^^TgA^ERT^IES ^ How To G^OW THEM ^ 
when it was at last learned that better results 
would follow by taking plants from yearling 
beds which had borne no fruit and remove all 
blossoms the first year. This was a big improve- 
ment, and seedlings of quality did hold out 
longer because the exhaustive and devitalizing 
process of pollen secretions was avoided, but for 
the want of physical exercise in the breeding 
functions they gradually grew weak and un- 
fruitful. 
This was greatly hastened by the fact that 
fruit growers persisted in taking the immature tip 
plants or those which ran out in the alley be- 
tween the rows. These plants form so late in 
the fall they have no time to complete the devel- 
opment of their fruit organs, and as the blossom 
buds were not removed until after the mischief 
of excessive pollenation had occurred, there soon 
came to be the greatest difference in fruiting 
ability and the running-out process went on very 
fast. 
During all these years there has been a 
clamor for new and more productive seedlings; 
fabulous prices were paid for them and for a 
few seasons they shone like a meteor in the horti- 
cultural heavens; but they soon grew dim be- 
cause of the wasting away of their fruit organs 
and, like their predecessors, in their weakened 
condition fell an easy victim to insect, fungi 
and all the ills plant life is heir to, and so were 
discarded. 
If there were no changes in the fruit organs of 
plants arising out of excessive pollenation and 
seed formation you could continually renew from 
the old bed by taking new runners indefinitely; 
but in all such experiments it has been shown 
that the strength of the plant would go to run- 
ners and foliage and not to fruit, showing con- 
clusively that potency of pollen and pistil fluids 
are the prime factors in growing large berries 
of quality. 
Watering Strawberry Plants 
"W/HEN the hot days of summer come, ac- 
companied by drought, strawberry grow- 
ers frequently hasten to water their plants and 
often kill them by the way in which they do it. 
If the surface is kept loose, plants may not grow 
so fast during the last part of a month's drought, 
but they will not die. The moisture is in the 
subsoil and if the surface is loose it cannot get 
away. Now pour water on so as to saturate 
three or four inches and you have packed the 
surface so capillary passages are established with 
the subsoil water and the whole comes up very 
fast and dries off so that at the end of about 
thirty hours it will be dry as a bone below the 
roots and, of course, the plant must die ; for no 
plant can live if the ground does not contain two 
per cent of water. The important thing to do, 
then, is to keep the surface of the soil constantly 
stirred, so thal»the "dust mulch" thus created 
will break up the capillary ducts and thus leave 
the moisture in the soil and about the roots of 
the plants. 
But if the drought be very severe and the 
necessary amount of moisture be not present in 
the soil, it becomes imperative that water be 
given them. The proper method of irrigation is 
to make a trench in the center of the space be- 
tween the rows of plants and run the water into 
this trench, from which it will percolate to the 
roots of the plants. And when doing this see 
that the quantity of water is ample. If after 
irrigating the plants generously in this way the 
surface of the soil is broken by stirring, the 
plants will need no more water for a week. 
"Water the plants with hoe or rake," as one 
distinguished authority suggests, and use water 
only when absolutely necessary. And never 
sprinkle strawberries with water from city water 
works when the sun shines. It will scald the 
foliage or cause it to rust. If you must sprinkle, 
put on heavy at night, wet it down to the bottom 
of the roots and then wait a week or so. 
Never sprinkle when in bloom. The large drops 
pelt the pistils and interfere seriously with pollen- 
ation. 
Pioneer Work in Horticulture 
WHEN we began our work the division of 
Vegetable Physiology and Pathology of 
the Agricultural Department at Washington was 
a small, crude affair. The Bureau of Plant 
Breeding had not been established. Today it 
is the leading feature of the Agricultural Depart- 
ment and the Bureau of Plant Breeding is the 
most prominent feature of the division. It em- 
ploys a respectable army of the world's best 
experts. 
Then there was not an Agricultural College 
in the country having special classes in plant 
breeding. Today every college makes scientific 
development of plants a dominent feature. 
Then there was not a society of plant breed- 
ers led by scientific men in the world. Today 
many of the states have organizations and are 
working astounding revolutions. 
Then meetings of every horticultural society 
spent their time harping on new varieties and 
which of the old (and often better) varieties 
they should discard. Today they are looking 
for means to improve and make the old sorts 
more efficient. A remarkable advance, surely! 
