PRIZES AT OUR HORTICULTURAL SHOWS. 



During an extended correspondence of some months, he politely favored me with the 

 following facts. 



After trj-ing various experiments with the strawberry, during a term of years, he at 

 last succeeded in obtaining some, four or five years ago, a cross between Myatt's British 

 Queen and Keen's Seedling, which proves to be all he desired, and he has named it the 

 " Crescent Seedling." He assures me that the plant keeps in constant bearing each year, 

 from Christmas to the 15th July, in the vicinity of New-Orleans, without exhausting the 

 plant; and he adds, " I neither cut off the blossoms, nor any part of them, to increase 

 their bearing — it is one continued crop from the "first jump.'' So remarkably prolific are 

 they with me, that for six months the same plant is in blossom, unripe and ripe fruit to- 

 gether — so that at the expiration of the fruiting season, the plants are completely worn 

 out, but not until thdy make three or four runners, each with which I plant anew each 

 succeeding year — all the old stools die out. They are now, (9th Nov.) coming into blos- 

 som, and will so continue until July or August. The fruit is very large, often measuring 

 five and. a half inches in circumference, conical, the color a dark red, and highly flavored'. 

 I cultivate them in hills 30 inches apart each way, and have half an acre under cultivation 

 at this time." 



lie further adds — " I freely admit that I consider their extraordinary bearing qualities 

 purely accidental, and you will at once remark how different the leaf and its thickness is 

 to every plant of its species you have heretofore seen." 



The last remark is strikingly true of the plant, which has the thinnest and most delicate 

 leaf imaginable, and yet the color and habit of the plant is very luxuriant. After one or 

 two failures, I have at last succeeded in getting on a dozen plants in fine growing order, 

 and I shall with much care and interest watch their development, if not with full confi- 

 dence. 



If their fruiting season as far north as this, can be extended through the hot months of 

 June, July and August, it will certainly prove a great acquisition to the north. 



R. G. Pardee. 



Palmyra, N. Y., Dec. 12, 1851. 



ON THE PKIZES AT OUR HORTICULTURAL SHOWS. 



BY A WORKING GARDENER, PHILADELPHIA. 



Dear Sir — I believe if gardeners would interest themselves more in diffusing a know- 

 ledge of the culture of plants in general, it would promote not only a hig:her state of cul- 

 ture, but induce many to put a hand to the plough, who, for fear of failing through incom- 

 petency, would glean a knowledge of what they really love, and shortly become true devo- 

 tees to Flora. The gardeners of England, whose ambition it is to excel each other in a 

 higher state of culture, are a class of men who accustom themselves to read, write, inves- 

 tigate and question, through their communicating channel, the Gardener's Chronicle, 

 drawn on by their great leader, Lindley. Hence they arrive at true principles, and prac- 

 tical information. Seeing in your pages the spirit of improvement, I am convinced of your 

 willingness to assist, and your ability to lead gardeners in this country, to a higher state 

 of things. Under that impression I have been induced to write the following remarks on 

 horticultural exhibitions, believing them to be the effectual means of working out a more 

 ited state in horticulture. As gardeners have no direct influence with the gentlemen 



' those societies, it is only through such channels as your valuable Journal, that they can 



