AngUBt 4, 1863. ] 



JOtTRNAL OP HOK.TICULTURE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 



91 



STEAWBEERIES FAILING ON A CLAYEY 



SOIL. 



I AM making a new Strawberry-bed, and shall be obliged 

 for advice about the soU. The natural soil of my garden is 

 stiff clay with yellow subsoil, and though I have tried many 

 things, I have tailed in getting Strawberries to bear well in 

 it. The aspect of the new bed is nearly due south, in front 

 of a wall ; and if you advise it, I am ■naUing to dig out the 

 natural soU to the depth of 1-1 or 2 feet, and put in any 

 compost you recommend. — T. J. B. 



[As Strawben-ies generally succeed on a clayey soU we 

 think there must be something radically wrong in your case. 

 Does the soil want ch-aining ? If so, do it effectually at once. 

 We confess to being unwilling to recommend extensive 

 wheelbarrow-work in the way of removing and replacing 

 any great quantity of subsoil ; but if it be absolutely unfit 

 for vegetation, this may be done with advantage. If the 

 subsoil is a retentive clay, biu'ning a large quantity of it on 

 the spot win be attended with much good, and the mode we 

 have adopted is this : Choose a suitable smooth place for 

 the hearth, then cut two small di'ains to admit air, crossing 

 each other in the centre, about 4 inches broad and the same 

 in depth. On these lay some bricks, and, in the centre where 

 they meet, a good heap of brickbats or stones. The fii'e is 

 kindled then and may consist of any description of vegetable 

 rubbish, over which la^ lumpy pieces of clay, adding more 

 fuel and clay daily as the tire gains strength. The best 

 material we have found for this fuel are the roots of shrubs 

 or trees, not too large, but as much forked or gnarled as 

 possible. These ugly articles are thus used out of the way, 

 and at the same time tui-ned to good a<icount. For some 

 time it would be better to only throw on lumpy jjieces of 

 clay ; and do not thi-ust sticks into the heap, or in any other 

 way distiu'b it until it has finished burning, which may not 

 be for weeks. This, of course, cannot be waited for in your 

 new Strawberry-bed, which ought to be prepared at once by 

 removing a part of the subsoil and digging a large quantity 

 of sand and some good manure into the remainder. Bvu-n- 

 ing, however, is the best permanent remedy for a stiff clay 

 with only a thin surface soU. Deep cultivation with heavy 

 and repeated dressings of lime will do much to prepare it 

 for many crops, but Strawberries in general dislike lime.] 



THE FEOST OF JXTLY 19th. 



The frost referred to recently in The Journal of Horti- 

 CULTUEE I fear was too general. Here, in Herts, it proved 

 equally severe to any chi'onicled in these pages, oiu' ther- 

 mometer, a self-registering one of Negretti, indicating 27i°. 

 Yet, though thus showing a temperature of 4J° below 

 freezing, and tliis within the garden, fortunately few things 

 were hurt, among which we instance those flowers which 

 were expanded upon the Verbenas, whilst the more jjro- 

 minent leaves upon some thousand plants of Geranium 

 Bijou were so injured as to turn brown, and require to be 

 removed. This was done very easily, as they parted from 

 the plants with a slight touch. We are upon a rather 

 elevated site, a river running from west to east of us, and 

 the gardens on its banks showed traces of, for the season, a 

 severe frost. There, in many instances, the Dwarf Kidney 

 Beans and Potatoes were so frozen that their upper portion 

 of growth turned black, and fell over when the sun shone, 

 and Pumpkins in some places were entirely destroyed. 



I may add, that my employer informed me a few mornings 

 since, that he had received a communication fi'oni his agent 

 in Ross-shire, Scotland, informing him that the fi'ost was 

 so severe there, as to literally cut the Potatoes, &c., to the 

 ground. — Wm. Eabley. 



PINUS AEISTATA. 



A NEW species of Pine, discovered by Dr. C. C. Parry in 

 the Alpine fiegions of Colorado Territory. 



During his first botanical expedition to the Pike's Peak 

 region. Dr. Parry, in seai-ching for James' Pinus flexilis, 

 found, instead of one, two five-leaved Pines, which evidently 

 had been confounded by Dr. James ; thus the discrepancies 



of his description are fuUy explained. His general descrip- 

 tion of the tree and the edible seeds belong to what we now 

 name P. flexilis, while the "erect cones" (smaller than those 

 of P. rigida) " with unarmed scales " must be very imperfect 

 young ones of this, or old ones of the new species, which 

 had lost their awns. 



On alpine heights, between 9200 and 11,800 or 12,000 feet, 

 liigh, on Pike's Peak and the high mountains of the Snowy 

 Range, Dr. Parry, 1861 and 1S62 ; Messrs, Hall & Harbour 

 (Col. No. 530), 1862. Also, on the highest of the heights 

 of the Coochetopa Pass, nearly S.W. of Pike's Peak (alti- 

 tude over 10,000 feet), where Cajnt. Gunnison discovered 

 in 1853 what seems to be this species without fruit ; (see 

 Pac. E. E. Eep. II., p. 130 ;) the leaves which I could 

 compare are those of our plant. Flowers end of June and 

 beginning of July. Flourislung best in the higher eleva- 

 tions and never descending below 9000 feet, in its lower 

 ranges not ripening its fr-uits as well as on the bleak heights, 

 this truly alpine species — in that respect our representative 

 of the European P. pumUio — characterises the highest belt 

 of timber on the peaks of Colorado. On sheltered slopes a 

 tree 40 or 50 feet high and 1 to 2 feet in diameter, it be- 

 comes a straggling bush, prostrate, and almost creeping, on 

 the bleak summits of the high ridges. The bark is thin 

 and scaly, even in older trees, not more than 3 or 4 lines 

 thick, of a light greyish-brown colour; that of younger 

 branches smooth, with many lai'ge vesicles containing a clear 

 fluid balsam, which remains between the layers of the old 

 bark. Wood white, tough, not very resinous ; of extremely 

 slow growth, so that a small, smooth-barked stem of 13 Unes 

 diameter exhibited about flfty annual rings, all between 1-6 

 and 1-60 line wide, the smaller ones consisting of 3 to 6, the 

 widest one of 15 to 25 layers of cells, each cell 0.007 line in. 

 diameter. A tree of 2 feet thickness would at that rate indi- 

 cate an age of over 1000 yeai-s ; but the annual rings of larger 

 trees growing in favoured situations are wider, and, if a speci- 

 men sent by Dr. Parry is not mislabelled, sometimes as 

 wide as one-third line, giving the lai-gest trees a probable 

 age of 500 to 800 years. Branches spreading, very often 

 many of them twisted, stunted or dead ; the larger branches 

 and the stem itself frequently covered with young branches 

 or shoots, which seem to keep life in the old trvmk. Leaves 

 crowded from the axils of ovate, acuminate, brittle scales, light 

 brown at first, and which, persisting longer than the leaves 

 themselves, cover the branches with their rough blackish 

 remains ; leaves light green on both sides without white 

 dots, mostly with numerous exudations of white resin, usually 

 curved upwards, entire on edges and keel, abruptly acutish. 



