AUGUST LUTHER (B). 
EXTRA EARLY. A host of friends made by it this 
year. Meets the rcquirenieiits of a family berry on qual- 
ity. Succeeds cvcryuherc. It has bright but rather dark 
red flesh, firm cnnvvjlt fur shii>ping, and like all the ex- 
tra early varicliis hkH^is l;aer;'ts freely and should be 
confined to liedfie or n.irrow matted row. I'ifth year of 
selection anil restriction. 
is just as natural for a lover of flowers to talk 
to them and call tlieni pet names as it is to 
call our own children in endearing terms. 
We do know that plants have preferences 
and even their love affairs just as birds of the 
air and all animals have. We know that many 
plants will not accept pollen from certain 
plants even of the same species while they 
readily take it from others. 
Many plants catch insects and feed upon 
them and display much cunning in trapping 
them and some have means of locomotion and 
move from place to place. I notice the vine 
creeping up the side of my house exercises a 
good deal of skill in selecting the places for at- 
taching itself to the wall. 
They enjoy good living and manifest de- 
light when environments are congenial and I 
have no doubbt if we had some means of 
communicating with them we should not find 
them dumb inanimate things we have always 
taken plants to be. 
Does not a sick pla,iit behave just as a sick 
animal? It wilts, looses its powers and life 
moves out. You judge the sick animal by its 
looks. How do you know it suffers pain? 
T-Tow do you know the plant does not suffer 
pain? Does it not furnish as much affirmative 
evidence as the animal? 
Are yon not willing to admit after you have 
studied its eipially complex organism that it is 
governed by all the laws affecting intelligence 
that are found in an}' of us? 
AN AGE OF EXPERTS. 
We are living in an age of experts and 
specialists. Wireless telegraphy, the tele- 
phone, phonograph, duplex telegraph and as- 
tonishing automatic machinery tliat grace our 
factories are the result of division of labor and 
investigation and we are really jiv^t beginning 
to see the dawn of an age of in\-.'ntions. Don't 
EXCELSIOR (B). 
E.\RLY. .\ very vigorous grower. Requires a sandy 
loam soil. Herrics tjuite tart, but rich; all the same size 
and holds uj) well throughout the feason. Pedigree shows 
eight years of selection and restriction. 
laugh at the men who say we shall yet see the 
air full of great ships carrying the commerce 
of the world. It is no more impossible than 
tlie great things already accomplished. 
A specialist is one who takes a single 
thing, studies it in all its phases until he can 
detect the slightest fault and devise means 
and ways of making it contribute more largely 
to human happiness. 
We have the carnation specialist who has 
taken these beautiful flowers and by selection 
and other means increased the size and bril- 
liancy of foliage many times. The rose spec- 
ialist has taken the old single leaf flower and 
doubled it and enlarged it until we have the 
magnificent flowers of to-day. 
The list of wonders wrought by persons 
devoting their lives to investigating one thing, 
is a long one and we cannot spare space to 
enumerate them further. The world's motto 
now seems to be, "This one thing I do." I 
have chosen the strawberry as my specialty. 
I believe I can truly say that for the past 
twenty-one years I have never passed an hour, 
not devoted to sleep, in which my thou_ghts 
were not centered on this magnificent fruit 
and trying to devise some means of making it 
grow two big berries where we were once 
getting one little one and how these might be 
made more delicious and more pleasing to the 
eye and contribute more largely to the happi- 
ness of the home and family circle. Results of 
these investigations have been recorded in 
this and previous editions of "Great Crops of 
Strawberries and How to Grow Them," and 
now more than twelve hundred thousand copies 
have been scattered broadcast over the land 
and from the highest horticultural authority 
comes the assurance that the key note of suc- 
cess in berry growing has been sounded and 
bidding me a hearty God speed in this work of 
revolutionizing fruit growing. 
I am now possessed of abundant capital and 
1 am determined to solve the problem com- 
15 
