AND GENERAL HOKTICULTDRE. 



437 



STR 



four to six feet from the glass, so as to give 

 tiie bees a chance to fly straight out without 

 striking the glass. I place the hives where 

 the sun will strike them, and the bees will 

 soon come out when the sun shines, which is 

 just the proper time, as, wiien the air is dry, 

 the pollen will move more freely. After 

 the bees have been in the house a few days 

 they become accustomed to the glass, and 

 work splendidly. I find them the best help 

 in fertilizing any fruits that I force, using the 

 same bees to set the early Nectarines, Peaches, 

 Cucumbers, etc. Unfortunately they are of 

 no assistance with the Tomato, which they 

 will not touch, and which have to be gone 

 over every day and given a sharp knock with 

 a padded stick to start the pollen, I do not, 

 however, use the same hive two years in suc- 

 cession, for, as the hives are introduced during 

 December and remain in until April, the crop 

 of young bees hatch out, fly against the glass 

 or get into the dew on the foliage, many get 

 killed, and thus weaken the hive. If only 

 used for one crop it would not hurt them one 

 particle, if, when through with them, they are 

 put outside again. Many use a camel's hair 

 brush for fertilization, and if it is carefully 

 used, it is very successful. Great care, how- 

 ever, must be taken to regulate the pressure 

 during the operation, and to see that the 

 brush does not get clogged up and stiff with 

 the pollen, in which case the pistil and recep- 

 tacle would be damaged, and deformed fruit 

 the result. I have used bees, and nothing 

 else, for the last eight years, and can always 

 depend on a good set of perfect fruit. After 

 eight good berries have foi'med, I clip off the 

 remaining flowers, at the same time support- 

 ing the fruit stems and holding back the foliage 

 with bent wire or birch twigs, to give the 

 berries the full benefit of the sun and light. 

 The temperature may now be gradually raised 

 to 65° and 70° with sun-heat, great care being 

 taken not to let the plants suffer for water 

 until they commence to color, and then it 

 must be partially withheld, only giving enough 

 to keep the foliage from wilting. The best 

 time to gather the fruit is in the early morn- 

 ing. The finishing and ripening of Straw- 

 berries during the months of January and 

 February, is a difficult task, as at times we 

 get a whole week of bad weather, sunless and 

 wet days, when it may happen that you have 

 a batch of plants just coloring their fruit. 

 Many goad houses of Strawberries have been 

 lost at this stage from rotting, and to make 

 safe against this, a cement floor is necessary 

 — as I have here at Jobstown— thus preventing 

 the dampness that would naturally arise from 

 an earthen floor. I also use charcoal and 

 lime in very dull, rainy weather, having crates 

 of charcoal twenty by twenty-four inches and 

 six inches deep, which I place throughout the 

 liouse, and place pieces of charcoal on the 

 tops of the pots. The lime is laid around on 

 the floor, and by these agents I have brought 

 a crop of berries through in February when 

 we had onlv seventeen hours of sunshine in a 

 week. Growing, as I do, 10,000 to 14,000 plants 

 in pots every year, it would be a great cost of 

 labor to store them as recommended by some 

 growers. What I do here is to leave them 

 wliere they have grown (outside), placing two 

 or three inches of Oak leaves upon them the 

 last week in November, or earlier if we get 



STK 



severe frosts, covering all with rye straw only 

 enough to keep the leaves from blowing off. 

 As plants with a few healthy green leaves 

 when taken in for forcing give the best 

 results, I try to strike a thaw or rain for this 

 operation, when the pots will easily let loose 

 from the frozen earth below, allow the Oak 

 leaves to remain upon each plant, and placing 

 them in cold frames allow them to thaw out in 

 perfect darkness. When thawed out the leaves 

 are removed, and the plants are prepared 

 for the forcing-house as described above. 



"With regard to recommending varieties 

 for forcing, I cannot with safety do so, as 

 circumstances must be considered. lam situ- 

 ated on a light sandy soil, while others will 

 have clay to deal with. I have had the best 

 results from those varieties that grow most 

 freely with me in the garden. Keen's seedling 

 and Sir Charles Napier, two imported sorts, I 

 have forced in good form, and the Keen's 

 seedling the earliest of all — but in dry, hot 

 summers I could not get growth enough on this 

 variety to produce strong, healthy runners. In 

 heavy soils the result might be better. The 

 variety I have found to stand best in our soil 

 is the Sharpless, and force it for the main crop, 

 and also use it as a pollen-bearing sort. Cum- 

 berland Triumph has done well here, as has 

 also the Parry, but the berry of the latter is 

 soft, and is a bad shipper. Seth Boyden and 

 Triomphe de Gand have also done well, and 

 Champion has proved a good early variety. I 

 have made trials of some of the newer sorts, 

 not enough, however, to give an opinion as 

 yet ; but one thing is certain, if you cannot get 

 a good healthy growth on the plants out of 

 doors, you cannot get plants from them in 

 proper condition to force, so that whatever 

 variety the operator selects, he must be sure 

 of a healthy growth from Vvhich to secure his 

 layers. I change my stock from farther north 

 every two years." 



Stra-w^berry-Bush. A common name for Euony- 

 mus Americamis. 



Stra-wberry G-eranium. See Saxifraga, 



Stra^wberry Shrub. See Calycanthus floridus. 



Stra-wberry Spinach. Blitum capitatum. 



Stra-wberry Tomato. See Physalis AlkekengL 



Strawberry Tree. See Arbutus. 



Streli'tzia. Bird of Paradise Flower. Naaned 

 in honor of the Queen of George III.,iChar- 

 lotte of Mecklenburgh-Strelitz. Nat. Ord. 

 ScitaminecB. 



These are handsome plants, with large, 

 pale-green leaves and singular, richly-colored 

 flowers. S. Regince is the most common, and 

 perhaps the most beautiful ; its flowers are 

 brilliant orange and purple. It is usual to 

 grow the species as hot-house plants, but 

 they succeed almost equally well in the green- 

 house, placed in large pots of rich loam and 

 kept in a light part of the house at all times, 

 except between the months of June and 

 September, when they thrive best out of 

 doors. They will thus grow and flower flnely. 

 S. Nicolai is a splendid arborescent species, 

 long cultivated in European gardens, and, 

 until 1858, when it flowered at St. Petersburg, 

 confounded with another South African spe- 

 cies, S. Augusta. The geographical range of 

 the latter, and the exact locality where the 

 former species grows spontaneously, are still 



