EARLY JERSEY GIANT— (Van Fleet No. 10). For description see page 5 



WHAT THE NEW JERSEY STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 

 SAYS OF THE VAN FLEET HYBRIDS 



[Extract from Report 1910, of Special Fruit and 

 Flower Committee.] 

 "I saw a lot of seedlings raised by Dr. Walter 

 Van Fleet, that have been purchased by Mr. John 

 T. Lovett, who has not offered any of them for 

 sale yet. Still they are worth noticing, as among 

 this lot of seedlings there was not a single one 

 that did not show a superior advantage over other 

 varieties fruiting beside them. Among them were 

 some that ripened wdth Michael's Early and yet 

 had berries as large as the William Belt and were 

 equally as productive as that standard variety. 

 I hope to see more of these seedlings another 

 year, and under different conditions on Mr. 

 Lovett's grounds from what they were on Dr. 

 Van Fleet's grounds." 



[Extract from Report 1911, Special Fruit and 

 Flower Committee.] 

 "The Van Fleet Hybrid Strawberries are in- 

 deed remarkable. Of the thousands of these, pro- 

 duced by scientific hybridization of our best 

 American varieties {Fragaria Virginiana) with 

 the best of the European varieties {Fragaria 

 grandiflora), fifteen of the best w^ere selected by 

 the Doctor, who, before going to California, 

 turned them over to Mr. J. T. Lovett, the nursery- 

 man at Little Silver, These I visited at different 

 times upon Mr. Lovett's grounds, during fruit- 

 ing time and afterwards. They are still under 

 numbers and to describe them fully would take 

 up too much of your time. I will, therefore, 

 merely state, in a general way, they are revela- 

 tions, both as regards size of plant and fruit, to 

 which should be added superlative quality. No. 

 4 resembles the old Jucunda somewhat in make 

 up, though the plants were growing admirably 

 upon light soil moderately fertilized, and gave 

 berries that in size almost equalled fair-sized 

 apples. No. 13 [Edmund Wilson] in size and 

 vigor of plant resemble potato vines more than 

 Strawberry vines, as we are accustomed to seeing 

 them. This variety produces berries that are al- 

 most round, as deep in color as the old Black De- 



fiance and so rich in saccharine matter as to 

 make the use of sugar in connection with them 

 objectionable. No. 14 [Late Jersey Giant] may 

 be described as a glorified Gandy — the berries 

 being fully twice the size of that grand Straw- 

 berry, yielding far more freely, the plant a larger, 

 stronger grower and the color of the fruit even 

 more brilliant. But to learn what these berries 

 are really like, one must see them and I am sure 

 anybody at all interested in Strawberries will be 

 well paid for a trip to Little Silver in Strawberry 

 time to inspect them," 



[Extract from Report 1912, Special Fruit and 

 Flower Committee.] 



"Mr. Lovett still has those seedling Strawberries 

 of Dr, Van Fleet that have been spoken about 

 several times in this Society, Why he does not 

 disseminate them, I don't know. I have never 

 seen a lot of Strawberries do so well in different 

 places as those Strawberries have done, both in 

 plants and in berry ; and yet he keeps them there 

 to delight his friends, I suppose, and to look at 

 them himself. But, at any rate, Mr. Lovett has 

 never put them out, and his only explanation 

 seems to be that he wants to try them still fur- 

 ther, I believe they are the very best seedlings 

 that I have ever seen in my life and I have grown 

 some pretty good ones myself." 



After a thorough test of these Hybrids, I have 

 selected the earliest (No. 10) the latest (No, 

 14) and the largest (No. 13), to offer the public, 

 brief descriptions of which follow: 



SPECIAL,— For $4,00 I will send a 

 dozen plants each of these three remark- 

 able berries, Edmund Wilson, Early Jer- 

 sey Giant and Late Jersey Giant, For 

 $12,00 I will send 50 plants of each of 

 them, or 150 in all, enough to supply a 

 good-sized family with an abundance of 

 these superlative strawberries from the 

 very first till the very last of the Straw- 

 berry season. 



6 



