STRAWBERRIES are always interesting, from whatever direction we regard them. We love the white blossoms in the sweet new spring days, we admire the long, straight, cozy rows, and who does not dote upon the great, plump, sweet berries ? We distrust the man, or woman either, for that matter, who does not love strawberries. So we look with a species of veneration upon the old Wilson's Albany, which divides with the Hovey the honors of making American strawberry-growing the magnificent industry which it has now become. The Hovey has almost passed from sight, although it has held its fifty years nobly against the horde of modern striplings.

But the Wilson disputes every inch of ground which these younger generations are usurping, and it even sometimes asserts itself as still the reigning king of the strawberry world. So we have asked our friends to tell us what they know about it to-day - if it is still profitable, if it is running out.

From F. M. Smith, Green Bay, Wis

"In 1861 I obtained my first Wilson plants. Since that time I have, with the greatest care, kept them pure. I have repeatedly obtained new plants from others whom I considered good growers, and set them upon my grounds, but entirely separate from my own. They failed in every case to do as well as my own, and after a fair trial were all destroyed. During all these years I have studied the habits of the plant very carefully, and think that I have learned many things about it that have aided me in obtaining much better average crops from it than from any other variety that I have tried, and they have been many. Firstly, it requires very rich land, and I do not think it possible to grow a large crop on poor, or even on a moderately rich soil. Secondly, it is not a strong grower as compared with Crescent, Warfield No. 2, or even the Bubach or Jessie ; hence the necessity of setting the plants closer together than most, if not any other variety that I have ever grown. Thirdly, I can make the beds yield but one large crop; hence the necessity of setting new beds every year. By large crops I mean not less than from 200 to 300 bush-els per acre. For quite a number of years past the average yield has been consid-erab1y more than the amount first named.

Fourthly, I cannot make them yield a large crop by resetting the same ground year after year, but use the land for other crops two or three years between the straw-berry crops. Neither do I take runners from plants that have been exhausted by bearing a large crop of fruit. I set plants in the spring, and when they come into bloom, as many of them will, I remove all the blossoms and keep the entire growth in the young plants until they commence throwing out runners. These runners are trained around the parent plant at nearly equal distances, thereby preventing their being crowded together. The result is a set of strong healthy plants, and from these beds are taken my plants for the next spring's setting. They are cultivated very carefully and are protected during winter. Such, in brief, is my plan with the Wilson. I have only once failed to have at least a paying crop, and then it was my fault, and not that of the plants. My sons, as well as myself, consider the stock stronger and better in every way than when we obtained it in 1861. It has been my main re. liance ever since it came into bearing, and seems likely to remain so, and if I could have but one variety, I should cot hesitate for a moment to take the Wilson." From T. T. Lyon, South Haven, Mich, - " The Wilson strawberry has, from the incipiency of commercial small fruit culture in this Lake Shore region, stood nearly or quite at the head of the list of profitable varieties, and has not yet quite lost its hold upon growers and dealers.

For years the dissemination of newer varieties has been slowly, but surely, undermining the popularity of this old favor-ite, prominent among which have been the Crescent, the Sharpless, the Mt. Vernon and more recently Haverland No. 2 and possibly Jessie. Still there are yet many planters who adhere with unyielding tenacity to the old-time preference for the Wilson. It has almost invariably been grown in matted rows, three or four feet from center to center, with a space between, kept open by the cultivator, wide enough for the accommodation of pickers. O c c a si on a 1 growers, however, especially on light soils, keep the plants in hills, planting in checks, rowing in both ways and cut-ing off the runners, and admitting of cross-cultivation. The preferred practice seems to be to secure but a -single crop of fruit from a plantation, which is then plowed under, a new plantation having been made, in spring, upon fresh ground for the succeeding season's crop. The persistent attacks of certain fungi, to which this variety has been liable, may have much to do with its alleged 'running out,'and these attacks may, perhaps, be largely due to neglect in cultivation.

The fact of the eminent success of J. M. Smith, of Wisconsin, as well as that of various other superior cultivators, would seem to afford ground for the suspicion that much of such apparent failure is rather the 'running out' of the fertility of the soil, than of the original capacity or vigor of the plant itself, a theory of which Thomas Andrew Knight appears to have been at least the foster father, but in the correctness of which we entertain but a halting, doubtful faith".

As Grown in New York in 1890.

From Thomas Wilde, Ottawa Co., Mich

"Thirty years ago the Wilson grew large and bright under any treatment. We planted close, in rows four feet apart, and after planting, cut close, raked, and cultivated with horse. At present, it is quite dark and about half its former size, and stands the lowest on the list of commercial berries. A fair crop can yet be grown by the liberal use, of ashes, but the Cumberland, Bubach, Warfield, Crescent, and Sharpless supersede it. All prominent growers in this part of the state believe that it has 'run out' beyond hope of resurrection. The Wilson berry was a God-send, but it is now eclipsed by new varieties having health, vigor, productiveness and beauty which far surpass its present condition".