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country, hence the amateur should first ascertain from neighbors " 
those varieties that are grown successfully in his vicinity. Plant 
these first as your mainstay, and if you want to experiment in a 
small way testing varieties, all right, but go cautiously on novelties; 
they are expensive, and often many of them are not any better than 
the standard sorts. Try a few of the novelties at first, and if better 
results are obtained from these than from the old varieties, then will 
be time to plant more largely of the new kinds. In order to keep a 
variety from degenerating, as far as lies within the cultivator’s 
power, much care should be exercised in the selection of plants for 
setting new beds. Some persons think that old plants taken from 
old beds are just as good as young plants taken from new beds, pro¬ 
vided the old black root is broken off; but such a practice is wrong, 
and to it is often traceable the fact that a variety has run out. Only 
young, strong plants, with well-developed roots, from beds that have 
never fruited, should be used. 
PISTILLATE AND BI-SEXUAL VARIETIES. 
In the accompanying table, those varieties marked “ II ” are 
perfect flowering kinds, having both stamens and pistils, and are 
capable of fertilizing themselves. Those varieties marked “ P ” have 
pistils only, or the stamens are so poorly developed that they have 
to be planted with or near a variety that has a perfect flower in 
order to insure fruitfulness. Some of our best and most productive 
varieties are pistillate, and when these are growm, success or failure, 
to a large degree, depends on the sort used as a pollenizer. In 
selecting a variety for a pollenizer it is not enough that it has a bi¬ 
sexual flower, for many of the sorts termed perfect flowering have 
such weak stamens that they can not more than fertilize themselves. 
A pollenizer should have a large bloom, strong, well-formed anthers, 
which, as a rule, will be prolific in pollen. Time of blooming is also 
another important consideration in choosing a variety for a pollen¬ 
izer ; both kinds should bloom at or very near the same time; if 
there is much difference in their blooming periods, small, ill-shaped 
berries from the pistillate sort will be the result. There is a diversity 
of opinion among growers as to what proportion of a patch should 
be of a bi-sexual variety ; some claim that one row in four or five is 
all that is necessary, while others say the best results are obtained 
from planting half and half. We believe the latter proportion will 
prove the more satisfactory. 
VARIETY TEST FOR 1894. 
The soil on which our plants were grown is a heavy, adhesive, 
bottom land, hard to cultivate, unless taken just at the right time. 
Plants received good attention during the summer of 1893, and 
most of them made a good growth. They were irrigated last on 
October 20th, and mulched with old wheat straw on October 27th ; 
