26 Allen's Book of Berries — 1930 



Late Varieties 

 CHESAPEAKE 



As one of our very successful customers says, "Chesapeake" is the aristocrat 

 of strawberries. It will not stand abuse, but given good condition and good care, 

 Chesapeake is the most worthy running mate for Premier that we have ever seen. 

 Here's why we think so: 



1. Appearance. The berries are handsome in appearance because of their 

 large size, beautiful, rich, red color, glossy surface, uniform shape and bright 

 green cap. 



2. Size. The berries are very large and hold their size well to the end of the 

 season. In this respect, it is the best berry we ever saw, even beating Premier in 

 this particular. 



3. Quality. Chesapeake is delicious in flavor. Only a few of the very best 

 varieties like Wm. Belt, Big Late, and iMcAlpin equal Chesapeake quality. 



4. Firmr.ess. The berries are firm enough to stand shipment to distant mar- 

 kets. In fact, they will ship better than any large berry we have ever grown. On 

 our local auction markets, solid carloads of Chesapeake will often bring $2.00 or 

 $3.00 per crate of 32 quarts more than any other variety except G^ndy, which 

 sells with Chesapeake. 



5. Growth. The one weakness of Chesapeake is that it is sometimes difficult 

 to get sufficient plants for a good fruiting bed. Unlike Premier, which will do well 

 on all types of soil, rich or poor, Chesapeake needs land that has been well ma- 

 nured, and it needs good care. Given these, it will produce enough strong, heavy- 

 rooted plants for a good fruiting bed. Chesapeake produces a medium number of 

 large, strong plants rather than great quantities of small ones. It is hard to get 

 great numbers of plants. That is one of the reasons why many plant men do not 

 push this variety, and the plants for the same reason can never be cheap as com- 

 pared to free-growing varieties, but the results are well worth paying a little more 

 in order to get the true-to-name Chesapeake. 



6. Healthy Foliage. Next to Premier, Chesapeake has the healthiest foliage 

 of any variety on our list. During the very wet picking season of 1924, Chesapeake 

 and Premier were the only varieties we had that were almost entirely free from 

 rust. They both produced a fine crop and were the only ones that did. Big Joe 

 and Big Late ranked up well among all the other varieties in condition of the 

 foliage and crop produced. 



7. Frost- Proof. Chesapeake is almost frost-proof. Premier, an early variety, 

 withstands frost on account of its very hardiness and the fact that the plants keep 

 right on producing blooms after many have been killed. Chesapeake, a late va- 

 riety, almost always avoids frost because it blooms very late, later than other 

 varieties of the same season. 



8. Productiveness. The plants are very productive. They do not set enor- 

 mous numbers of small berries, but they do set plenty for a fine crop, and for this 

 reason they can size them up better and hold the size throughout the season better 

 than if large numbers of small berries were set, which are never sized up. 



9. Profit. Chesapeake is one of the most profitable late varieties you can 

 grow, and it is equally valuable in the home garden. Being a fancy berry, large 

 in size, high in quality, and handsome in appearance, Chesapeake will sell for top 

 prices when the demand is good, and sell at profitable price when many other va- 

 rieties will hardly sell at all. 



We are the originators of Chesapeake and have them True-to-Name. Nice 

 plants, too. See picture of field on front cover. Price-list, page 34. 



