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Show PROMISING STRAWBERRY CROP CUT SHORT BY HEAT Early Pickings Came Soft and Light in Color, Striking an Unreceptive Market Glutted With Low-Grade Low-Grade Southern Berries. A very promising strawberry crop .vas cut short by drought and extreme heat following the unusually cool and moist weather of late May, says Rural N'ew Yorker. The early pickings came soft and light in color, striking an unreceptive un-receptive market, glutted with low-grade low-grade southern berries. Fair fruits realized less money than at any similar sim-ilar time for many years. Quality and prices steadily improved, however, until the full effects of the hot wave became apparent in lessened size and impaired flavor. The average yield per acre of good commercial plantings for Lhe season would probably not reach :',,000 quarts, and the average price of first-class berries cannot be estimated it more than seven cents the quart, thus bringing possible profits to very moderate figures. The variety Sue- to maintain its present local impor tance. Glen Mary fell from grace this year, and may have difficulty in regaining regain-ing its previous standing as an indispensable indis-pensable market variety. Vigor and productiveness are its strong points. It is a fair shipper, but quality and appearance ap-pearance are rarely commendable, though there are even less attractive kinds in general cultivation. The main reason for growing it is that it is normally a great basket filler and a reliable, though not excessive plant maker, spacing its runners about right for matted row culture. The blooms are imperfectly staminate, and do not always take kindly to pollination from other sources, thus resulting in many knotty and mal-formed berries. The results of excessive humidity at the blooming time of Glen Mary were ap- if New Cross-Bred Strawberries. Indian Strawberry Below. cess proved a heavy cropper, perfecting perfect-ing its berries better than .kinds maturing ma-turing later. Probably greater revenue is to be credited to this productive early variety than to any of the later ones, notwithstanding the low prices prevailing at the beginning of the season, sea-son, as it has been the most generally planted. It is admitted to be too soft for shipment, but is locally liked for ;ts good size, fine color and satisfactory quality. The plant is a most thrifty and healthy grower. The bloom is staminate, furnishing abundant pollen for other sorts as well, and there are always plenty of strong runners, making mak-ing propagation easy and certain. William Belt shows increasing weakness weak-ness in plant, but the berries are as well liked as ever, surpassing all other established kinds for table quality. It will be long planted, but is not likely parent in the green-tipped and unat tractive fruits as they appeared when packed for shipment. Strawberries of this class must "make good" every year to retain their popularity. President Presi-dent finished its handsome fruits as' well as usual, but the weakened plants produced only a light crop. Gandy in heavy soils ripened a profitable crop, notwithstanding the intense heat prevailing pre-vailing at the time. While rarely a bountiful yielder, and too sharp in quality for many palates, Gandy remains re-mains one of the most satisfactory and dependable late strawberries for the grower who plants in moist, rich soil and affords proper cultivation. Introduced Intro-duced in 1884 as a cross between Glen-dale Glen-dale and Jersey Queen, it holds its own in this locadity as the firmest, handsomest and most generally desirable desira-ble of late varieties. |