530 



DOMESTIC NOTICES. 



walk thickly with refuse tan-bark from the tan- 

 nery, having no reference of course to the vims. 

 The next year I changed my mind in regard to 

 the arbor, and removed the vines to another part 

 of the garden; but in taking them up, was sur- 

 prised to find that all the vines next to the walk 

 had sent forth vigorous roots into the bark, run- 

 ning from one to three feet. In some instances, 

 the roots had run almost to the surfaoe of the 

 bark ; and generally they exhibited the appear- 

 ances of a net work, from the great multitude of 

 small fibres shooting in every direction, to the 

 ends of which particles of the bark adhered. The 

 vines were remarkably healthy and vigorous; and 

 in transplanting other vines, I have since, when 

 convenient, made liberal use of the bark with ap- 

 parent success. The matter was new to me, 

 and, at the time, I thought of giving an account 

 of it to some agricultural publication, but concluded 

 that old gardeners would laugh at me. for " car- 

 rying coals to New-Castle," and omitted to do so. 

 But since your New-Jersey correspondent thinks 

 it worth communicating, I am encouraged to add 

 my experiment to his; and in legal parlance, it 

 certainly makes out a fair " case in point." Tan- 

 bark is extremely retentive of moisture ; and this 

 adds much to its efficiency as a manure. Yours, 

 &c, Benj. G. Ferris. Ithaca, N. \\, March, 

 1850. 



Strawberry Culture. — Dear Sir : I intended 

 last autumn to give you something of my experi- 

 ence in the strawberry culture, but I saw that you 

 had a good number of communications, and there- 

 fore deferred my own till a later period, and 

 perhaps too late for the present spring opera- 

 tions. 



Several years since, induced by a natural taste 

 for cultivating fruit, and a wish to produce for my 

 own consumption at least, I purchased of nine va- 

 rieties of strawberries — all recommended as very 

 desirable — to the amount of forty dollars. Ac- 

 cording to the almost universal recommendation, I 

 planted in the early autumn. The season proved 

 rather dry, and I paid for preparing the ground 

 and watering the plants twenty dollars more. The 

 next spring, I found that between the dry weather 

 of autumn and the frosts of winter, which had ope- 

 rated severely on the young and feebly-rooted 

 plants, I had few left — scarcely three in the hun- 

 dred, on an average. I cultivated these during 

 the summer, and contrived to increase their num- 

 ber to a very satisfactory extent; but the amount 

 of fruit was very small, and the quality inferior. 

 In the following spring I removed the whole, gath- 

 ering the different kinds together, and planting 

 them in beds, each by itself. Instead of giving 

 the extra care and preparation to the ground I 

 had done before, I planted them after a crop of 

 patatoes, and gave no more manure than for an 

 ordinary crop of vegetables. I expected no fruit 

 the first summer, after a spring planting, and the 

 following summer I gathered a crop equal to any 

 I have ever seen or heard of, from several kinds, 



while others proved unworthy of cultivation, and 

 were abandoned- 



From the nine kinds purchased I selected three, 

 which I continued to cultivate to my perfect satis- 

 faction. In the spring of 1848 I removed young 

 plants from the old beds and placed them on simi- 

 lar soil — which had been three years cultivated in 

 potatoes — ploughing deep and manuring but mod- 

 erately. Of the six beds, I planted one with 

 Early Scarlet, one with Hudson, three with an ob- 

 late scarlet berry — purchased in my first essay, un- 

 der the erroneous name of Keene Seedling — and 

 one with Boston Pine. The whole extent of these 

 six beds, including trenches, or alleys, was forty- 

 two by sixty feet, less than the twentieth of an 

 acre. The supply of fruit continued very abund- 

 ant for two weeks, and for another week afforded 

 all that were needed in my family. During this 

 time more than two hundred quarts were gathered 

 from this small piece of ground, produced without 

 extra care or cultivation beyond what would have 

 been given to any common garden crop. I should 

 say, moreover, that three-fourths of this crop was 

 produced upon half the ground from the cblate 

 scarlet berry, while the Boston Pine produced less, 

 and suffered from every gathering of the fruit. My 

 Hudsons yielded less only from growing too luxu- 

 riantly, and therefore the crop did not ripen as 

 well. Tne bed of Early Scarlet was somewhat 

 shaded by an apple tree, and the crop thus dimin- 

 ished. 



Such a crop should assuredly be satisfactory to 

 any cultivator ; and it was certainly produced with 

 little labor. I am not an advocate for careless 

 cultivation ; but in regard to strawberries there are 

 many men, I may say hundreds, who would culti- 

 vate, this delicious fruit did they know with how 

 little labor it can be produced; while they are de- 

 terred by the belief that it costs too much labor 

 and time. I believe two men with myself were 

 occupied scarcely four hours in preparing the 

 ground, after ploughing, and setting the plants. 

 The plants were set at regular intervals of eigh- 

 teen inches apart, the ground kept clean, and the 

 runners allowed to cover the whole surface the 

 first season; this mode produces the next year, a 

 better crop than I have obtained in any other way. 

 The thick growth of leaves and stems precludes 

 the necessity of laying straw about them, to pro- 

 tect the fruit from the mud or sand ; and does it 

 far more cleanly and effectually. 



My soil is a loam, above the Albany clay, and 

 retains moisture very abundantly, even duringvery 

 dry seasons, and on this account seems well adap- 

 ted to the growth of this fruit. I prefer spring 

 planting for many reasons; first, I am satisfied 

 that by fall planting, no good crop of fruit can be 

 matured the succeeding year, with the soil and 

 climate we have here; therefore nothing is gained 

 by this mode. Secondly; by spring planting, the 

 labor of watering the plants is saved ; and this will 

 be required more or less in the autumn planting, 

 unless the season be unusually favorable; and un. 



