TRUE-TO-NAME STRAWBERRY PLANTS 
7 
“Pedigreed” Strawberry Plants 
The question of “pedigree” has been before the public 
for several years but there are some growers who do 
not clearly understand just what the term implies and 
whether pedigree plants are more valuable than plants 
from other reliable nurserymen. 
Those who advertise and sell “thoroughbred” and 
“pedigreed” plants do not tell us what pedigree is and 
how they pedigree their plants, but mislead the public 
by an indiscriminate use of such terms as breeding and 
selection, and drawing a false analogy between the value 
of selecting and breeding animals and that of plants 
propagated by runners, layers, cuttings, and grafts. 
“The word ‘pedigree' has come to be used with refer¬ 
ence to plants in a sense which conveys a meaning that 
is altogether untruthful. An animal with a pedigree is 
one having a known ancestry. The parentage on both 
sides must be known for one or more generations. The 
value of a pedigree consists not in its length, merely, 
but in the character of the parentage. 
“A pedigree in the case of a variety of plants propa¬ 
gated from seeds, as in the case of vegetables or grains, 
might have great value. Any variety of plants which 
is propagated by means of cuttings, layers, runners, 
grafts, or by any method of division may have a pedi¬ 
gree also, but its value would not be enhanced thereby. 
In the case of varieties of plants which are propagated 
from seeds the type is fixed and held by selection, and 
the more careful the selection, or in other words the 
better the pedigree, the more firmly the type becomes 
fixed and the better the variety. With plants which are 
propagated by division selection has nothing to do 
with the fixedness of the variety. Plants of this class 
are more firmly fixed by nature as to type than are 
those which are propagated from seeds. We must not 
regard any class of plants as absolutely fixed and 
unchangeable, for the tendency to vary, or sport, 
is manifest in all. 
“To secure a variety of Strawberry with a pedigree, 
two varieties must be crossed when in bloom. This 
process may be continued with the progeny, indefinitely, 
and if a record is kept of the parentage the result is a 
variety with a pedigree. The mere selection of plants 
of a variety, without regard to both male and female 
parents, does not establish a pedigree. A pedigreed 
variety can only be established by growing plants from 
seed, and a seedling with a pedigree of the class of 
plants which are propagated by division is no better 
than one without, because the good qualities of the 
ancestors may, or may not, be transmitted. There is 
nothing in a pedigree of plants of this class which will 
help to fix and hold the type as with plants grown from 
seed, nor does a pedigree in the case of such plants 
insure a better performance. The conclusion then is 
warranted that the so-called pedigreed Strawberry 
plants which are said to have been produced by selec¬ 
tion are not pedigreed plants at all, and that’ real 
pedigreed Strawberry plants have no value above those 
without pedigree. The word ‘pedigree’ as it is used 
with reference to Strawberry plants is a misnomer. 
It tends to confusion in the minds of many and leads 
to deception. 
“The word is used out of its true sense to convey the 
belief that a condition exists which does not and can¬ 
not exist, or, if it could exist, would have no value. A 
sport may occur in a variery of Strawberry, as well as 
any other class of plants. When such a sport occurs it 
really constitutes a new variety and may be propagated 
by division, but it is in no sense a pedigree plant. 
“The Experiment Station has put some of these 
so-called pedigree Strawberry plants to the test and 
they have been found wanting. Not one has shown 
any superiority over the same variety from other 
sources.” (Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station 
Bulletin 166.) 
We all know that many standard varieties of Straw¬ 
berries, as the Chesapeake, Glen Mary, etc., are chance 
seedlings of unknown parentage, and hence cannot pos¬ 
sibly be pedigreed in any sense of the word. However, 
these varieties can be found offered for sale by those 
who claim to sell only pedigreed plants. As before 
stated, the mere selection of plants of a variety, with¬ 
out regard to both male and female parents, does not 
establish a pedigree. We select our plants when plant¬ 
ing in our nursery and also before shipping to a cus¬ 
tomer. We discard all weak, poorly rooted, and im¬ 
mature plants, and plant and ship only those that are 
strong, healthy, vigorous, and well rooted, which will 
grow well and produce large crops of fruit, if given 
proper care. This is the only kind of selection of Straw¬ 
berry plants that experiments, carefully conducted by 
experiment stations and by practical growers, have 
justified. 
We believe that better Strawberries can be produced 
by the introduction of new varieties, showing superior 
characteristics, either chance seedlings (as the Chesar 
peake, Glen Mary, Hustler, etc.) or varieties pVoduced 
by scientific breeding from seed (as the Early Jersey 
Giant, Progressive, Early Ozark, Paul Jones, etc.). 
More and better berries can be grown also by using 
strong, healthy, true-to-name plants of the varieties 
we already have and growing them under more favora¬ 
ble conditions—richer soil, more manure, better care. 
Assuming that it is possible to pedigree Strawberry 
plants, the fact that a plant is pedigreed would mean 
nothing in itself. A poor, weakly producing plant 
could have as much of a pedigree as a strong, vigorous 
one. It is performance and not “pedigree” that is 
important. If plants not claimed to be pedigreed show 
up better, or even as good in experiments and test 
plots, as plants claimed to be “pedigreed,” of what 
value is the pedigree? This has been true at the experi¬ 
ment stations and with many Strawberry-growers. 
Bulletin No. 177 (1914) of the Missouri Station states 
that recent experiments carried on for 12 years have 
failed to prove the value of pedigreed Strawberry plants. 
Circular No. 31 of the New York (Geneva) Agri¬ 
cultural Experiment Station says: “Pedigreed plants 
are supposed to inherit from their ancestors desirable 
characters, which have become fixed and which are 
repeated without change year after year. This has not 
been proven to be true however, and it is not advisable 
to invest in such plants.” 
We herewith present statements of practical growers 
who have tested for themselves the value of pedigreed 
plants. Mr. Wm. McCutchan, of Hennepin County, 
Minnesota, in a letter to us says: “I have tried the so- 
called pedigreed plants right along side by side with 
your plants and in every instance the plants purchased 
from you were equal, if not superior, to the ‘pedigreed’ 
plants. I, for one, have come to a realization that 
plant-purchasers pay an exorbitant price for the above 
name attached to their plants. I expect to order more 
plants for spring setting and The W. F. Allen Co. 
plants are as good as the best for me.” 
Mr. Harry C. King, of Lake County, Ohio, says: 
“You might be interested to know that when I ordered 
of you, I had been reading-’s catalog and so 
ordered 1,000 Dunlap of them and some others to com¬ 
pare. Your Dunlaps, planted by the side, were better 
plants, grew better and bore more fruit than the 
‘pedigreed’ stock. Want no more ‘pedigreed’ stock. 
They cost a lot more too.” 
Even if Strawberry plants could be pedigreed, why 
buy them if they are not as good as plants, true to 
name, strong, well rooted, healthy and vigorous, grown 
by some reliable up-to-date nurseryman? We have no 
doubt that the so-called pedigreed plants, if grown 
under favorable conditions and handled properly will 
produce a good crop of berries, but it would be due to 
the fact that they were good healthy Strawberry plants 
and not to the fact that they had any such name as 
“pedigree” or “thoroughbred” attached to them. 
We are sure that, with the same variety, properly 
planted at the right season, under identical conditions 
and given the same care and attention, any of our varie¬ 
ties of strong, healthy, vigorous, true-to-name plants 
will show up as well as any so-called “pedigreed” plants. 
If you don’t use our plants already, give us half your 
order this year. All we want is a chance to prove that 
you get more for your money with our plants than with 
any so-called “pedigreed” plants you can buy. 
