descriptions in a catalogue that will fit for every section. 

 There are many sections in every State that are as different 

 as the East is from the West as to the behavior of varieties. 

 This is even so many times in some counties. In order to 

 be sure of what a variety will do in a particular section, it 

 is necessary to have it tested there first. This is our way, 

 and the only way. There are some varieties known as imi- 

 versal varieties that do well in practically all sections and 

 in all soils. We name below a few of these favorites. 

 PREMIER has been found to do well in most sections 



except the far south. 



MISSIONARY has proven a valuable variety for the entire 



south. 

 AROMA is profitably grown in every state of the Union. 

 BIO- JOE has proven profitable in 90% of all strawberry 



sections. 



DUNIiAF is more profitable in the western states (but not 

 the best). 



TOWNSEZTD'S BIG IiATE has proven a universal variety. 



FORD has done well wherever Premier has been grown 

 successfully. 



GANDY has generally filled the bill where an extremely 

 late is wanted. 



CHESAPEAKE is a favorite wherever soil conditions are 

 right, except in the far south. 



IiUPTON" has proven a money maker in all the eastern 

 states. 



BZiAKEMORE: A profitable early variety for states south 

 of New York. 



WM. BEIiT has been a favorite for market gardeners in 

 all sections north of the Mason-Dixon line for the past 

 twenty-five years or more. 



"TOWNKING" has made good as a late variety in every 

 state in the Union. There are but very few sections in 

 any state that it has not made a better showing than 

 any other late variety. 



"MAYQUEEN", while not as well known to the public as 

 "Townking" or some other varieties of more recent in- 

 troduction, is a valuable variety for home use or market 

 in practically every state and section where tested. 



ABERDEEN has been sent to practically every state and 

 has been tested by thousands of horticulturists. It is 

 almost a lOO'", perfect. A valuable variety for market 

 piirposes on account of its hardiness in "plant growth 

 and great productiveness. 



HOWARD'S SUPREME, while of recent introduction, it 

 has been tested in most of the strawberry sections by the 

 State Experiment Stations, and has been found the 

 nearest ideal strawberry ever originated, and no grower 

 should hesitate to plant freely of Howards Supreme. 

 What Leading Experts have to say about Howards Su- 

 preme will be found on page 7. 



"JUPITER" has made good wherever tests have been made. 

 It is valuable as a commercial variety or for home use. 

 It Is of the Gaudy type except that it is earlier to ripen 

 and is predicted by all who have seen it in fruit or grown 

 it to become the leading standard market variety in a 

 short time. 



IF WE CAN HELP YOU WITH YOUR SMALL FRUIT PROBLEMS WRITE US 



