In the _American Agriculturist_ for August, E. P. Roe, of
Cornwall-on-the-Hudson, New York, reports progress on these two new
strawberries. He states that the Crescent Seedling originated with
William Parmelee, New Haven, Connecticut, in 1870. Its two marked
features as he has seen it in several localities, are a tendency to take
entire possession of the ground, crowding out the weeds, and of
literally covering the ground it grows on with fruit. Its lack of
firmness, he thinks, will prove its chief fault. He saw it growing
vigorously, and fruiting enormously on light soils, and in some
instances other and leading varieties standing near it had proved utter
failures. It has also done remarkably well on damp and heavy soil in his
own grounds. In color it is a bright scarlet, and looks well in the
basket. Like the Wilson, it is red before it is ripe, and in this
immature state the flavor is poor, but greatly improves as the berry
ripens. It has the appearance of being a pistillate, though it is
claimed that it will bear alone. He noticed, however, that in a field of
four acres some Wilson’s were planted at intervals, and advises that
some of the perfect flowered varieties be set out near by. He finds it
to ripen this season about with the Wilson.
The Forest Rose, he says, is a chance seedling, discovered by J. A.
Fetters, of Lancaster, Ohio, in his vineyard, about seven years ago, and
that it surpasses the other in flavor, beauty, and particularly in its
shipping qualities, but that thus far it has not proved with him to be
anything like so productive. In sending some thirty-six varieties to the
Queen’s County Fair he found that it suffered the least from
transportation of them all. He is growing it on three kinds of soil; the
stiffest kind of clay, a light, moist soil, and a gravelly knoll, and it
is doing well in each. Thus far with him the foliage has never rusted or
burned. He expresses his hopes in regard to it, by saying that he
planted it more largely than any other kind last spring. He quotes Dr.
J. A. Warder, of Ohio, as saying of it, “here we have elegance of form,
brilliancy in color, great size, and firmness to bear transportation,
combined with table qualities of a higher order than in Wilson’s Albany,
which it surpasses even in field culture.”
Mr. Roe concludes with the following judicious remark, “I may seem an
old fogy when I say that while I shall give these plausible strangers
plenty of room in which to prove their merits, I shall still stand by my
old and tried friends in the strawberry field.”
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