4 
FLANSBURGH & PEIRSON’S CATALOGUE. 
again, growing and producing ber¬ 
ries. They are almost sure to live 
and thrive if set in spring. If there 
are new varieties that you have neg¬ 
lected to order at the proper time and 
wish to see the fruit a year sooner— 
they may be set in summer, if extra 
care is given, but we do not advise 
large -setting at that time. In this we 
follow out our own advice, though we 
are old hands at the business, and nev¬ 
er set in summer, unless to see the 
fruit a little sooner of new varieties 
from originators, etc. Growing and 
testing new varieties is an important 
feature here and there are few of the 
new candidates that are not given a 
trial at least. If a new variety is bet¬ 
ter than the old we all want it. If it 
isn’t, we don’t. It is our business to 
find out. Mr. A. writes: “I offer a 
new seedling, the best of a hundred 
sorts on my grounds,” etc., etc. Well, 
it may be best there, but will it be 
here or with our customers in other 
sections. We will buy a few plants 
and see. If it proves one of the bright 
stars, we make a hit. We can soon 
have plants to offer and something 
new and fine in berries for the market 
and make much money before the 
other fellow gets there; but if it de¬ 
velops serious faults or proves only 
ordinary when it comes out in good 
society we make a miss of it, and if 
we ever listed it we don’t now. Mr. 
B. sends us a few sample berries by 
mail. Fine! Splendid! A brand new 
sort, but we can trace the parentage 
as given, but will it prove as fine 
here by the side of a hundred other 
sorts without petting? We will try 
it a couple of seasons and see. Mr. 
C. sends a photograph of a monster 
berry that sells at 25 cents per quart 
wholesale in New York city. Returns 
our check of $10.00 for half a dozen 
or a dozen plants, but sends the plants 
under restrictions. If it proves up 
will take so much for full control. 
If it don’t, will not offer it at all. 
That is fair and we set them along¬ 
side of the others. What would you 
give, friends, to get a start with the 
finest strawberry that grows? We 
have new sorts on trial that would 
cost the price of a small farm to in¬ 
troduce. Well, the variety is not ev¬ 
erything, but it goes a long ways. 
When the Gandy was introduced, the 
writer bought a hundred plants, soon 
increasing them to an acre, from 
See Description of Peck’s 
which were sold the following season 
$700.00 worth of the finest berries 
that had ever been seen in this sec¬ 
tion; other varieties of the day were 
not in it, and it just suited my soil 
and conditions at the time. We have 
others now as fine as Gandy, though 
it is still one of the finest of its class. 
In this connection we want to say, 
that after giving the Lester Lovett a 
good fruiting trial last season we still 
see little, if any, difference between it 
and Gandy. Many have written us to 
the same effect. Some of whom 
bought their plants of the introduc¬ 
er and we cannot see why, if our 
plants for which we paid Mr. Lovett 
a big price are genuine, as he has re¬ 
affirmed by letter many times, that any 
one should risk their reputation by 
introducing a new variety so similar 
in every respect to one so well known 
as is the Gandy. We mentioned the 
similarity of plant growth in our cat¬ 
alogue last year, citing the fact that 
our plants were indentical in appear¬ 
ance with those seen by the writer on 
the grounds of the Wooster, Ohio, 
Experiment Station, but that we 
had not given it a fruiting trial, hav¬ 
ing been sold short of plants and 
obliged to order more from the in¬ 
troducer for customers and ourselves. 
If they are indeed two distinct varie¬ 
ties, they are very near alike. If a 
new variety seems to us of sufficient 
importance to catalogue before fruit¬ 
ing here, we may list it after growing 
the plants one season, but if we are 
alone responsible for its introduc¬ 
tion, we would prefer to be more thor¬ 
oughly satisfied before offering it to 
our friends. The writer is deeply in¬ 
terested in all that has to do with 
strawberries and has been fairly suc¬ 
cessful from the first in picking out 
the winners early in the race and as 
time goes on and we note the great 
improvements, as friends and corres¬ 
pondents multiply in every direction, 
as our opportunities increase to do 
you good our intesest increases. The 
greater demand and better prices paid 
for choice berries has stimulated the 
production of new varieties to meet 
the call from every enterprising 
grower for something finer still. As 
stated in our catalogue last year, we 
are building upward every year with 
new and improved varieties as well 
as plant selection. We are growing 
finer berries now and bigger crops 
Early Potato on page 29. 
