n. This may be said to be the important
thing in strawberry growing.

It is a difficult thing to find such varieties by the ordinary means of
selecting; namely, recourse to the catalogues of growers. Man has a
wonderful amount of selfishness in his composition. I say wonderful, for
it is a wonder when we consider how much better he would enjoy life were
all selfishness eliminated from it, and benevolence, coupled with true
self love, were substituted. "Each crow thinks its own young the
blackest," and each (almost) originator or "exclusive owner" of a new
variety of plant or tree, labors hard to convince himself and others
that he has the best of his kind; but, owing to the weakness of human
nature, even the sincere among these are liable to be biased, and thus
mislead others. The only safety, therefore, lies in planting such
varieties as you know to succeed well near you in similar soil, while
new varieties, commended as superior by persons of known integrity and
experience, for similar soil and climatic condition, should be tried
only on a small scale as an experiment. If they succeed, you can soon
have plenty of plants of your own growing--if you prefer to grow them.
This advice, though often before given will bear frequent
repetition--for the desire for "something new" is as prevalent with us
now as it was with the Athenians in St. Paul's time. We have seen Big
Bobs, Great Americans, and other monstrosities dwindle to pigmies in the
hands of ordinary cultivators, and the demand for Sharpless become less
sharp through its sensitiveness to the influence of Jack Frost; and
hosts of other sorts, really good and valuable somewhere, and under
peculiarly favorable conditions to be comparatively valueless for
general cultivation. Therefore every person designing to plant should
repeat to himself this injunction--"Go slow on new varieties."

It is not desirable for persons who plant for their own use solely to
select the pistillate varieties; for these, although the most profusely
productive when well fertilized, are liable to overrun their staminate
neighbors, and soon render the "strawberry patch" unproductive, or
productive only of small or imperfect fruit. The leading pistillates
offered in the catalogues now are Crescent, Col. Cheney, Windsor Chief,
Jersey Queen, Big Bob, Manchester, Green Prolific, Golden Defiance,
Champion, Park Beauty, Gipsey, and some others.

There are a few sorts, having perfect blossoms, which