J. H. Shivers Plant Farms, Allen, Maryland 
5 
AVOID THESE MISTAKES 
Of course I wish to sell you your berry plants for this year. 
That is why I am sending you this little booklet, but really I am 
genuinely interested in your success, for the success of our customers 
is the basis of any success I may possibly achieve. May I point out 
that you can make a mistake:— 
First. By trying to get plants for a price below the cost of product¬ 
ion for good true-to-name stock. 
Second. By digging your own plants and denying the variety you 
grow the advantage of a change of soil and climate, so often of 
such great advantage to them. 
Third. By a failure to get your plants in time to be set early, for an 
early planting is a big start on the road to success. Order early 
and have them shipped as early as there is a reasonable prospect 
of using them. The way my plants are packed they will keep, if 
placed where it is cool and damp, for several days after arrival. 
Fourth. By failure to get stock true-to-name. You want what you 
buy. I use the utmost endeavor to safeguard the customers in 
this respect, and believe that .999 per cent of all that I have ever 
shipped was true to label. 
Fifth. By setting plants not grown for plants alone. From me you 
get the whole bed, and from a warm, sandy soil. No short broken 
roots. 
Sixth. By buying any except fresh dug and well packed stock. I do 
not store any and I do pack them carefully in plenty of damp moss 
and in slatted crates that give the crowns plenty of light and air. 
Seventh. By paying more than good true-to-name and carefully pack¬ 
ed plants are really worth. If you do not send me your order, 
“You may pay more but you will not buy better.” 
Eighth. By a failure to select a proper soil, for every berry grower 
of extensive experience has tound that frequently his berry plants 
refuse to grow. As a rule he has erronously attributed this to 
disease in the plants, especially if they were purchased, rather 
than propagated by himself. Experiments have convinced many 
growers that the real trouble is in the soil itself, that there are 
certain places where it is practically impossible to grow berries 
successfully. Whether this refusal on the part of berry plants to 
grow in these given places is due to lack of a certain bacteria or 
plant food, or whether the soils contain some poison that kills the 
plant is a moot question as yet, and one that a number of State 
Experiment Stations are now at work on. 
My experience in growing Strawberries has taught me however, 
that a number of kinds are practically immune from trouble on any 
soil, while there are others that have to be planted on favorable soils 
or they refuse to grow. In order that my friends may have the 
benefit of this experience I propose to call attention to those kinds 
which will grow anywhere. You may count on Blakemore, Premier, 
Big Joe, Lupton and Big Late giving you a good bed, if any kind in 
existence will. 
