m 



358 STRAAVBERRIES AND THEIR NUTRITION. 



ing crop." " In gardening, they greatly hasten the growth and increase the produce of 

 the strawberry" — " Mr. Fleming, of Barochaii, has informed me that he found this to 

 be the case with the common potash; and Mr. Campbell, of Islay, with the common soda 

 of the shops. They should be applied early in the spring, and in the state of a very weak 

 solution. 



These results confirm the experiments contained in Mr. Bryant's extract, if they did 

 not give rise to them. And, while engaged with Prof. Johnston on this subject, (page 

 329,) a very valuable practical conclusion may be derived to the amateur cultivator, as I 

 know by experience, touching the efficacy of the carbonates of potash and soda combined 

 with organic matter. " It is stated by Sprengel {^Lchre vom Danger, p. 402,] accord- 

 ingly, as the result of experiment, that they are most useful M'here vegetable matter is 

 plentiful, and that they ought to be employed more sparingly, and with some degree of 

 hesitation, where such organic matter is deficient." 



Touching the liquid applications, indicated by Mr. Bryant and Prof. Johnston, I 

 ought to mention that Mr. Downing has been a long time an advocate of applying specific 

 nutrition in solution to all fruit bearing plants during the fruiting process. The attributes 

 are increased susceptibility to the plants at this period by which an appreciative receptivity 

 of their special constituents is most sensitively and successfully sustained. The preferred 

 times of application differ, the one preceding, the other attending the development of the 

 fruit; but this may engender no material variance as to result, although my own expe- 

 rience accords with the opinion of Mr. Downing. 



Under the "affirmative" record, the results, derived from the varieties there enumerat- 

 ed, confirm in the main the truth and value of the general lule for uniform specific nutri- 

 tion. Potash, the major element of the analysis, holds the highest representation in the pro- 

 duction of plant and fruit; ashes (potash and lime — the latter also an important sub- 

 stance in the analysis) present the next claim ; and phosphate of lime (holding a questionable 

 or minor place in the analysis) produces the least satisfactor}' impression. Yet the care- 

 ful observer will perceive that the potash, alone, is quite equal to all the requirements of the 

 plant and fruit in the department of inorganic constituents, and even here enforces its 

 place as one of the special constituents, which is demanded as an increased, correspond- 

 ent, and specific nutrition that bears no proportion to that of the exact analysis. 



In the experiments, quoted by Mr. Bryant, potash and soda were used in equal pro- 

 portions. The result offers "magnificent strawberries" in "immense quantity;" and, 

 what is of equal importance, perpetuity to the plants in the same bed; plants ten years 

 old being in better condition than those of two and three years. According to the analy- 

 sis 0^ fruit, by Richardson, the general rule of nutrition is more satisfactorilj' sustained 

 here than in the other instances; while his analysis of fruit and plant gives the preference 

 again to the potash, which, in the actual proportion applied to the plants, only equalled 

 that of the soda. Agricultural chemists, e.g. Prof. Johnston, there are, however, who 

 might be cited to demonstrate the special rank to which the potash is entitled from "the 

 more abundant presence of potash in the soil generally;" or from the probability of the 

 soda being the correlative of potash to the extent of supplying its place as a constituent 

 of nutrition; or from the soda and potash acting alike in preparing the food of the straw- 

 berry, by combining with and solving the vegetable matter of the soil. The experiments of 

 Messrs. Fleming and Campbell confirm the reciprocal quality of substitution of these 

 two alkalies for each other, either for direct or subsidiary nourishment of the strawberry, 

 "exceptional" instances illustrate the extraordinary caprices of the strawberry 

 and naturally awaken conjecture as to the cause. It is not probable, although the 



