J. W. JONES & 

SON, FRANKLIN, VIRGINIA 3 



Eighty Years of 
Experience Behind 
Jones’ Plants 
In the Spring of 1867 the father of J. 
W. Jones set one acre of strawberry 
plants of the Wilson’s Albany variety. 
That was the start of the latter in berry 
growing. From that date to the time of 
his death in 1927, at the age of eighty- 
six, he was interested in strawberries. 
In the period between 1873 and 1890 he 
was one of the largest growers in the 
East. With painstaking care he exper- 
imented with scores of new varieties, se- 
lecting for his own fields the best among 
them. This is a policy continued until 
now. 
In 1901, his son, Roscoe, in association 
with J. W. began the sale of berry plants 
on a commercial scale. For twenty years 
he was active in the management of the 
business. During this period millions of 
plants were shipped to every section of 
the U. S. A. and Canada. In 1921 Roscoe 
Jones retired from plant growing to be- 
come a member of the Virginia Confer- 
ence of the Methodist Church. Dr. Jones 
is now District Superintendent of the 
Petersburg District of that Conference. 
From 1921 to 1928 M. Clifford Smith very 
successfully managed it, and from 1928 
to 1983 J. H. Shivers, Jr. had equal suc- 
cess in directing it. In the latter year 
Roscoe Jones sold out his interest at Al- 
len, Md., and the business was reorganiz-. 
ed at Franklin, Va. Here, soil on which 
strawberries have never been grown is. 
abundant and labor, though no less ex- 
pensive, is much easier to secure. 
Phoebus Jones, son of Roscoe, is now 
actively managing the business at Frank- 
lin, and has scored remarkable. success 
in growing healthy, true-to-name plants 
and in the most important matter of 
satisfying customers in all parts of the 
country. As an evidence of his skill the 
season of 1947 was one of the very best 
both in volume of business and the ab- 
sence of complaints, of any that we have : 
had in all our History. Mr. Jones is giv- 
ing most devoted attention to two mat- 
ters: growing healthy plants and get-. 
ting them off on time. 
