656 ReEportT oF THE HORTICULTURIST OF THE 
SOME EXPERIENCES IN TESTING STRAWBERRIES. 
For several years this station has conducted tests with different 
varieties of strawberries in order that the numerous inquiries 
which it receives concerning: both old and new sorts might be | 
answered more intelligently than would otherwise be possible, 
and also that the general demand for information concerning the 
comparative merits of the newer varieties might be met by pub- 
lishing annually in the station’s bulletins ér annual reports the 
record of these varieties as grown at this station.* 
No one understands better than the average straw erry 
grower that no variety, however mer.torious it may be, does equally 
well in all locations and on all soils. It is therefore hardly neces- 
sary to remind those readers for whose benefit this bulletin is 
prepared that it is not the purpose of the station reports issued 
from time to time to pass final judgment as to the merits of the 
varieties discussed, but rather to offer a contribution to our 
knowledge of these varieties by setting forth the merits or 
demerits developed by the plants grown on our soil and under 
the climatic conditions found here. 
During the years in which the work of testing strawberry 
varieties has been prosecuted here, the station has endeavored to 
obtain the newer kinds for testing as fast as they were introduced 
to public notice. Many originators of new varieties, realizing 
the importance of the impartial tests conducted by this station, 
have sent plants of new varieties to the station for testing two or 
three years before they were placed on the market. 
The strawberries tested here are grown on a fertile clay loam, 
well tile drained and sloping gently towards the south. Some 
varieties seem well adapted to this location and have given excel- 
lent results; other kinds have not succeeded as well here as they 

*See annual report of this station for 1888, p. 226; 1885, pp. 226-227; 1886, 
pp. 2538-254; 1887, pp. 333-335; 1888, pp. 229-231; 1869, pp. 298-806; 1890, 
pp. 208-274; 1891, pp. 460-468, and 1892, pp. 681-689. The report on straw- 
berries found in the annual report of this station for 1890 was also published in 
its bulletin 24; that for 1891 was also published in bulletin 36; that for 1892 
- was also published in bulletin 44 and a portion of the report for 1893 was pub- 
lished in bulletin 64. 
