FLANSBURGH & PEIRSON’S CATALOGUE. 
ii 
good, strong grower. Not so rank 
as Marshall; hardy, shows no sign 
of rust, a fair plant maker, settir- its 
plants at medium distance from the 
parent. It has received no petting 
but taken an enual chance with doz¬ 
ens of other kinds for the four years 
of its existence. 
“The Massachusetts Horticultural 
Society awarded Commonwealth first 
prize in competition with Marshall, 
July 5 , 1902.” 
We omit the greater part of testi¬ 
mony in his circular, which includes 
a notice, under date of July 5, 1902, 
from the Boston Daily Transcript, 
and the Boston Daily Globe, concern¬ 
ing a box of immense, remarkable 
strawberries exhibited by Wm. H. 
Monroe, etc., to copy that of Benja¬ 
min M. Smith, the originator of the 
Beverly strawberry, Beverly, Mass., 
Jan. 5, 1903: “Of the new seedling 
strawberry, the Commonwealth, orig¬ 
inated and about to be introduced by 
William H. Monroe. I will say I 
have watched it carefully growing on 
his grounds with all the leading varie¬ 
ties, and for vigor of plant, produc¬ 
tiveness and quality of fruit it excels 
them all. It is a very late strawber¬ 
ry and one of the best I think I ever 
saw.” 
Benjamin M. Smith. 
The front page of Mr. Monroe’s 
circular showed a photograph of two 
box of Commonwealth berries and 
on the back page a photograph of two 
feet of row taken July 8, 1902, show¬ 
ing the large size, great productive¬ 
ness and lateness of this remarkable 
variety. We were favorably impress¬ 
ed with this strong testimony and got 
a few plants of Mr. Monroe, whose 
supply was limited as is our own. We 
only have a few hundreds to spare at 
$2.00 per dozen. The plants are good, 
healthy, vigorous growers and a few 
plants now will make you many by 
another fall. 
PAN AMERICAN. — (Per.) — A 
A strawberry plant that produces a 
large and continuous crop of fine ber¬ 
ries from August 1 until winter, ac¬ 
cording to the introducer, Samuel 
Cooper, of New York, of whom we 
bought a dozen plants last spring at a 
cost of $10.00, and we think his state¬ 
ment is correct. We were picking 
blossoms and green and ripe berries 
from these dozen plants every few 
See A B C of Strawberry Culture and 
days through the summer and fall 
until cold weather, trying to induce 
them to make, at least, a few new 
plants, but they kept on multiplying 
crowns and pushing out new fruiting 
stems in spite of all and only made 
just one new plant. This is an ever- 
bearing sure enough and the only one 
we ever had deserving of the name. 
What fruit we saw was fine, but we 
kept them picked as closely as possi¬ 
ble. Our customers will want to try 
this variety, and the only way we can 
do is to divide the crowns of some of 
these spring set plants that have 
grown so large. We will sell a few 
plants by dividing the crowns at $1.00 
each. We understand that is the way 
this sort is mainly propagated, or we 
will get some large plants from Mr. 
Cooper, if desired. Whether it will 
pay to grow strawberries in the fall 
depends on circumstances, but if it 
will, this is the only sort we know 
of that will fruit in a regular way with 
any degree of certainty. 
LATEST.— (Imp.)— New. Out 
plants were from the introducer, S. H. 
Warren, of Massachusetts, spring 
of 1902. The Latest is a cross be¬ 
tween the Jewell and Belmont. Mr. 
Warren says: “I have grown it six 
years, and have been growing straw¬ 
berries 49 years, and this seedling is 
one of the most productive I have 
ever grown, and the latest I know of. 
In 1900 I picked a few berries the 
second day of August. I do not think 
it firm enough for distant shipment. 
This seedling was awarded first pre¬ 
mium in 1899, at the Massachusetts 
horticultural exhibition of strawber¬ 
ries with large competition. I have 
refused $2.00 aniece for the plants.” 
The above is from our last year’s 
catalogue as was also a statement in 
regard to size, which Mr. Warren 
wrote us afterwards, was misquoted. 
We had written him especially con¬ 
cerning it and had copied, partly from 
his letter and partly from his cata¬ 
logue and we had no idea he referred 
to any but the Latest. The Latest 
proved to be one of the largest ber¬ 
ries on our grounds last vear. It is 
an exceedingly large and handsome 
berry, very late, and the fruit lay in 
piles all around the plants. We 
should judge from the few plants left 
us to fruit that an acre of such ber¬ 
ries would yield double the average 
bfcer Valuable Books, inside Back Com. 
