144 



THE GARDENERS' MONTHLY 



[May, 



I began my vegetable garden when some might ! Triomphe de Gand. Some are pistillate and re- 

 have thought the ground too heavy. But the ge- qui/f ^^e bi-sexual kinds to be planted near by and 

 *' ^ . ,. , , .to bloom at the same tmie. Such are the Hovey, 



nial effects of air, light and sun were very notice- Crescent, Jersey Queen and Manchester. For 

 able. By not waiting so long until breaking up , want of proper impregnation these kinds often fail 

 land you gain valuable time, a very important ele- of a crop, but with a suitable companion the pis- 

 ment in gardening. Should a late frost threaten ; tiHate varieties produce very large crops, as did 

 , , , , J r the Hovey forty years ago, and as Mr. Hovev will 



the young plants, mulch them, and you are safe, j ^^^^ ^^^ (^ ^^^ ^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ varieties produce 



The early bird catches the worm. Since a large number of trusses, and give promise, when 

 writing the above I have been examining Peter ; in bloom, of extraordinary crops, but do not yield 

 Henderson's garden manual, and am glad to quote so much as those of less pretentious appearance 

 ... .. ^ ^ ■ There is a limit to the power of production, and 



himr as substantiating my position to a certain ex- i ^^^^^ ^^^^^ .^ ^ superabundance of trusses of 



tent. He says :" One of the most important i flowers, only a portion will set their fruit and carry 

 things is the condition of the soil, which should it out to perfection without excessive stimulation. 

 be as thoroughly broken up and pulverized Another cause of failure is a^deficiency of pollen 



by plowing and harrowing, digging or raking, as 



its nature will admit, care being taken that it is 

 worked when in that state, that is neither too dry 

 nor too wet. If too dry, particularly if the soil is 

 of a clayey nature, it cannot well be got in the 

 proper friable condition without an unusual 

 amount of labor ; and, on the other hand, if too 

 wet, it clogs and bakes, and becomes so hard that 

 the air cannot penetrate, leaving it in a condition 

 from which good results cannot be obtained." Let 

 the gardener exercise great caution. There is 

 much in a right start. 



in some of the bi-sexual varieties, and it is well to 

 plant near them such as are furnished with abun- 

 dance of it." 



Stawberries in England. — There was a time 

 when huge strawberry gardens were peculiar to 

 America ; but England is now following closely. 

 Mr. Winston, in the county of Kent, not far from 

 London, has three hundred acres in strawberries. 



Strawberries in Europe. — Prof. Budd is 

 writing some interesting European letters to the 

 loTua Homestead. Of strawberries in England he 

 says: "The strawberry here exceeds my expecta- 

 tion. The crops are as bountiful and the fruit as 

 large as that of our best varieties in Iowa, but the 

 quality is far below our Charles Downing, or even 

 Crescent and Cumberland Triumph. Some of 

 Pistillate STRAWBERRiES.-There was a time ^^^j^. ^^^^ varieties are of recent origin and have 

 when httle value was placed on the sexual differ- : ^^^ ^^^^ parentage as ours." 



Visiting the grounds of Mr. Henry Vilmorin, in 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



ences in the strawberry flower, even where they 

 were recognized. Nicholas Longworth, of Cin- 

 cinnati, did inestimable service in making the 

 value generally known. Up to his time much 

 greater crops could be produced by growing pis- 

 tillate kinds, with a few plants of strongly stami- 

 nate kinds set out here and there as a fertilizer than 

 by using the best hermaphrodite then known. But 

 the introduction of the remarkably productive her- 

 maphrodite, Wilson's Albany, remanded, for the 

 time being, Mr. Longworth's endeavors to forget- 

 fulness. But now that the Albany has degenera- 

 ted, we have no hermaphrodite that is equal in 

 productiveness to some of the pistillates, and it is 

 becoming a question whether we shall not yet have 

 to bring Mr. Longworth's views again to the fore- 

 ground. We are reminded of this by the follow- 

 ing, which we find in some recent proceedings of 

 the Massachusetts Horticultural Society : 



"Some varieties require to be grown in hills, 

 and to have the runners cut off as soon as they 



France, he says : " Here is a part of the grounds 

 where all the races of the strawberry have been 

 grown for years. We have the impression in 

 America that it would be useless to introduce any 

 variety of the strawberry from France. For the 

 prairie States this seems a great mistake. Many 

 varieties on these grounds with an admixture of 

 the great thick-leafed species known as Fragraria 

 Chiliensis would luxuriate in our climate. For the 

 first time I here saw the fruit of the true blue Chili 

 strawberry. The fruit is very large, white (or 

 rather a yellowish white), but the quality is rather 

 low when compared with our Charles Downing. 

 Some of its crosses, however, with the Fragaria 

 Vesca are very high in quality, yet they have 

 very largely the leaf of the Chili species. Unlike 

 the Fragaria grandiflora of South America (to 

 which most of our best varieties can be traced) 

 the Chili species has vigorous runners like our 



appear. Such are the Sharpless, Bidwell and • American wild species. 



