Althea, Syringa. Spirae. Snowball or a Lilac? 
41 
berries, is that they fruit in the fall of the 
first year that they are set out, most varieties 
on the young runner plants as well as the 
parent plants. This characteristic enables 
people in cold climates to have strawberries 
where the winters are too severe to winter 
the plants in the open and also in sections 
where spring frosts occur so late in the spring 
as to destroy the spring crop. The fall or 
everbearing strawberries blossom continuous¬ 
ly throughout the growing season, and as it 
only takes about three or four weeks from the 
blossom to the ripe berry, there is hardly a 
locality where these varieties cannot be made 
to fruit the first season they are set out. It 
is well known by most strawberry growers 
that frosts destroy strawberries only when in 
full bloom; after the berries are set, frosts 
do not destroy them. Ordinary frosts of early 
autumn seem to benefit fall fruiting straw¬ 
berries by thinning the number of blossoms 
and thereby making the fruit larger. It is 
only when hard freezes come, hard enough to 
freeze the soil to a depth of an inch or more 
that fall strawberries are injured. The flavor 
of fall strawberries how’ever is superior wlien 
there is much warm weather and sunshine 
In November the berries lack both flavor and 
fine appearance. We therefore advise that 
the plants be encouraged to fruit only in 
August, September and the forepart of 
October. 
In marketing fall strawberries, we find that 
the people must be educated to use them. 
There are still some people who tliink that 
there is no such a thing. We find that they 
sell best where best knowui. Private families 
who have had them before, hotels, restaurants 
and other places where they ran be taken in 
fresh every day, prove the best customers. 
Most varieties will not stand shipment well 
in hot weather or wet and muggy weather. 
The Superb is the best shipper of the well 
known kinds, with Americus second in value 
and Francis third. With a brief test, the new 
Minnesota No. 1017 seems to be the bei^it 
shipper of them all. 
A brief history of the fall hearing straw¬ 
berry may be of sontp interest. In the fall of 
18ns, Samuel Cooper of Western New York 
found a plant of the old Bismarck strawberry 
which with its eleven young runner plants 
was hearing strawberries. This was in the 
month of November. The original plant and 
its eleven runners were transferred to the 
family garden and continued to fruit in the 
fall from year to year. Mr. Cooper sent me 
some fruit the following autumn and these 
were the first fall hearing strawberries that 
I ever saw. The plants were increased by 
runners and division as fast as possible and 
distributed quite generally over the United 
States. The variety was never a success 
commercially, but it was necessary to have 
this variety, which was named the Pan 
American, to produce more and better kinds 
of these new berries. A peculiarity of the 
Pan American is that it will revert to the 
spring fruiting habit and not produce much. 
if any fruit in tlie fall, if excessively fertilized 
with nitrogenous manure and highly cul¬ 
tivated; while its seedlings are not inclined to 
revert back permanently, if over enriched. 
Mr. Cooper raised the Autumn from seed of 
the Pan American and by crossing Autumn 
with Pan American and other kinds, he pro¬ 
duced numerous new varieties such as Pro¬ 
ductive, Superb, Ideal and Peerless. The last 
two seem to be of the same type as Superb. 
In February of 1905, Mr. Harlow Rockhill of 
Iowa, who has had much experience in breed¬ 
ing plants, sowed seeds of a cross of Pan 
American and Louis Gauthier, a French 
variety of strawberry, in boxes in the kitchen 
window of his farm home. These came up, 
were transplanted into boxes and in the 
spring were put out in the garden. Several 
of these plants fruited in August of tfiat same 
year. Among these seedlings were the Fran 
CIS and Americus. It seems almost incredible 
that strawberries can be produced from the 
seeds as quickly as tomatoes, hut such is the 
fact. Later on, numerous other varieties 
were produced by Mr. Rockhill, the most fa- 
inons of which is Progressive. The Horticul¬ 
turist at the Minnesota Exp. Station has made 
numerous cros.ses and seedling No. 1017 is one 
of the results. 
There Is no one variety of fall bearing straw¬ 
berry wliich has all the desirable qualities of 
a perfect strawberry. In this respect, they 
are just like other strawberries. All varieties 
have one or more weak points The only 
thing to do is to experiment and select the 
variety which best fits into your purpose. 
Fall bearing strawberries are now past the 
experimental stage. With most growers, the 
novelty has worn off. They are now on their 
true merits. In the future, we expect to see 
varieties originated and introduced that will 
surpass the best that we now have. Numerous 
letters from people in different sections of the 
United States show that many new varieties 
are springing up. Most of these will prove 
of no partioiilar value over those already in 
cultivation. Some will prove to be only sec 
ond crops of regular summer bearing 
varieties. Whatever be its future, the fall 
bearing strawberry deserves a place and will 
occupy a place in the Horticultural world. 
L. J. Farmer. Pulaski, Oswego Co.. N. V. 
PeekakiM. N. Y.. May 8tti. 
The plants came about the 20th of April and 
were In good condition. The raapberrlea wpth cer 
talnly fine and every one Ik living. 
Mrs. George Baxter. 
Eaat Springfield. N. Y.. May 4th. 1921. 
The plants arrived all right. Thanking yon for 
prompt shipment. Anna M. .Stoner. 
Glenns Falls. N. Y., April 27th. 1921. 
The 100 asparagus plants arrived in good condi¬ 
tion April 26th. The 26 Idaho raspberry plants were 
also In fine condition. H. B. Floyd. 
Lancaster, N. H.. July 20th. 1921 
You very kindly refilled an order for 8 Neverfall 
strawberry plants. These hsve all lived and are 
looking fine. U. L. Drisko. 
Burlington. Vt.. May Ist, 1921. 
The strawberry plants arrived all right and are 
flne. C. F. Reynolds. 
Easton, Mo.. April 6th, 1921. 
Received your goods and am well pleased with 
them. Ferdinand Klenk. 
