2 
R. M. KELLOGG'S GREAT CROPS 
All the plants immediately around it are 
removed and runners potted as fast as they 
appear and transferred to a special propa- 
The Marshall (b). 
gating bed previously prepared. The next 
year we take all our plants from this bed. 
Follow this method year after year and you 
will be astonished at the enormous in- 
crease IN FRUITAGE as well as the prices 
you can command. Raspberries, black ber- 
ries and all other fruits are selected in the 
same way. 
LiOSing' Pedigree. It may be said a 
plant loses its pedigree when it does not 
possess the qualities that made it a pedigree 
plant. IVe cannot multiply our valuable 
varieties by planting their seeds because 
they will not come true, so we are obliged 
to resort to the division of their buds. 
This we call grafting, budding, layering or 
by cuttings. A strawberry plant is only a 
bud, the same as a scion from an apple 
tree; thus, there is to-day in -all the world 
only one Wilson Albany strawberry plant. 
All the plants scattered over the country 
being only the divisions of the original plant, 
and yet there is the f^eatest difference in 
their fruiting power as well as the general 
constitution of this variety. Some were 
thrown under favorable environments, being 
restricted each year until they had accu- 
mulated wonderful fruiting power, while 
others have been neglected and permitted 
to fruit themselves into a condition of utter 
exhaustion and unproductiveness, hence 
have lost their pedigree. Now we may take 
runners from the first, or pedigree plants 
and they will fruit heavily and foliage will 
manifest its old time vigor, but if we take 
buds (runners) from the latter class no 
amount of cultivation or fertilization can 
make them equal to the thoroughbred as a 
fruiter. What has been said in regard to 
the Old Wilson applies to any other variety. 
Set No Plant without a knowledge of 
its pedigree or history. The question arises 
here, "Will new runners taken from an ex- 
hausted plant or a plant deficient in fruiting 
vigor be an improvement on the old plant? 
As already explained a strawberry runner 
is a bud, and when you cut it off you are 
simply dividing the old plant and it contains 
every particle of weakness that the old one 
possessed, the only improvement being that 
It has new roots. But you ask will not these 
plants regain their lost powers. Placed 
under the same restriction under which you 
would put an animal and given high culture, 
it undoubtedly would recover, but it would 
probably require several years. Some 
might recover readily while others would 
make little or no progress in this direction. 
You will find abundant evidence of this by 
visiting the different plantations of your 
neighborhood, where you will find some 
plants heavily loaded with fine berries show- 
ing full fruiting vigor, while others show 
only moder- 
ate fruitage, 
giving evi- 
dence that 
they were 
undergo i n g 
e xh a ustion 
or partially 
reco V e r e d, 
while the 
great num- 
ber of plants 
rem ai n i ng 
blank or un- 
fruitful 
prove they 
have made 
no progress 
in this direc- 
tion. Those 
blanks being 
relieved from the heavy burden of fruitage 
will make runners very fast and soon crowd 
out the fruiters and should never be perpet- 
uated by taking runners from them, nor 
will it pay to expend time on any mixed 
lot of plants. 
The First Cost of Plants cuts a small 
figure. It costs as much to furnish land 
and fertilize it, set poor plants and cultivate 
as when the plants are strong in vigor, but 
the final results and profits are very differ- 
ent. In the one case it takes all the pro- 
ceeds to meet the expenses, while in the 
other the largely increased price and ready 
sale would indicate the true value between 
the two grades of plants. 
The Warfield. 
