EXPERIMENTS IN HORTICULTURE. 



115 



which, in quality, and productiveness, and 

 hardiness, are entirely satisfactory, and far 

 beyond my anticipations. 



In August, 1837, I commenced by plant- 

 ing a bed of four feet by twenty-five with 

 the "Hudson Bay," allowing three rows, 

 sixteen inches apart, to the bed, and a dis- 

 tance of ten inches between the plants in 

 the row. The next year I planted a like 

 quantity of each of the following kinds, 

 viz : " Keen's Seedling," "Bishop," and the 

 " Prolific Hautbois." They were all plant- 

 ed in adjacent beds, in common garden 

 soil. They all bore well except "Keen's 

 Seedling," which was discarded in 1840. 

 From the other kinds, my strawberry plan- 

 tation gradually increased to upwards of 

 half an acre prior to 1846, when the "Haut- 

 bois" were discarded, in consequence ofi 

 their inferior quality. In the mean time, 

 the "White Wood Alpine," and some other 1 

 inferior kinds, were tried and rejected. In | 

 1844, I obtained "Hovey's Seedling," and 

 propagated from it extensively. With a 

 view of testing the different kinds ir* field 

 culture, in the spring of 1846, I directed 

 my gardener to set out a lot containing 

 about half an acre, in rows three feet 

 apart. He used ten thousand plants ; of 

 which, one-half were the " Large Early 

 Scarlet," and the other half were " Hudson 

 Bay,'' ''Bishop's,'' and ''Hovey's." The 

 "Hovey's" were planted among the Scar- 

 lets. That season they yielded about one 

 hundred and fifty quarts. In 1847, they 

 produced one thousand quarts; and in 1848, 

 eight hundred quarts, although much in- 

 jured this year by grass, and almost wholly 

 shaded by trees. The soil is a heavy loam, 

 without limestone. It had been under a 

 heavy sod, which was broken up in 1845, 

 and covered with peach trees, at a distance 

 of ten feet apart. The land was not highly 

 manured ; as peach trees do best, with us, 



on unmanured lands, in a good condition. 

 The trees arc now in full bearing. As it 

 was designed to occupy the ground with 

 strawberries only two years, they were 

 suffered to run through each other, with na 

 other care than occasional weeding. 



The result shows that the " Large Early 

 Scarlet" is the best bearer. The Hudson's 

 ranks next, the Bishop's next, and Hovey's 

 Seedling far- — far behind all the others. 

 Indeed, I have tried the latter in various 

 ways, and have never been able to make 

 them bear well ; nor have I ever seen them 

 bear one-fourth as much as the Early Scar- 

 lets uniformly bear with us. This also 

 agrees with the general experience of cul- 

 tivators of this fruit in this vicinity. 



Strawberries can un-ucstionably be pro- 

 duced in great abundance, with more eane 

 than any other valuable fruit. With a 

 moderate degree of care and attention, they 

 will yield at the rate of one hundred bush" 

 els an acre. They will grow freely on any 

 soil that will give a good crop of corn ; and, 

 if planted early in the spring, will yield a 

 fair crop in June thereafter. The kinds 

 above mentioned do not require any cover- 

 ing in winter. 



Notwithstanding the facility with which 

 this fruit may be cultivated, several per" 

 sons in this place are destroying their vines 

 on account of their unproductiveness. The 

 errors into which they have fallen are, that 

 they plant them iii old worn out garden 

 soils, or vianure them too highly. It is a 

 common practice to cover the vines with a 

 heavy covering of straw in the fall, and a 

 heavy coat of manure in the spring. The 

 consequence is, that the vines grow very 

 luxuriantly but produce no fruit. The 

 strawberry succeeds best on a good, deep, 

 new soil ; but not excessively rich. On 

 such a soil, with ordinary care, the Early 

 Scarht and Hudson Bay will produce to 



