1886 
•lUiiftH ot any vaviotv 
Iran -n .— J 
MASSAOHUSETTS HOKTIOULI’DUAL SOOim 
Bone and Slrawberri/ JixhihUhm 
NolwiUistandlnff the unusual latc.'ioss of 
the season, ami the dry weal,her which had 
a most injuriousolVeet upon 11 . 0 ,sea and Straw 
berries, tho cxldbitlon of tiio 2r,tli and 20th 
of .Tune proved a grand sueeess. 
Tlic cxlubition of plants in tlie u])por Imli 
was arranged witli great taste, for wliicli 
tlio conunitteo of arrangements deserve mueli 
credit. The Oreliids from Messrs. Ames and 
Gilman, formed a bank on tlic stage, witli a 
background of Palms and other fine folian-e 
plants, and groups of similar plants .arranged 
on stages in front of each window. In the 
spaces between the windows were stands for 
the general displays of Poses and other cut 
flowers. The prize Roses wore arranged on 
two long tables, forming an extended^.ari'ay 
of be.auty, the center being broken with 
smaller tables containing Orchids and other 
plants. The display of Orchids was by gen¬ 
eral consent declared the largest evei' made, 
wliich we have not the space to describe. 
To anyone who has never had the good 
fortune to .attend a Boston Rose Show, it 
would be difflcult to convey anything like a 
correct impression of the excellence, beauty 
and quantity of Roses shown here in “Flora’s 
temple.” The prizes for Roses have been 
taken, to a very large extent, by John B. 
Moore & Sou. The first special prize for 
the best twenty-four varieties, three, blooms 
of each, was also awarded to this firm. The 
collection consisted of: Abel Carriere, Al¬ 
fred Colomb, Baroness Rothschild, Charles 
Lefebvre, Etienne Levet, Franqois Michelou, 
Hor.ace Vernet, Mabel Morrison, Mine. Eu¬ 
gene Verdier, Mme. Gabriel Luizet, Mnie. 
Victor 'Verdier, Marguerite de St. Auiande, 
Marquise de Castellane, Marguerite de Ro¬ 
man, Merveille de Lyon, Pierre Netting, 
Queen of Queens, Sir Garnet M'^olseley, E. 
Y. Teas, George Moreau, Mine. Marie Rady, 
baRosiere, Ulrich Brunner, Victor Verdier. 
The second prize was awarded to AV. H. 
Spooner. The other principal exliibitors of 
Roses were John L. G.ardner, J. S. Richards, 
David Allan, C. M. Hovey, Bciij. G. Smith. 
The next table was filled by AA'^illiain A. 
Maiida of the Cambridge Botanic Garden, who 
had a plant of Catlleya Mossice remarkably 
full of flowers, Brassia verrucosa, Thunia 
Bensonio}, Leontopodmm album (the Edel¬ 
weiss of the Alps) and Dioncea musoipula, or 
Venus’s fly trap. S. R. P.ayson exhibited a 
variety of Orchids, Anthuriums, Gloxinias, 
The Sweet-AVilliams from E. Shepjiard, 
which took first prize, were rem.arkahly flue, as 
The first prize for the best specimen plant 
(not Orchid) was awarded to David Allan 
far Brica Gavendishti, second to F- D. Ames 
ov Ulrieularia montana; for the best fo la^e 
°v flowering plant (not Orchid) to I- 
■^nies, Dichurisandria mosaica. , 
. The fruits and vegetables were aiisiy 
the lower hall, the former consisting 
^ostlyof Strawben-ies. P- M. Augur .and 
"Oh, Middlefleld, Conn., carried ofl th® 
yevkedal for the best seedling Strawbo^y varieties. 
of Berricst Black Defiance, 
^troduced within five years, 
owell, which is really a most valua ‘ 
The first prize for the best fom 
197 
Hill fZ. c ^ ^ awarded to George 
FI,! :i '^'“^'Tlcss,^^ second to Geo. V. 
Ictclior for same vai-icty. 
PHncipally entered for cm, 
.Sharpless, Bidwcll, Charles Down 
'I'lic varieties 
competition were 
ing, Cum- 
Miners Prohiic, ,Scth Boyden, Champion; 
uoscent, Jersey Queen, and Manclicster; 
TZn ^"ir ^®oding ])rizes wei'c awarded 
to Geo. V. Fletcher, Win. I’atterson, E. ’IV. 
. Tfovey, B. G. .Smith, J. D. 
I'ltts, .lolm B. Moore & ,Son, C. E. Grant, 
George Hill, B. .f iididns, I,. W. Weston, Win. 
I attersoii and AVarren Heustis and others. 
^ AMEEIOAKT INSTITUTE PAEMERS' OLUB. 
The meeting of the Club on June lOtli, 
held in connection witli the Strawberry and 
Rose Exliiliition reported in our last issue, 
was -of unusual interest, and we doubt 
whether a meeting for the discussion of the 
Strawberrj' was ever held anywhere at 
which so many prominent expei'ienced Straw¬ 
berry growers were present and contributed 
to the general fund of information. 
After a few .apiiropriate remarks by Dr. 
