
SALISBUHY - 
E. W. TOWNSEND SONS : 
Vay a MG y ee 
y Plant Selection, Farm No. 6 
PLANT SELECTION 
And Its Importance To The 
Berry Grower 
PLANT SELECTION does not differ from the breeding of horses, 
cows and other animals in the matter of keeping up the “Strain” and 
improving it. Townsend’s have always taken pride in the “‘Strain”’ of 
plants offered their customers. Our thirty-six years of experience in 
the growing and propagation of small fruit plants has given us valu- 
able information that could have been obtained only through con- 
stant contact with our propagating fields throughout the years we 
have grown plants. Every Townsend plant is an offspring of a selected 
plant that has special merits back of it. We go into our fields each 
year with experienced men under personal supervision of one of the 
Townsends and personally select plants that are to be used for mother 
plants. Plants are chosen that show outstanding vigor and produc- 
tiveness, and to the greatest degree exhibit the true characteristics 
of the variety. These selected breeding plants are then reset into a 
plot where they are grown until the following spring. During this 
period of growth numerous strong healthy runner plants are pro- 
duced. These plants are then taken up during the spring at proper 
planting time and set in large acreages on our farms where they are 
grown for our many customers throughout the country. 
WE do not stop here, but go on year after year selecting this stock 
and keeping our strain up to the nearest to perfection that thirty-six 
years in small fruit plant breeding has taught us. Our many cus- 
tomers benefit by the selected strain in larger fields and better 
quality fruit. 
PLANTS OF STRONG CROWN DEVELOPMENT 
AND WHAT THEY MEAN TO YOU! 
Recent research has shown that 80% of the fruit stems on Straw- 
berry 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 catalogue this year. 
2500 QUARTS OR 10,000 QUARTS TO THE ACRE 
WHICH YIELD DO YOU PREFER? 
The average yield of strawberries taking the country over is less than 2500 quarts per 
acre (according to government figures). This low yield will barely pay cost of growing 
strawberries. While a yield of 5000 to 14,000 quarts per acre will usually net from 
$500 to $1400. This 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 
10,000 to 14,000 quarts per acre and seldom report less than 5000 quarts. They know from 
experience that the strain of our plants have heavy yielding ability bred into them 
and write us that they do not hesitate to recommend our strain of plants to their 
neighbors and friends. Such confidence in our plants and service has been a main 
factor in building up our plant business to its present standing. As the World’s Largest 
Growers and Shippers of Strawberry Plants, we will not break this confidence, and will 
continue to send out plants of the highest quality and render the best service possible. 

MARYLAND 



A TOWNSEND'S 
SELECT STRAIN 
PLANT 
We Are Glad to 
Help You With Your 
Berry Problems 
No matter if you are 
planting a Buck Yard 
Garden or a Plantation 
and run into problems 
you would like help on, 
write us. We will do our 
best to help you in every 
Way possible. 

Copyrighted 1937. By E. W. Townsend Sons, Salisbury 
