STRAWBERRY PLANTS 
The Holdridge Farm Nursery started selling strawberry plants nearly 40 years 
ago as a sideline to a vegetable farm. Ever since that time strawberries have been 
raised here as one of the main sources of income, both for plants and for fruit. 
During this time many varieties of plants and various methods of care have 
been used here on a commercial scale. We pride ourselves on having kept up 
with new developments and ideas. The benefit of our experiments, trials and 
knowledge is represented in the plants which we are offering you for sale. 
This year we are among the first few plant growers to be able to offer 
virus free plants to their customers. As yet we are not able to offer virus free 
plants in all varieties but we hope to as virus free plants of other varieties be- 
come ayailaible. 
Strawberry plants require a great deal of hand labor to raise correctly and 
we are trying by efficient farming methods to keep the cost down. As usual, 
our plants will be freshly dug for your orders, trimmed clean of old leaves, etc., 
and page in bunches of 25. We recommend that orders be called for whenever 
possible. 
We are one of the largest growers of strawberry plants in New England. 
We have nearly 400,000 plants available for this spring but still may have to 
turn down late orders of many varieties. 
Last year we were forced to turn down many orders as our supply of plants 
sold out. We hope to supply your order but do urge you to place your order 
early and plant them early. 
VIRUS FREE STRAWBERRY PLANTS 
We offer for this season virus free strawberry plants in four varieties only, 
namely: Howard 17, Catskill, Sparkle and Blakemore. 
For a number of years specialists in the U.S.D.A. at Beltsville, Maryland, 
have been working to establish strains of regular strawberries which are virus 
free. The virus disease is now felt to be the cause of many varieties losing their 
vitality and strength. It has formerly been spoken of by growers as a variety 
“running out’. This has no doubt been the cause of so many good varieties of 
strawberries having been discarded. Some varieties were not as susceptible to 
the virus disease as others and therefore lasted a longer time. 
The scientists at the U.S.D.A. found out that in one variety of plants the 
leaves turned yellow when affected by the virus. So by planting a test plant 
near a plant of this variety and grafting the runners together they could find 
out if a plant was free of the virus disease. When a plant of a variety was found 
free of the disease, it was propagated and sprayed regularly to kill all aphis 
which spreads the virus disease. 
Last spring, sufficient plants of a number of varieties were available so that 
plant growers were allowed to purchase virus free plants. 
We purchased 15,000 of these plants. We rented a piece of land on which 
strawberries had never been raised before. 
These plants did exceptionally well for us this past year and we now are 
able to supply our customers with virus free plants of four varieties. 
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