E. W. TOWNSEND SONS • SALISBURY • MARYLAND 



Experienced Men Making Strawberry Plant Selection, Farm No. 6 



WHAT PjcmtSdecfon 



MEANS TO YOU 



I: 



N SELECTING plants, it is just as important to keep up 

 and improve the "strain" as it is with horses, cows, and 

 'other animals. Throughout our thirty-seven years of ex- 

 perience in the growing and propagating of small fruit plants, we have 

 always taken pride in the "strain" of plants we offer our customers. 

 Every Townsend plant is an offspring of a selected plant that has spe- 

 cial merits back of it. Throughout the year, experienced men under the 

 personal supervision of one of the Townsends go into our fields and 

 personally select the plants that are to be used for mother plants. 

 The plants chosen are the ones that show outstanding vigor and 

 productiveness, and to the greatest degree exhibit the true charac- 

 teristics of the specific variety. These selected breeding plants are 

 then reset into a plot. During their period of growth, (until the 

 following spring), numerous strong healthy runner plants are 

 produced which are taken up during the spring at proper planting 

 time and set in large acreages on our farms where they grow for 

 our numerous customers throughout the country. 



We do not stop here, however, but keep selecting this stock and 

 strive to keep our strain to as near perfection that our thirty-seven 

 years in small fruit plant breeding has taught us how to do. Our 

 many customers benefit from our continued efforts by being able 

 to produce better quality and larger yields of fruit. 



• PLANTS OF STRONG CROWN DEVELOPMENT 



Recent research has shown that 80% of the fruit buds on strawberry 

 plants are formed in the crown of the plant from September to 

 November of the season before blossoms appear. It is, therefore, 

 important to set nothing but well developed selected strain plants 

 for your fruiting beds — plants that will have sufficient vigor to 

 send out strong-crowned runner plants in which these fruit buds 

 are formed. A strong crown plant will always produce the proper 

 leaf area to insure heavy production, which the U. S. Dept. of 

 Agriculture through recent research work advises is of importance in 

 getting bigger crops of berries the following spring. 



With Townsend's selected strain plants which have been bred 

 for heavier yields, you are assured of a well developed fruiting bed 

 that will yield far above the average plants offered when grown 

 under identical conditions. The largest berry growing association 

 and thousands of our customers throughout the country know this 

 to be true and write us convincing letters about their heavy yield 

 obtained from Townsend's select strain plants, a few of which we 

 are proud to reproduce in our catalog this year. 



The Results of Townsend's Plant 

 Breeding Methods. Note Heavy 

 Crowns and Fibrous Root System 



• 2500 QUARTS OR 10,000 QUARTS PER ACRE— 

 —Which Yield Do You Prefer? 



The average yield of strawberries throughout the United States, is less than 2 500 

 quarts per acre (According to Government figures.) This low yield will barely pay for 

 the cost of growing the berries, while, in comparison, a yield of from 5.000 to 14 000 

 quarts per acre will usually net from $500 to $1,400, which is a very good profit even 

 at the lower figure; and much more than is being made on the average truck crop. 

 Many of our customers report yields of from 10.000 to 14,000 quarts per acre and very 

 seldom less than 5.000 quarts. They know from experience that our plants are bred 

 for heavy production and always recommend our selected strain plants to their friends. 

 Such confidence in both our plants and service has been a main factor in the building 

 of our business to its present high standing as the world's largest growers and shippers 

 of strawberry plants. We desire to maintain our fine reputation, and shall, of course 

 continue to send our customers the highest quality plants and to render the best 

 possible service within our power. 



We Are Glad To 

 Help With Your 

 Berry Problems 



No matter if you 

 planting a Back 

 Garden or a Plant: 

 and run into 



would like 

 write 



to help you in 



possible. 



Copyrighted 1938 by E. W. Townsend Sons, Salisbury, Maryland 



