Strawberries ^ How To tow TsnsM 
the freedom from weeds tell of the constant at- 
tention that is given. Nearly one hundred acres 
in one unbroken field of strawberry plants in 
fine condition is a rare sight. 
"Thanking you for attentions ^wn me, I am, 
"Yours very truly, 
"F. G. Hobart." 
The Sexual Side of Plants 
THE fact that sex exists in plants to as im- 
portant a degree as it does in animals and 
that the consideration of this fact in the produc- 
tion of fruit is as essential to the success of the 
plant breeder as it is in the case of the breeder of 
animals, is something that has been understood 
for a comparatively short time only. As R. M. 
Kellogg so frequently reiterated, all plants are 
male and female and have perfect sexual organs, 
with all the counterparts found in animals and 
fecundation takes place between them substan- 
tially in the same way. 
The seeds are the eggs of the plant and con- 
tain the two merged life germs kept in dormant 
state just as the germ in a bird's egg remains 
dormant until warmed by incubation. The seed 
is put in the ground where moisture and sunshine 
stimulate it into activity. These both develop 
and bring out the new beings after their kind. 
The fruit flesh which we seek to develop 
grows only as a substance for the seeds to mature 
in. The gland system which builds the fiuit 
flesh cannot perform its work unless the seed-jT 
forming glands prepare the way for the work of 
the seed-building organism. We know this be- 
cause whenever fertilization fails no fruit flesh 
develops. If you should set an acre all of 
pistillate varieties they would bloom full and 
you would think a great crop was in sight, but 
you would soon see the flowers drop off and no 
berries would develop. The banana, pineapple, 
navel orange and some other fruits have no vital 
seeds, and they are regarded as freaks. They 
have rudimentary seeds which stimulate into 
activity the fruit-flesh glands, and we call es- 
pecial attention to the fact that these seedless 
fruits never suffer from over bearing, but if sus- 
tained by manuring and tillage will bear just as 
good crops the year following; the amount of 
fruit depending merely on the capacity of the 
trees. 
The especial and important point for you to 
note is that the development of fruit not only 
depends on conception, but upon the potency or 
vigor of the consolidated life germ, for wherever 
the vitality of these two life germs (father and 
mother plant) is low, the berries will be numer- 
ous but always small and deficient in quality. 
We know the passion for breeding possessed 
by animals and the fact that all live-stock breed- 
ers limit them so that they will not become semi- 
nally exhausted," for in this case the offspring 
would be very inferior in all respects. This 
seminal exhaustion takes place in plants in iden- 
tically the same way. Take a vigorous and 
heavy fruiting raspberry field. Omit the annual 
pruning for one year and see what a splendid 
crop you will get. Now prune it and manure it 
and next year cultivate it as much as you please 
and see what light crops of berries you will get 
for several years to follow. If you prune close- 
ly, of course it will gradually recover, but for 
want of restriction this one year you would lose 
heavily on succeeding crops. 
You notice in the orchard when it blooms so 
full, when every twig is loaded with blossoms, 
that the fruit is always inferior and heavy crops 
will not occur again for several years, which may 
be attributed to pollen exhaustion; but if you 
properly restrict it by pruning or cutting off sur- 
plus buds, so it will not become seminally weak, 
it will bear good crops of fine fruit every year. 
Every grower of grapes knows that he must cut 
off fully five-sixths of his wood and buds every 
season to get high-grade fruit, and this always is 
done in the winter or early spring before exces- 
sive pollen secretion takes place. "Bearing it- 
self to death," is a common expression among 
fruit growers, but few persons understand the 
waste of body of both plants and animals arising 
out of excessive breeding. All our physicians 
understand why we have so many deformed 
persons, mentally and physically, and why we 
have to maintain so many prisons for the vicious 
and asylums for mentally weak persons; and 
the veterinary can explain the source of the 
miserable scrubs which infest our barnyards. 
The whole is explained in two words: viz., ex- 
cessive breeding. 
The strawberry plant left to itself throws its 
whole energies into this sexual function of seed 
production and consequent fruit, and gradually 
its seed organs waste away until its fruit is 
small and inferior, and then we say it has run 
out. 
It is only within the last few years that straw- 
berry growing has been made profitable. At 
first the grower fruited his beds several years 
until they needed renovation and manuring and 
then he fitted new land, went to the old beds 
for plants, and after repeating this once or twice 
he got little fruit and gave up the business in 
disgu.st. 
The boom in strawberry growing came only 
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