84 



Tirr STRAWnKRRY QUESTION. 



I have lliis moment rccoiveil a lottor from Col. 

 Carr, an oUI aiul rxpt-ricicpil horticulturist of 

 IMiilailcl|i|ita. lie uriiosiue — '• I tiavc converseil 

 with .Mr. Mobsoii aiul others, who pay great atten- 

 tion lo the (Miltivation of the strawhcrry. ami they 

 all unite with nie in opinion.'' ''The Iluiison is 

 the principal sort cullivateti for market, ami has 

 been for lifly years. It is what we call female or 

 jirolilic. It never has a necli. A Mr. Arbej^ust, 

 who was my near neighbor, ami excellcil in straw- 

 berries, removetl to Cincinnati about thirty years 

 since, anil took the true Iluiison with him, anil the 

 same now cultivatctl here. All our i>rincipal mar- 

 ket gareilners now begin perfectly to undorstanil 

 the ilillercnce between staminate ami pistillate 

 }ilanls, anil find the former such strong runners, as 

 tjcnerally to prefer keeping them in separate beils." 

 ^Ir. Arbegust for many years sold nine-tenths of 

 the strawberries brought to our market, and raised 

 the Hudson only. ^Vhilst I could, from one-fourth 

 of an acre, scarcely i-aisea bushel, he would raise 

 forty bushels. His fruit was much larger than any 

 other brought to market, and commanded from 25 

 to 37 i cents per quart. He made a handsome com- 

 petence from the sale of this fruit. His secret he 

 kept to himself, and had been as much noted for the 

 size of his fruit, and the quantity raised on a given 

 space of ground, in Philadelphia, as he was here. 

 A chance observation of a son of his one day, in 

 my garden, saying, " I must raise but little fruit, 

 as all my plants were males," first led my attention 

 lo the subject. I soon discovered that there were 

 ■what he called male and female plants, and commu- 

 nicated the fact to our market gardeners. The result 

 was, strawberries rapidly increased in our market, j 

 till as fine as had been raised by i\Ir. Arbegust, were j 

 sold at from 3 to 10 cents per quart, and he ceased 

 to cultivate them. 



The British Queen, is at present the most popu- 

 lar strawberry in England, and much sought for 

 here. Messrs. Cunningham & Son, of Liverpool, 

 write me, that it is a fruit of fine size, and superior 

 flavor, but with them is a bad bearer. That in 

 some soils and situations, it is said to be a good 

 bearer. Here is the old story. I am convinced it 

 will be found to be staminate, and of no value to 

 our market gardincrs for a general crop. It may 

 be pistillate, and its bad bearing caused by the ab- 

 sence of staminate plants. If so, it will be very 

 valuable. Certain it is, it will not be found per- 

 fect in both organs. 



In a late number of the Farmer and Mechanic, 

 it is said, " foreign strawberries are unproductive 

 about Boston, and the only ones now cultivated, 

 are the Wood, Early Scarlet, and Hovey's Seedlings. 

 That three cultivators near Boston, sent /our thou- 

 sand Jive hundred quarts to market in a single sea- 

 son.'" What will our market gardeners say to this! 

 The Wood strawberry is thought by them to be 

 worthless, and not a quart was ever sold in our 

 market. Its only merit is, that its blossom is said 

 to be perfect in both male and female organs. The 

 Early Scarlet is raised to some extent ; but four- 

 llfths of all the strawberries sold in our market, 

 are the Necked Pine and Hudson; mostly the latter. 

 Mr. Culbertson brings more strawberries to our 

 niarket than any other person. The greatest quan- 



tity ho has brouglit in anyone dirif, was four tfion- 

 siind (piarts ; and not one of tin- kimls named in the 

 Karnier and Meclianir, among them. All were 

 the Hudson, lly properly understanding the true 

 character of the plant, Mr. Culbertson has been 

 able to gather nearly as many quarts in a single 

 day, as three Boston cultivators were able to do in 

 a whole season. I saw an editorial article in a re- 

 cent Eastern horticultural i>aper, speaking in high 

 terms of the Alpine strawberry, as raiseil by Col. 

 Stoddard, and its great produce, which yielded him 

 at 12.^ cents per quart, ui)wards of i?l,(U)0 to the 

 acre. It is an imlillerent fruit, and never yielded 

 one-fourth the quantity. 



Can Ilovey's seedling, or any other large fruiteij 

 pistillate strawberry, be impregnated by the Alpine 

 Monthly ? It is my impression that they are dis- 

 tinct species, and that it cannot be done.* I f it can, 

 across might be produced, that with the size ami 

 flavor of the one, might be united the ever-bearing 

 character of the other. There is a wild ever-bear- 

 ing variety in our state, that would cross with the 

 Scarlet and Pine, and is the only kind I have ever 

 seen, worthy of the name of ever-bearing. For the 

 Alpine, after the first crop, rarely produces much 

 fruit through the season. Thirty years since I met 

 with a solitary strawberry plant on ISIount Adams, 

 then in bloom. I removed it to my garden, am! 

 the plant not only bloomed freely till frost, but all 

 the runners threw out blossoms at the same time 

 that they made roots, and bore abundantly till late 

 in the fall. The fruit was small but of fine flavor. 

 A new hand in the garden, early the next spring, 

 supposed they w-ere weeds, and destroyed them. 

 The old pioneer, Lewis Davis, informed me, the 

 same variety grew in Greene county, on the cliffs, 

 and had been frequently seen by him. I trust it 

 may again be discovered, and Ohio have the credit 

 of producing the only ever-bearing strawberry, [?] 

 as well as raspberry. The latter plant, to produce 

 a great crop, during the summer and fall, requires 

 a moist soil. My ground in the city, is too rich 

 and dry for it. I have never seen the plant bear 

 as well as in Newark, New-Jersey, on a side hill, 

 where the ground is moist, poor and stony. The 

 plant did not attain half the size it docs here, but 

 the fruit was large, and abundant, till frost. 



N. LONGWORTH. 



Having given Mr. Longworth's views 

 entire, and having stated that we now fully 

 acknowledge their great practical value to 

 all strawberry growers, we trust our read- 

 ers will have a little patience with us while 

 we state the points on which we differ from 

 him. 



In our work on Fruit Trees, while we 



* Dr. Brinkle, of Philadelphia, has actually attained this 

 grreat desideratum. We hope to ^ve an aecounl of the most 

 valuable new ever-bearing sort produced by him in this way 

 in our next number. — Ed. 



