A STRAWBERRY AFTERMATH. 



543 



berries, but not enough to pay for their cultivation, 

 BederWood rusts badly, and its small, sour berries were 

 worthless. Saunders and Woolverton have some good 

 qualities, but are not worth retaining. Enhance is a 

 strong grower, very healthy and productive, but variable 

 in shape, sour, and not likely to equal such a variety as 

 Haverland. Auburn is a most promising variety. In 

 plant it resembles Wilson, but is a stronger grower and 

 has very healthy foliage. Its berries are firm, above 

 medium in size, abundant, of uniform, handsome shape, 

 and of excellent quality. Jersey Queen is a better late 

 strawberry than Gandy, as it is slightly later and pro- 

 duces more fine, large berries. Brunette, produced here 

 from seed in 1887, was sold here this season for the first 

 time in any market. On account of its exquisite flavor 

 and fine appearance it readily sold for 3 cents more per 

 quart than the best Bubach and Haverland. Its prop- 

 agation has been neglected, but should it ever be dissem- 

 inated it will give old strawberry-growers a new sensation 

 in the matter of flavor. — Granville Cowing, /nd. 



VARIETIES FOR ILLINOIS 



The strawberry crop was very light here this season. 

 Of the very highly-lauded new sorts, none have proven 

 themselves good enough to displace the old standard va- 

 rieties except the Parker Earle, which has done well for 

 the last two seasons, and will be generally planted. 



The varieties most grown here are Capt. Jack, Warfield 

 and Bubach. Capt J-xk is not as satisfactory now as it 

 was a few years ago, and a better berry is wanted. War- 

 field does Wf-ll when the plants do not stand too thick. 

 It is fairly firm, quite productive, and keeps its color well 

 when canned. Bubach is very productive and large, but 

 soft and of poor quality ; still it sells because of its size. 

 The ideal strawberry is yet to come. — E. A. Riehl. 



DEVELOPMENTS IN KENTUCKY. 



Last season I fruited 20 of the new much-lauded 

 strawberry varieties, 11 of which have been discarded 

 since fruiting on account of blight or unsatisfactory 

 fruit. These were Gov. Hoard, Mt. Holyoke, Great 

 Pacific, Farnsworth, Middlefield, Tippecanoe, Fulton, 

 Martha, Hatfield, Shuster Gem and Beder Wood. The 

 varieties thought worthy of further trial were Boynton, 

 Crawford, Saunders, Woolverton, Barton Eclipse, 

 Parker Earle, Yale, Walton and Lovett Early. The latter 

 lacks at least ten days of being early when compared 

 with a number of other varieties. Judging from one 

 season's fruiting, the three most promising varieties for 

 home and market are Boynton, Barton Eclipse and 

 Parker Earle, named in the order of ripening, thus form- 

 ing a succession from medium early to late. 



Nothing new has developed in planting or cultivation. 

 With regard to picking and marketing, it has been clearly 

 shown during the last few years that to restore berry- 

 growing to its former paying basis, growers (particularly 

 those in the south) must pull out of the old ruts. The 

 trade now demands something larger and of better 

 quality than Crescent, Warfield, Cloud, Hofiman, and 

 others of this type. More attention must be given to 



picking and handling berries for market, if profit and 

 reputation are desired. I have found it pays to incur the 

 expense of rehandling all berries as they come from the 

 pickers. See that no defective ones go on the market. 

 All berries over-ripe or not fairly well colored all over 

 should be thrown out, and the fruit then graded as to 

 size, and stenciled No. i or No. 2, according to quality. 

 Fewer acres and larger and better berries will yield a 

 much better dividend than a large quantity of small and 

 inferior frnit. Large berries of good quality will com- 

 mand from 25 to 50 per cent, more on the market than 

 inferior ones. — A. D. Webb, K'y. 



FRUIT SCARCE IN MISSOURI. 



The strawberry seaiion in this locality lasted only 

 about three weeks, and the crop was the lightest we 

 have had for several years. It has been a good season 

 to test the hardiness of the different varieties. Jessie, 

 Cumberland, Sharpless, and other berries of that class 

 were almost a total failure. Parker Earle bore a great 

 number of berries, but failed to perfect even half of them. 

 Bubach was the most satisfactory large berry I had, but 

 it was late in beginning to ripen, and its season was 

 quickly over. Capt. Jack did moderately well, but the 

 berries were small. May King was poor, but better than 

 many other sorts. Michel Early ripened two or three 

 days sooner than any other kind. Eirliness is its only 

 virtue on my grounds. It is a very light bearer of small 

 berries. Haverland was good considering the unfavora- 

 ble conditions, but many of the berries rotted. One of 

 my neighbors thinks it the best variety he has. Cres- 

 cent bore a light crop of poor, soft berries, many of 

 them knotty. I think the rains and cool weather pre- 

 vented the blossoms of all kinds from being properly 

 fertilized Warfield was the most productive and most 

 profitable variety with me this season. Its first berries 

 were of good size, color and form, and ripened early. 

 It gave us our latest pickings, though the last berries 

 were quite small. It is a great runner, and is apt to get 

 too thick in the rows. 



From one acre of new beds set in the spring of 1891, 

 enriched with 40 loads of stable manure and about four 

 tons of unleached wood-ashes, and also nearly an acre of 

 old beds, our pickings amounted only to about 2,000 

 quarts. Prices ranged from 20 cents a quart for the 

 first few hundred boxes to eight cents for the bulk of 

 the crop; total gross sales, $igo. This was only a 

 third of the fruit and half the income that we would 

 have had in an ordinarily good season. 



At this time (July 8) we are nearly through with our 

 raspberry crop. It has paid even worse than the straw- 

 berries. Many of the plants are dead or dying, and the 

 berries are drying up. The season of '91 was extremely 

 wet, and we were unable to cultivate our raspberries 

 properly. Grass, weeds, and water played sad havoc 

 with the crop. Our local market in a town of 5,000 in- 

 habitants is almost bare of fruit, and the demand is 

 very great. I have to dodge customers of former years 

 that I cannot supply with berries. Last year fruit was 



