STRAWBERRIES AND THEIR NUTRITION. 



likely to attain. They should be so arranged as to form the frame work of a handsome 

 specimen, and the shoots should be kept carefullj^ tied as they advance in growth. When 

 it is supposed that the pots are filled with roots, an occasional watering with clear manure 

 water maj' be given. Indeed I regularly water my Achimenes with weak manure-water, 

 from the time they are well established in their flowering pots, till the blooming season is 

 over, and I think that the plants are greatly benefitted hy this treatment. If it is intend 

 ed to remove the plants to cooler quarters while they are in flower, they should be judi- 

 ciously and carefully prepared for the change, b}' giving more air, and gradually lowering 

 the night temperature as much as circumstances will allow. When removed, they should 

 be placed in the warmest part of the house to which they have been transferred, and 

 guarded from currents of cold air; but if they can be kept in an intermediate house, the 

 flowers will be larger, and the blooming season will be prolonged; still, a close kept con- 

 servatory will supply a suitable temperature, at least during summer and early autumn. 



When they have done flowering the\' may be thrown to the rubbish-heap, merely pre- 

 serving about two pots of each variety for stock; these should be kept sparingly supplied 

 with water, and if they can be removed to a warm dry house, the ripening of the tubers 

 will be better secured than under other circumstances. Water must be altogether with- 

 held as soon as the leaves assume a sickly appearance, and when the tops die down, the 

 pots may be removed to any dr}' situation, where they will be free from frost, and where 

 the}' may remain till the tubers are wanted lor starting next spring. 



For soil, take light sandj' turfy loam, peat, leaf-soil, and thoroughly decomposed cow- 

 dung, in about equal proportions, to which add as much sharp sand as will ensure a free 

 percolation of water through the whole materials. The loam and peat should be used in 

 a rather rough state; and the dung should be broken up and intimately mixed with the 

 sand before it is added to the compost. All the Achimenes are very impatient of stagnant 

 moisture at their root; therefore secure perfect drainage by using plenty of potsherd, or 

 lumps of charcoal; indeed, when pots are used, they may be one-third filled with drain- 

 ing materials. Alpha. 



STRAWBERRIES AND THEIR NUTRITION. 



BV A. GERALD HULL, NEWBURGH, N. Y. 



Professor Emmons, in his " Agriculture of New-York," makes this commentary: — 

 " The soil must possess all the inorganic substances, as well as organic, which are essen- 

 tial to the perfection of vegetables; if any one is "wanting it must be supplied." 



This applies so forcibly to the strong common sense of every earnest cultivator in the 

 great vegetable domain, that he feels at once the apparent truth of a rule, which asserts 

 for its result the perfect development of every plant that is legitimately supplied, whether 

 by leaf or root, with its full measure of organic and inorganic nutrition. This rule in its 

 ultimates, I think, admits of exceptions. 



Since Professor Mapks has advocated the use of tan-barks for a mulch for strawberries, 

 asserting that the tannic acid was specifically indicated as an organic conslituent of this 

 fruit, his opinion has been canvassed in a spirit of denial, satire and ridicule. Still it may 

 be true; and taking it for granted that the Professor's postulate is correct, the alleged ad- 

 ges of the tannic acid for the straw berr}' prove that its efficacy is in an anomalous 

 portion to that of the oilier recognized constituents of this fruit. Again, a refer- 