F. AI. Ilexamer, the Pi-esident of the Ciub, 
relating to the new home, and the objects 
and aims of the Ciub, Air. E. P. Roe opened 
the discussion. 
Air. Roe said that deveiopment and im¬ 
provement of the Strawberry is slow. Hehad 
abandoned the idea maintained a few years 
ago that all the varieties of the day were 
soon to be superseded by new and better 
ones, and the old kinds to be plowed under. 
Great names and endorsements on paper do 
not make a variety great, natm’e alone can 
make it so, and if it has not real intrinsic 
merit it will soon be discarded. In our en- 
de.avors for improvement we have to ob¬ 
serve three principal points: 
1. —Development in the Strawberry should 
be sought in the line of native stock; littie is 
to be hoped from importations. The high¬ 
est excellence of foreign Strawberries is 
combined in Triomphe de Gand, and its 
equal has yet to be found. The letiding qu.al- 
ities to be aimed at are beauty, firmness, 
flavor; udthout these, size is nothing. 
2 . _AYc should not discard the old stand¬ 
ard varieties that have stood the test of 
many years. A’'arieties like Charles Down- 
cannot easily he surpassed. Typical 
of such sliould be singled out and 
on fair Strawberry laud to start a 
vigorous strain from, .and not 
plants from everything and anything. 
3 _in developing new varieties we should 
h.ave in mind that they are not intended for 
inillionaires but for the people. For propa- 
-- ■ • ’ ■ - ■’- such 
mg 
pl.ants 
grown 
new and 
gation, fair, dry soil should be chosen, 
fs would not be considered fit for the veipr 
highest cultiv.ation; and only selected ijants 
should be used for the purpose. Plants 
•Zu on a very rich soil will, as a rule, 
fail on poor and sandy soil, while those that 
Swe sSweient inherent vigor in them aiull 
their way; like some young men make 
maketheii^ A ’ everything, they make 
ri’^ht kind to succeed will grow 
chance. Ihe 11. c^se ^^^^iyens. The old 
even instance, is a good variety to 
of Jersey 
E. AV. 
Queen, Prince 
and many other valuable varieties, thought 
there was something like Intuition that 
guided him in the selection of varieties for 
crossing, and that it required constant at¬ 
tention and application to accomplish .any¬ 
thing in thisdircction. Alost varieties change, 
the foliage giving way to the fruit. The 
change may be so gradual that it becomes 
impossible to foretell the fixed, permanent, 
character of a new variety before six or 
even ten years, and he had known seediings 
to retrograde even after such a period. To 
expect much improvement from chance seed¬ 
lings he considered a falbacy. 
Chas. A. Green, editor of Green’s Fruit 
Grower, stated that the crop in western New 
York was very promising, that the berries 
were ripening rather late, but with frequent 
and timeiy showers the season had been the 
most favorable for many years. Their plants 
were covered in winter by snow and came 
out in fine condition in spring; all the stand¬ 
ard varieties promised good yields; for their 
main crops they relied upon Vick and Alan- 
chester, varieties that hiul never failed them. 
P. T. Quinn was satisfied with his crop. 
On seven acres of ground near Newark, N. 
J., he raised 1,000 bushels of Strawberries last 
year, and expects to do nearly the same this 
season. AATioever expects to make money 
in Strawberry growing must have good land, 
deep soil, give high manuring, and be con¬ 
venient to a good market. Southern Straw¬ 
berries have entirely revolutionized northern 
Strawberry culture. So far onlj' two varie¬ 
ties, theAA’ilson and Neunan, have been found 
adapted for cultivation at the South, and at 
the North, earliness is not the leading con¬ 
sideration, as was formerly the case. After 
experimenting with every new variety as it 
became introduced, he finds the Charles 
Downing still the most profitable Straw¬ 
berry to grow for market. Berries are grown 
for the masses, therefore we must have va¬ 
rieties which yield enough so that theyc.anbe 
sold within the means of tlie masses, at a 
retail price of fi-om. eight to twenty cents. 
The average net cost of his berries to liim he 
estimates .at six to seven cents a quart. 
Summer pLanting he has abandoned en¬ 
tirely and plants now in spring exclusively. 
The plants are set fifteen inches apart in 
rows four to five feet apart, and .allowed to 
run. They are always mulched in the fall, 
the covering being removed in the spring, 
the ground cultivated lightly and the mulch 
replaced between the rows before picking. 
The speaker was convinced that Strawberry 
culture will yield a fan-profit if intelligently 
followed and proper application is given to 
it; and that even in seasons of light crops 
there is alw.ays th.at compensation that what 
crop there is will bring better prices. 
P. M. Augiu-, State Pomologist of Con¬ 
necticut, did not favor cultivation in spring, 
and held that the less the soil is disturbed in 
spring the better; would onlypuU the weeds 
that made their appearance. Of the impor¬ 
tance of mulching he was fully convinced, 
having observed that all the plants that had 
been mulched last-winter were doing well, 
while those left uncovered were more or less 
seriously injured. 
In this, E. P. Roe, E. AY. Durand, AYin. 
Parry, A. S. Fuller, Dr. J. B. AA’ard, Sara. 
Parsons, J. B. Rogers, and most of those 
present concurred, admitting that if the 
