The strawberry season of 1890 with me, as compared with that of 1889, has been abbreviated at both ends, commencing three days later and ending three days earlier.

Jessie and Pearl were my principal varieties, and they came in together on the 5th of June, when they yielded a clever picking, though I first picked ripe berries of both and of Bubach on the 3rd, and could doubtless have done so on the 1st, had the birds not insisted on the first samples. The Pearl I still like the best; it is of such good quality, uniform shape and size, and as handsome as it is good. The berries are uniformly perfect from first to last, and while the Jessie makes more of a show when in blossom, the Pearl is not one whit behind it in productiveness.

The Jessie on my grounds has a bad habit of ripening unevenly ; many berries presenting a dark crimson side next to the sun will be white on the other side, necessitating a look at both sides to insure picking only ripe ones. Mr. Green informs me that at Rochester it shows no such defect. Can this be attributed to soil or climate?

At the nurserymen's convention a friend asked me if I had not found the Jessie mixed. The fear that it was had prevented him from setting it. Of my first plants, which came in bad order, I saved but a small per cent., and among these I noticed a few showing such a different habit of growth, and as I thought, difference in foliage, that I suspected they might not all be true; but on calling the attention of others to them at different times we concluded that it was due to a difference in soil or location, and accepted them all as genuine. As the plants multiplied I set a larger bed, and this season I notice occasionally berries of a different shape, color and appearance from others, with no tendency to uneven ripening. This fact, in connection with the query of my friend, excites a suspicion again that possibly there may be some admixture of varieties, but in my bed I can not notice enough difference in the plants, as they are en masse, to determine positively; and I had about concluded that the difference might be due entirely to the polymorphous character or nature of the variety. Many other varieties show quite as wide a range in the form of their berries during the season.

I would like to hear from others on the subject, if they have noticed this variation A cocks-combed berry of Jessie or Sharpless, though frequent, can hardly be considered typical of the general character of the variety as to form, but the largest Pearl is a correct type of the smaller ones, and if we except the largest and often twin berries of the Crescent, the others are all of one general type.

The Bubach No. 5 is large enough to suit all reasonable demands in that line. The quality is hardly equal to the Pearl or Jessie, neither is it as firm in texture ; in this respect it is much like Jewell and I think nearly as suscep-table to blight. From the opening of the season up to the 12th the weather was clear and well adapted to give the berries firmness and quality. For the ensuing six days, showers were abundant, and the air dur-i n g the entire period was very humid with no sunshine - excellent conditions to render the fruit soft and vitiate its flavor, which it did to perfection. During this time rot and rust appeared among the berries, and the Bubach suffered badly, showing a weakness in this respect I was sorry to see. Few varieties can pass such an ordeal unaffected. If this proves to be the weak point in this variety, as it looks now, its future success will depend largely on the condition of the weather ruling at the time of its ripening. I am not quite as hopeful of it as I was last year.

Do varieties run out ? It seems only necessary to look at the present status of the varieties in popular favor ten or twelve years ago to answer that question. The cause or causes for this may be variable and in a measure preventable. It would not seem unreasonable to suppose that any variety renewed annually by young plants produced after the parent plants had exhausted themselves in producing a crop of fruit would in a few years become constitutionally enfeebled, far more so than if an opposite course were pursued; and yet if it were possible to procure a stock of Chas. Downing plants as vigorous and healthy as those I obtained when it first came out, I have no idea I could by any possible treatment succeed as well with it as I did then, because the fungi so prevalent now were then unknown, and as these parasitic diseases multiply it renders the success of all our varieties more and more precarious. By practicing extra care in regard to the hygienic condition of the plants, as President Smith, of Wisconsin, does with his Wilsons, any variety would doubtless hold its own much longer than if less caution was used.

The intelligent fruit grower to be successful, must keep pace with the advancing and multiplying forces of his enemies or he will get left, most assuredly.

E. Williams.