McUmber’s Yellow Free 
Plants Ki 
The American Fruit Grower, nationally known 
horticultural magazine, conducted a survey to de- 
termine the most popular strawberry variety in 
the nation; and the result, published in the Oct- 
ober, 1940 issue of that magazine, is as follows: 
“The Blakemore yellow-leaf resistant var- . 
iety reigns supreme over all its strawberry 
relatives, according to American’ Fruit 
Grower’s planting survey. | 
“The original Blakemore strawberry was 
susceptible to the yellow-leaf disease and it 
was only through chance that one yellow- 
free strain was discovered by Tennessee 
grower, Ralph McUmber and his foreman, 
Jesse Needham, among a lot of poorly pack- 
ed plants, damaged by shipment.” 
Thus it can be seen that the Yellow Free Blake- 
more, unknown prior to 1938, has become the 
leading strawberry variety of the nation. As the 
originator of this strain of Blakemores, I take 
great pride in announcing it to the strawberry 
growers of America for the fourth consecutive 
season, and in being able to say that I have for 
sele 20 acres of the finest plants that I have ever 
grown. The state plant inspectors spent consid- 
erable time in checking my large acreage, and re- 
ported that there was not a yellow plant to be 
found. 
The Blakemore has been a favorite in this sec- 
tion for more than a decade. The fact that it is 
more prolific, produced larger fruit, and has bet- 
ter shipping qualities caused it to displace the 
Klondike which had formerly been the favorite. 
The one great fault of the Blakemore variety has 
been removed with the discovery of the Yellow 
Free Strain; and its merit will not be unreward- 
ed. The Blakemore berry is described in the U. 
S. D. A. Yearbook for 1930 as follows: “The ber- 
ries are of good size, slightly larger and more 
uniform in shape than those of the Missionary. 
They do not have the long point of the Mission- 
ary and have a slight neck. The berries are firm- 
er than the Missionary or the Klondike. Their 
bright, light-red color does not change on stand- 
ing. It is an acid berry of the Missionary and 
Klondike type, though slightly less acid than 
either.” I feel sure that with its printed record 
above | make no mistake in calling jt “America’s 
finest strawberry.” 
