Strawberries. 
9 
are adapted to your purpose and conditions. A succession to pro¬ 
long the season may be desirable, but generally it will be found 
that the varieties intermediate in time of ripening prove most 
profitable. It is well enough to try novelties and new introductions 
in a small way, but never invest largely until their merits for your 
locality have been tested. 
Choice must also be governed by blossom characters. Varieties 
are of two classes; those having perfect flowers, or in other words 
bearing both stamens and pistils, and those having pistillate 
flowers, or bearing pistils only. Some of our best varieties come 
under this latter class, and their ability to produce fruit depends 
entirely upon the proximity of other pollen producing varieties. 
Among the varieties bearing perfect flowers there is a wide differ¬ 
ence as to pollen production; some have few and weak stamens and 
do not produce enough pollen to perfectly fertilize their own pistils; 
others have a normal complement of stamens with well filled 
anthers that have pollen to spare. 
The strawberry is so commonly grown that it may seem un 
necessary to dwell upon flower characters, but so many mistakes 
arising from inattention to these essentials have come under my 
immediate notice that the remarks upon the subject appear 
warranted. 
If a pistillate variety has been decided upon, the question as to 
what.proportion of the variety to be used as a pollenizer is necessar}’ r 
at once arises. On this point there is difference of opinion among 
growers. Some say four rows of the pistillate variety to one of the 
pollen producer, others would plant the two in equal quantity. I 
have found that two rows of the pollenizer alternated with four of 
the pistillate variety gave good results, but it may be as well to use 
them in equal proportions, particularly if both are desirable 
varieties. 
A further point in reference to pollination may be touched 
upon here. Definite experiments upon apples, pears and plums 
have shown that some varieties are either wholly or in part self- 
sterile, that is, the pollen of a particular variety may be incapable 
of acting upon the pistils of that variety, or may act so slowly and 
imperfectly that the variety is unproductive.. No definite experi¬ 
ments have been made upon strawberries, but observation leads to 
the suspicion that some varieties are, at least in some degree, self- 
sterile. If this be true, the obvious remedy is the same as recom¬ 
mended for the other fruits, namely, to mix varieties, not planting 
very large blocks of a single variety. 
Fertilization in the strawberry is accomplished by insects,, 
largely by bees, and if several varieties are near together the pollen 
is sure to be so distributed that the maximum of fruitfulness will 
result. Even if all varieties chosen for planting are strong pollen 
producers, we may infer from experiments upon other plants that 
