CULTURE. 447 



frame, they should have tan-bark or decayed leaves strewed among 

 them to the depth of two inches. Early in April following, trans- 

 phmt into deeply trenched ground, mcR manured with vegetable 

 compost. 



Propagation from Runners and Divisions. — All varieties of the 

 strawberry, except the Wood and Alpine, propagate rapidly by 

 means of runners. These, when a new variety is procured, should 

 be carefully watched, and as fast as they make joints, should be 

 pegged down, and have fine soil or sharp sand scattered over them 

 to induce them more readily to make roots. In this way from fifty 

 to one hundred new plants can be obtained from a single one in a 

 season. 



To secure a bed of those most prolific in old grounds, select while 

 in fruit, and set stakes by side of those from which you wish to 

 renew ; after fruiting, destroy all around, thus giving them light 

 and room to form abundance of new plants. The Wood and 

 Alpine varieties are propagated easily from seed with but little 

 variation. They are also propagated by dividing the roots or cluster 

 of roots early in the spring. 



Fertile and Barren Plants. — It is an old saying that " every 

 person enjoys some hobby on which to ride." Mr. N. Longworth, 

 of Cincinnati, has received the credit of starting the hobby of (in 

 common phrase) male and female strawberry blossoms; and so 

 vigorously has the hobby been ridden, that, with locomotive power 

 and speed, it has found its way into every journal in the country, 

 whether horticultural or otherwise ; and so generally is the dis- 

 tinction of staminate (male) and pistillate (female) flowers under- 

 stood, that we do not deem it necessary here to re-describe. 



'• The European Wood and Alpine strawberries always maintain 

 a natural character of the blossom, no matter how cultivated, and 

 therefore every blossom gives a perfect fruit." 



Fig. 1. Fig. 2. Tig. 3. 



Natural StuU Sterile Staminate Blcssom. Sterile Pistillate Blossom. 



The " Scarlets " and " Pines," as they are classed, when grown 

 from seed in highly cultivated grounds, have a tendency to become 

 imperfect in either stamens or pistils, as the case mav be. and hence 



