PACKAGES, TRAINING, POLLINATION 97 



dens about 1750 and gave trouble from the beginning. 

 Profiting by the observations of Duchesne, Bernard Mc- 

 Mahon, in his "American Gardeners' Calendar," published 

 in 1806, warned his readers: "If the plants are promis- 

 cuously taken from the beds without care, a great number 

 of them will become barren ; these are, by the gardeners, 

 termed 'blind,' which is when there are plenty of flowers 

 but no fruit produced. If these flowers are well examined, 

 they will be found to want the female organs of genera- 

 tion, most of them abounding with stamina, but there are 

 few, if any, stiles. The Hautbois strawberry is more 

 subject to this than any of the other kinds." 



There does not appear to have been any attempt to 

 apply this experience to the pistillate varieties of F. Vir- 

 giniana then under cultivation, which included such 

 standard sorts as Early Hudson, Hudson's Bay and 

 Methven Scarlet, until about 1820. In 1822 William 

 Curr, of New York, read a paper on the culture of the 

 Hudson's Bay before the Horticultural Society of New 

 York, in which he stated : " A great deal lies in choosing 

 proper plants; if they are taken promiscuously, the 

 greater part will prove barren, producing plenty of flowers, 

 but no fruit." 



The following year William Prince called attention to 

 Keens' experience with the Hautbois in his "Short Trea- 

 tise on Horticulture." In 1823 a correspondent of 

 The American Farmer complained: "My strawberry 

 vines are thick and luxuriant; they blossom well and 

 then blight. How can the blight be prevented?" A 

 New Jersey reader replied that it was due to the "undue 

 proportion of male and female plants," and added: "It 

 may easily be discovered by the stamens which are the 

 male blossoms. This is a matter perfectly understood by 



