SMALL FR UITS AND HOW HE GROWS THEM 
The call for these plants became so great that I 
could not supply it with facilities I then had and I 
determined to provide myself with the most perfect 
•conditions possible for improving and breeding 
them. The present grounds were selected after a 
search of many weeks throughout the great fruit 
belt of Western Michigan. The soil and location 
are ideal for the purpose being located on an ele- 
vated plain partly within the limits of the beautiful 
manufacturing city of Three Rivers. 
II has been made practically virgin soil by heavy 
applications of stock yard manure and then plow- 
ing under leguminous plants to which were added 
liberal applications of bone phosphate so that the 
development of good qualities in the plants should 
l^e encouraged in all possible ways. It is not diffi- 
cult to maintain quality after you get it built up to 
the proper standard. 
On the testing grounds will be found all the 
most valuable new varieties of small friuts grown in 
this latitude growing under conditions to bring out 
their true value and best variations from which to 
secure the ideal mother plant for renewing each 
variety in my propagating beds. 
This gives you the Pedigree of the plants we 
grow and send out to our customers, and a cordial 
invitation is extended to every one interested in 
fruit growing to visit our grounds whenever con- 
venient to do so. The hacks which are always at 
the depot carry visitors to tlie farm at my expense 
and entertainment is free while you stay 
Seaford. 
TH]e AGRICUI/TURAI, DEPARTMENT. 
at WlshitiKton has been making experiments along this 
line and reported them in the year book for iSgS, under the 
head of "Improvemenls of Plants by Selection" which fully 
confirms all the claim we have ever made. A special reprint 
has been issued for general distribution. Every fruit grower 
can get it free. Write to the Secretary of Agriculture, Wash- 
ington. D. C, or to the Congressman from your district and 
ask him to procure it for you. 
We have space for making only a few extracts. On page 
372 it savs: , , , , 
' Some doubt has always existed as to whether plants 
normally propagated vegetatively by cuttings slips, buds, 
etc., could be improved or permanently modified by a selec- 
tion of these parts from certain individuals or parts of indi- 
viduals bv methods similar to those used in seed propagated 
plants, fiach joint of a plant with its bud and leaf attached, 
possesses in most cases the faculty of growing into a new 
plant much like the parent. These new plants vary the same 
under environmental influence as do individuals produced 
from seed and while parts of the same seedling still they are 
in a physiological sense distinct, each possessing individual 
characteristics and constitutions depending on the conditions 
under which they were grown. As iis well known even 
branches of the same tree may difrerin many characteristics 
and while such variations are not commonly recognized 
when slight yet in certain cases they become very marked 
and then easily distinguished being known as "bud sports.'* 
Page 373 reads: "Every one who propagates plants by cut- 
tings (or runners) knows that hardly any two of them pos- 
sess exactly the same characters. Starting with two rooted 
cuttings from the same plant and growing them under as 
nearly the same conditions as possible one may give a plant 
that will bloom freely, forming flowers of large size and its 
leaf development may also be perfect while the other may be 
a vegetable runt, lacking in vigor of leaf and utterly unable 
to give anything but small and imperfect flowers." Page 
357: "If such variations are desirable they may be perpetu- 
ated by budding or grafting " Page 355: "The unity of the 
individual taken as a whole is of prime importance in select- 
ing and should be clearly recognized by every one in striv- 
ing to secure Improved Pt'd/tcre'e PlatUs.^' Page 368: "Im- 
prbvememts effected by selecting a variation may be slight 
in one generation but as before explained if these slight im- 
provements are continued year after year very marked im- 
provements may result in the course of time." 
"It is slow and patient care and selection day by day 
which permanently ameliorates and impro'-es the vegetable 
world. Nature starts the work, man may complete it." 
We cannot spare the space to quote further but the words 
Pedigree in plants and Pedigree in seeds and cuttings are 
fully endorsed and commended. Photograph illustrations 
are given to show the remarkable results obtained by the 
Department in continuously selecting the ideal plant both 
in seeds and buds for propagation. It concludes as follows: 
"Every farmer and horticulturist should devise for each 
crop a systematic method of selection that the general 
crop may be grown continuously from selected pedigree 
STOCK All common agricultural crops respond to skilful 
selection and in every case valuable results will doubtless 
reward the agriculturist's attention to this principle." 
If you wish to investigate further along these lines send 
to MacMillan Publishing Co., 66 Fifth Ave., New "Vork, and 
order the books entitled "Plant Breeding," "Survival of the 
Unlike," "Lessons with Plants," and "Evolution of Plants," 
by Prof. L. H.Bailey, Professor of Horticulture in Cornell 
University, and probably the most eminent horticultural 
writer and investigator of the present age. 
THE PROPAGATING BED. 
Every fruit grower should propagate his own 
plants as far as possible. He should grow them 
expressly for plants from tlie best strains obtainable. 
While there are fuw nurserjTiien or fruit growers 
who have facilities or experience which will enable 
them to select and breed up plants along the lines 
pointed out in this booklet yet he can for a very 
small sum prociu-e enough of these thoroughbred 
plants to .start a propagating bed and thus have 
them on the ground at the time needed for trans- 
planting next year. 
A loamy soil is the best. Make it moderately 
rich with barnyard manure. Set the plants in rows 
not less than four feet apart and 24 inches apart in 
the row. As soon as the plants are set spray them 
with Bordeaux Mixture to kill all spores of rust and 
fungi which may find a lodgment on them. An 
atomizer is the sprayer to use. Let the runners spread 
out in all directions and keep them layered by plac- 
ing a small stone or clod of earth on them. They 
should be mulched in the fall as soon as the first 
freeze comes. You only need to shade them to 
keep the ground from thawing. When the ground 
is frozen deeply in mid-winter put on more light 
chaff or straw so as to hold the frost in the ground 
and keep the plants from starting until you get your 
ground fitted. If the plants are dormant when set 
every one is sure to grow. You may need to buy 
plants for this spring's setting but you should look 
a year a head and .grow the very best plants for 
future u.se. It surely will not pay you to use scrub 
plants when thoroughbred plants can be had at 
prices quoted on pages 32 to 34. 
HIGHER PRICES FOR BERRIES. 
Fine large berries always sell at sight for fancy 
prices to regular customers and now that money is 
plenty the demand will be greater than ever before. 
7 
