now TO MAKE STRAWBERRY BEDS. 



HOW TO MAKE STRAWBERRY BEDS. 



BY THE LATE A. J. DOWNING. 



As I presume a large part of your readers prefer practice to theory, perhaps 

 some of them, about to plant strawberry beds, may take an interest in the follow- 

 ing hints, though they are neither novel nor original : — 



I have seen a great deal written about the sexual character of the strawberry, 

 but not half enough about plain and straight-forward ways of cultivating it. 



Now I must be permitted to say that I have cultivated for years the Early Scar- 

 let, Hudson, and Hovey's Seedling — three unexceptionable sorts. The first, pecu- 

 liarly valuable for early maturity, the second for preserving, and the third for large 

 size and good quality ; and I have paid no attention whatever to staminate or 

 pistillate plants. All I have cared for, was to get the soil in the rigid state, and 

 let the blossoms and berries take care of themselves. I have had the satisfaction 

 of gathering very large crops of first-rate fruit, while some of my neighbors who 

 have studied the nature of the blossoms, and thought too little of the soil, have 

 had very sorry crops. Not that I mean to say that there is not something in this 

 matter of the difference in the blossoms ; but that I have found it of little or no 

 importance to intermix them in any given proportions in the same bed. All that 

 I do, is to cultivate a bed of "starainates," like the Virginia, or the Early Scarlet, 

 in the same part of my garden as my Hoveys and Hudsons, and let them take the 

 whole matter of fertilization into their own hands. 



Now it seems to me, that the point most difficult to hit is that of manuring the 

 soil well for the strawberry. If you use stable manure, in the ordinary way, you 

 are certain to fill your soil with weeds to such an extent, that you give yourself a 

 deal of needless trouble in keeping the weeds down ; and if, as is not unlikely, 

 you use it fresh, you will be likely to burn up your young plants, if the season is 

 dry 



Two points must be understood, to grow the best strawberries : 1st, that the 

 soil must be deep ; and 2d, that it must be rich. If you look at the leaves of a 

 strawberry, and, because they are not very large, presume that the roots will ex- 

 tend but little depth, you are greatly mistaken. I have seen the roots of straw- 

 berries extend five feet down in a rich deep soil ; and those plants bore a crop of 

 fruit five times as large, and twice as handsome and good, as the common product 

 of a soil only one foot deep. 



And this reminds me of a capital instance of strawberry delusion, which most 

 of your readers doubtless know something about, but which many even yet do not, 

 perhaps, fully understand. I mean the history of the " Washington Alpine Straw- 

 berry," which Mr. Stoddart, of Western New York, advertised, and sold a great 

 many dollars' worth of, some four or five years ago. ]Mr. Stoddart, I believe, was 

 quite honest in the transaction ; and yet the whole public were completely deluded 

 by the "Washington Alpine," which was nothing but the old Alpine or Monthly 

 Strawberry. Tlie long and short of the matter was, that ^Ir. Stoddart had a 

 corner of his garden which was nuide ground — a rich, deep, moist soil (I think it 

 had been an old bog, or bit of alluvial, afterwards filled up), not less than eight 

 or ten feet deep. Mr. Stoddart had raised some seedling Alpines (which, so far as I 

 know, always come the same from the seed) ; he had, Ijy lucky chance, planted them 

 in thiscorner of his garden, where the soil was so unusually ricli and deep. There 

 they grew so finely, and bore such enormous crops, that his neighbors could scarcely 



edit their senses. The story of the miraculous crop got into the papers. People 



