80 



THE STRAWBERRY QUESTION. 



We will only add that the Alpine Straw- 1 this sort after, having been proved of the 

 berries are remarkably permanent in their first quality, will wear out or deterioate like 

 character. There is, therefore, no fear that I some of the Pine varieties. — Ed.] 



Mr. Longworth and the Strawberry Qnestion. 



We have placed the name of our friend, 

 Nicholas Longworth, Esq., of Cincinnati, 

 at the head of this article. The associa- 

 tion has become a natural one, and he will 

 not quarrel with us for awakening it at 

 this time. 



Mr. LoxGwoRTH, as every one at the west 

 knows, is one of the most liberal and influ- 

 ential citizens of Cincinnati. His garden 

 has long been the richest and most beau- 

 tiful west of the Alleghanies, and he 

 pursues horticulture with an ardor that 

 would drive a quiet man quite distracted. 



Mr. Longworth, like every enthusiastic 

 man, has his hobbies. But he is by no 

 means content to ride them around his own 

 grounds. Not even the state of Ohio is suf- 

 ficient ; although it is one of the noblest in 

 extent of territory and richness of soil,' in 

 the Union ; although it has strode onward 

 so gigantically, that from a wilderness, 

 inhabited fifty years ago by a few souls, it 

 has, in this short time, grown as large as 

 Venice, in the palmy days of that kingdom, 

 when she was, with her two millions of 

 souls, mistress of the world's trade. In 

 short, our friend has used his pen so vigor- 

 ously, that the reader of every agricultural 

 paper in the country, who knows that a 

 strawberry does not always bear fruit, 

 knows also, that he offers freely to all, a 

 panacea to cure its barrenness. 



His two favorite topics are Vineyards and 

 Straioherries. And however persons may dif- 

 fer from him in horticultural opinions, or 

 may be inclined to take offence at the Ajax 

 manner with which, when in pursuit of his 



favorite objects, he uses his weapons, cut- 

 ting about in a "rough and ready" way, 

 somewhat regardless of the limbs of friends 

 or enemies, still it is not to be denied that 

 he is, in the main, right, and that he has 

 established in the eyes of the world, two 

 most important facts : 1st, that the banks 

 of the Ohio can produce, in great abun- 

 dance, pure wines, equal to the finest wines 

 of the Rhine ; and 2d, that by his favorite 

 mode of cultivating the strawberry — viz., 

 by planting a due proportion of staminate 

 and pistillate plants — double the usual crop 

 may always be obtained ; in short, that the 

 finest strawberries, which are rather an 

 uncertain crop, and consequently somewhat 

 dear in our markets, may now be considered 

 one of the most certain products of the soil 

 — and may be raised in such abundance as 

 to afford them, in all our markets, at an 

 astonishingly low price. 



We have never doubted the actual result 

 of Mr. Longworth's mode, though he has 

 classed us among the opponents of his 

 views. We only doubted the necessity of 

 it. But we trust we are neither very bigoted 

 nor prejudiced, and we now state frankly, that 

 having observed carefully, having experi- 

 mented ourselves, and heard detailed the 

 experiments of many sound and careful 

 horticulturists in various sections of the 

 country, we are ready to avow our entire 



ASSENT TO THE PRACTICAL VALUE OF Mr. 



Longworth's mode of growing the straw- 

 berry. 



In saying this we do not wish to be 

 understood as agreeing with all Mr. Long- 



