|IYI>II< Like Blakemore, this variety is a scientific cross of Premier (Howard 17) and 

 lllldl Missionary made in 1922 by the United States Department of Agriculture. It 

 has been tried in a number of different places and in many of them has shown up exceedingly 

 well. A Department circular states, "Because of superior characteristics Bellmar is recom- 

 mended for trial in Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey and should be tested in comparison 

 with the Premier wherever it is adapted for the general market." 



As Bellmar has been suggested for conditions under which Premier succeeds and has been 

 grown in the territory where Blakemore has been most widely grown we will describe Bellmar 

 largely in comparison with these two varieties. 



Plant Growth. Bellmar is an exceptionally 

 vigorous grower making more plants than 

 Premier and practically as many as Blake- 

 more. The foliage is healthy, though perhaps 

 not quite as good as Blakemore and Premier 

 in this respect. The plants should be kept 

 thinned for best results. 



Productiveness. Bellmar has produced heavy 

 crops of superior fruit in Georgia and North 

 Carolina and other places where it has been 

 tried. With us in 1930 Bellmar was about as 

 productive as Blakemore, but not as produc- 

 tive as Premier although the crop averaged 

 better in size and appearance. 



Quality. The berries rank high in dessert 

 quality being less acid than either Missionary 

 or Blakemore. Bellmar is too dark and not 

 acid enough to be a commercial preserving 

 sort. 



Firmness. The berries are firm in texture. 

 One prominent New Jersey berry grower car- 

 ried some berries from North Carolina to his 



home in New Jersey and kept them for several 

 days. He found that the Bellmar stood the 

 ride and held up fully as well as the Blake- 

 more. The berries will ship well, but the dark 

 color gives them an appearance of being much 

 riper than they are and this fact may count 

 against Bellmar as a long distance shipping 

 berry. 



Color and Appearance. The berries are 

 beautiful in appearance, rather bright red in 

 color when picked at the proper stage but 

 becoming dark red for several days before 

 they decay. The handsome green cap gives 

 the berries a striking appearance. This cap 

 or hull incidently parts very easily from the 

 berry making them easy to prepare for eating 

 or cooking. 



Size. Bellmar berries average large in size 

 being fully as large as Blakemore and prob- 

 ably as large as Premier if the whole crop is 

 counted. 



It is likely that Bellmar will be found adapted to a wide range of territory when further 

 trial is made. It should be tried wherever Premier does well and in places where Premier does 

 not do so well if there are any such places. We have a nice stock of plants and we have put 

 them at a popular price so that everyone can try them out at very small expense even though 

 it is a new variety. Price list, page 23. 



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