i68 
AMERICAN POMOEOGICAIy SOCIETY 
Transportation statistics show that there are shipped from the Dela~ 
ware-Maryland-Virginia Peninsula about 20,000,000 quarts annually. Said 
peninsula averages 4,000 quarts to the acre, which is very conservative. 
Thus the peninsula has about 5,000 acres planted to this product. The 
Nurserymen of the United States sell about ten per cent of the plants 
set in the country. Nurserymen sold last year, one hundred million plants. 
Thus there were one billion plants set in 1913 — which if set 8,000 to 10,000 to 
the acre would plant 100,000 to 125,000 acres, which would produce, at the 
4,000 quart average, four hundred million quarts. If these could be placed 
in one train and on one track they would fill 40,000 cars, or make a train 
300 miles long. To handle this crop, it requires annually twenty million 
dollars, or more. 
I am not in a position to say that the apple is not King of the fruit 
industry, but this is truly an industry which is worthy of its envy. 
Just a word about the everbearers. If you are in the least skeptical 
about the everbearing tendency in strawberries, dismiss the thought at once. 
Until a few years ago there was certainly room for skepticism, but the 
progress made in this line within the past few years by such men as Samuel 
Cooper and Harlow Rockhill should serve to produce confidence. 
We had strawberries upon the table yesterday (Nov. 17th), before I 
left home. These berries were grown in the open field, in the latitude of 
Washington, with no protection except the leaves of the plants themselves. 
I mention this only to make it more emphatic that there is an everbearing 
tendency being developed in strawberries. 
While there is no immediate danger of growers discarding old and 
established varieties in favor of new, untried sorts, there is a possibility 
that the everbearers will eventually take the place of the one crop type, 
for in addition to their everbearing tendency, some of these everbearers 
produce an excellent crop of spring berries. It is only just to say, however, 
that varieties bearing a full crop in spring do not do so well later in the 
season. This factor has not been fully worked out yet, but it seems hardly 
probable that a variety will be developed which will give a full crop 
throughout the year. 
There has been much talk first and last about thoroughbred nursery 
stock. Personally it matters not to me whether pedigree plants are sold 
or not. I think it only my duty to the public and to this Society to say that 
the theory has been exploded. A new variety of fruit is produced by crossing 
one variety with another. So long as this variety is propagated by cions, 
by suckers, or by layers or runners' it remains the same variety. It is as 
unreasonable to suppose that because one tree branch is more healthy and 
produces better fruit, due to its having more room and sunlight, or to a 
better covering of spray ; or that one strawberry plant is larger and produces 
more fruit, due to its more favorable environment of being less crowded 
and of getting more sunlight, as it is to suppose that two orchards of an 
identical variety are not the same variety, if they have received the extremes 
of attention. It is well to remember, however, that plants from virgin beds 
have more vitality than plants that have fruited, although plants from old 
beds are not necessarily poor. Results from strawberries depend more on 
