W. F. Allen's Plant and Seed Catalogue, Salisbury, Md. 



CHESAPEAKE. — This ut-w variety oEferod to 

 the public for the first time in 

 my 190(i catalogue has now hecn distributed and fruit- 

 ed ovor a large range of country and we hoar nothing 

 but praise fur it everywhere. One prominent grower 

 writes nie thus : "You gave us the Glen Mary several 

 years ago and now the Chesapeake. Being the intro- 

 ducer of these two famous berries puts you in the lead 

 of all the introducers of new strawberries in this coun- 

 try.'' The Chesapeake is a chance seedling and its 

 parentage is not known. Tli« plants are large and vig- 

 orous : no rust and no weakness of any kind. The 

 foliage is thick and leathery, upright leaf stems with 

 the leaves almost round. The fruit is borne on large 

 stems, the great proportion of which stand up, holding 

 the fruit from the ground. The Chesapeake bears 

 more fruit on single stems than any variety I have 

 ever grown. The blossoms are perfect, the fruit uni- 

 formly large, averaging even larger than Gandy, and 

 as compared with Gandy is more productive, firmer 

 and better quality, without the green tips which are 

 often found in that variety. The Chesapeake colors 

 all over at once, and the flavor of this berry ranks 

 with the best, such as Wm. Belt, Brunette and others 

 of that class. Perhaps the strongest argument that I 

 could put up to prove my good opinion of the variety 

 is the fact that I am planting this almost exclusively 

 for fruit myself in preference to all the others. I have 

 a bed of 2fi acres of Chesapeake which I hope to fruit 

 the coming season if not pressed so hard for plants 

 that I have to go in it for that purpose, and I have 

 just added ten acres more to this field, making thirty- 

 six acres in one block containing not a plant except 

 Chesapeake. The time of ripening is practically the 

 same as the Gandy, starting three or four days earlier. 

 I use the Gandy as comparison, because it is univer- 

 sally known. Like all other strawberry plants, to be 

 at its best it should be planted in rich, springy land, 

 but does remarkably well on any land that will grow 

 strawberries of any kind. The Chesapeake is the easi- 

 est variety to pick of any that I know of, and pickers 

 can pick more of this than of any variety that I have 

 handled, and where pickers are scarce this is a great 

 advantage. Last year I sent out a good many letters 

 of inquiry to parties who had fruited the Chesapeake 

 in order to find out the general sentiment in reference 

 to It. Many of these were printed last season, which 



will hardly be necessary to repeat them this year, but 

 I can trul.v say that all the information that I get 

 seems to be favorable, and we are now expecting a 

 good demand for the plants this season. We sold over 

 one million of this variety alone last year. Everybody 

 who has seen the berry, both growers and merchants 

 who sell the fruit, are undivided in their good opinion 

 of this berry. It is not a variety that sets an im- 

 mense quantity of fruit, but every blossom makes a 

 berry, thereby not wasting its vitality in setting a 

 large number of berries that can never be matured ; 

 the result is a good crop of berries that are all well 

 developed and strictly fancy. In any market where 

 quality is appreciated the Chesapeake will he at a pre- 

 mium. Personally I consider it the very l)est late 

 berry on the market, whether it is grown for home 

 market, local market or distant shipment. This Is 

 about as strong as I can put it and is no stronger than 

 the merits of the variety deserve. I shall not give a 

 long, drawn-out write-up of the variety this season, as 

 1 consider the above as convincing of the good quali- 

 ties of the (Chesapeake as if 1 were to fill the entire 

 liook about it. ^Ye have a good stock of plants an<J 

 will fill all orders as long as they last, although It 

 would be advisable not to wait too long in the season, 

 as we are expecting the demand for this to be excep- 

 tionally large. 



^ OUR CUSTOMERS ARE OUR FRIENDS. V 



♦I* King Co., Wash., March 23, 1909. S 



f \y. F. Alle.v. Salisbury, Md. % 



^ Dear Sir — Strawberry plants received all % 



T O. K. Thank vou. Kind regards. , i 



^ S. B. VROOMAN. X 



^ EXCELLENT ORDER. * 



% Berm\ida. Nov. 15, 1909. 



;4 W'. P. Allex. Salisbury. Md. 

 X Dear Sir — I beg to acknowledge the safe re- 



* ceipt of the strawberry plants which came to 



»♦♦ hand in excellent order. Please accept my best 



fk thanks. Tours faithfully, T. J. HARRIS. 



