1885.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



271 



they are attacked with the numbers described by 

 your correspondent, then there is very little chance 

 for the plants, unless the remedy for their destruc- 

 tion has been used, which is bi-sulphide of carbon ; 

 this must be used with the greatest care, as only 

 a small portion kills the plants as well as the in- 

 sects. The means of applying it is to bore a small 

 hole with a pointed stick close to the plant, and 

 put in a few drops of the liquid. This remedy 

 proves effectual every time, and can be used with 

 profit on small patches, but in large patches I have 

 not seen much profit; it is too expensive. 



To our market gardener I sold this spring 5000 

 cabbage plants, which were all destroyed by this 

 pest. I lost about 2000 myself, and I may safely 

 say that at least half of all the early cabbage set 

 out in this section was destroyed this season. 



Youngstown, Ohio. 



STRAWBERRIES IN FLORIDA. 



BY CHARLES BLACK. 



Noticing " Strawberries in Florida " in the Au- 

 gust number of the Gardeners' Monthly, I fear it 

 will mislead many of your readers ; so I venture to 

 give my observations in Florida on the subject. I 

 have been in Florida twice, and although I did 

 not travel very extensively, I did not see any 

 strawberry beds that would warrant the statement 

 in the article referred to. From what I saw I 

 should say that it would take several acres to pro- 

 duce 109 bushels, instead of getting them from one- 

 half of an acre. They commence to bloom up 

 the St. John's as early as December, and if not 

 killed by frost will ripen a few berries in January, 

 and keep on bearing and ripening a few until late 

 in the spring. They do not do, as here, send up all 

 of their bloom at once and ripen a full crop of fruit 

 in a few weeks ; but a few bloom at a time and 

 ripen, here and there a berry, through January and 

 February. I did not see them later than March, 

 but up to that time I saw none that would warrant 

 the statement of over 200 bushels per acre. My 

 advice to any reader of the Gardeners' Monthly 

 would be, never to start in strawberry growing in 

 Florida with the expectation of getting 200 bushels 

 per acre. Hightstown, N. J. 



A DRY AUTUMN AND STRAWBERRIES. 

 BY MAX. 



At this point not quite \)i inches of rain fell 

 from July 8th to October 20th, 1884. All vegeta- 

 tion suffered, but most of all small fruits, especially 

 strawberries. From a plat of five-sixths of an 



acre, planted November 5th, 1882, which yielded 

 over twelve hundred quarts in 1884, only five hun- 

 dred were gathered this season. 



Possibly want of proper culture had something 

 to do with the result, but mainly the deficiency is 

 due to the dry summer and autumn. Thus, leading 

 pomologists, such as Mosby & Bro. and others ac- 

 count for the short crop. The question of interest 

 to fruit-growers is, whether varieties are more or 

 less adapted to circumstances of weather and cli- 

 mate ? With us, in 1884, Sharpless' strawberry 

 took the lead, but in 1885 we found that Triumph 

 of Cumberland had withstood drouth better, ri- 

 pened as eaily, if not earlier, and yielded more 

 than doubly as much in quantity, equalling, indeed 

 excelling, in size. The Wilson and Crescent City 

 did fairly well. This leads us to recommend the 

 T. of Cumberland and Sharpless for our limestone 

 section. Then the raspberries. Well, the only 

 one that did anything was the Cuthbert (Market 

 Queen of some catalogues). It held its own, 

 yielding well and maintaining its size, while the 

 Hornet, Philadelphia and the H. R. Antwerp suc- 

 cumbed. The Black Caps did as well in the gar- 

 den as in the field. In this section, little or nothing 

 is gained by cultivating them. 



The prospect for pears and grapes is very fine, 

 and apples are abundant — peaches a failure. 



Staunton, Va., July 21, i88j. 



[The subject stalled by our correspondent is one 

 of great interest to fruit growers. Are there varie- 

 ties that are better adapted to some soils, or to 

 withstand drouths, than others ? The answer by 

 all fruit growers with a limited experience would 

 be prompt and emphatic, "Of course there are," — 

 but those of a more extended experience know that 

 results are not always to be charged to the causes 

 attributed to them. A variety becomes enervated 

 by some circut^stance, and it may be in competi- 

 tion with a variety that has retained its full consti- 

 tional vigor. Not knowing this, the observer would 

 be very apt to consider that one " did not like his 

 soil." 



For instance, for a number of years the Albany 

 seedling strawberry did better than any other in 

 the district in which we now write. Though as 

 sour as a cranberry, no one would have anything 

 else, it was so large and bore so abundantly, with 

 very little care. One might then say, " It liked the 

 soil." Of late years it has declined. To-day we 

 , do not know where to go to get a plant. No one 

 keeps it. It will not do now to say, " It does not 

 like the soil." It has declined simply because of 

 constitutional debility, and this debility is more 



