96 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



nist, Philip Miller, in his Gardeners' Dictionary, gave excellent instruc- 

 tions on the culture of strawberries. He distinguished four kinds, viz : 

 Fragaria vesca, eatable ; F. Virginiana, F. Muricata, prickly, and Chilo- 

 ensis, and a few other varieties. 



Twenty years ;igo Mons. De Longhe, occupied a great deal of time with 

 strawberries, and raised a great number of varieties. The best kind he 

 calls Tlie Const ani, on account of its permanent character, its hardihood 

 and ready adaptation to various soils, its strong fruit stalks and its abun- 

 dant yield. It has a fine conical figure and a delicious taste. The Gardi- 

 ner's Chronicle, has said that France has never eaten a good strawberry ; 

 it says that England, is par excellence, the land for strawberries, owing to 

 its humid, mild climate ! American strawberries are very productive, but 

 lack sugar and aroma. These have been improved by crossing with our black 

 strawberry, which is poor in quantity of fruit, but delicious in quality. 



OLD GARDENS 



Are hard to cultivate. The soil has been regularly dunged every year ; 

 it is black with richness, doubtless, but it does not suit either our common 

 vegetables or our fruit trees. Many plants do not flourish in it, and fruit 

 trees make nothing but wood ; peach gets gummy, pears sterile, apples 

 sickly ; gooseberry and strawberry give us leaves and little fruit. Most 

 gardeners are convinced that garden soil cannot be too rich, as they see 

 asparagus, rheubarb, and a few other plants, accommodate themselves to 

 it, they suppose that other plants can do so too — but they add more dung 

 and the trees die of plethora. There is no remedy for this but removing 

 the soil and replacing it with new fresh earth. Turf soil is best. Keep 

 some of the old garden for the plants that love it, such as asparagus, rhu- 

 barb, &c. Drainage is always good. Salt and lime, in some measure, 

 help the over rich land. 



KEEPING FRUIT IN WINTER. 



This is a question of high interest and difficult to settle. Mr. Thieme 

 has succeeded for many years by a cheap and simple plan. In the begin- 

 ning of winter he puts his fruit up in boxes or casks, putting together every 

 variety of fruit, especially not placing in contact such as ripen at the same 

 time, and separating the layers by fine dry sand, neither very dry nor 

 moist. He does this in the spot where they are to remain, out of the reach 

 of frost — say a good cellar or cave. When taken out for use, wash them. 

 Chopped straw has answered in place of sand. His preserved fruits never 

 wrinkle, and they keep their flavor. 



The Secretai'y stated that he had som£ further pages of President Pell's 

 valuable essays on fish, and desired to read it. 



T. W. Field. — The larger the quantity of fruit together, the better it 

 ripens, and nothing but pure sand should be used to pack fruit in, A few 

 pears will not ripen alone, but in contact with other fruit will ripen per- 

 fectly, and still retain their aroma. 



Wm. Lawton thought them excellent food, and he also advocated the use 

 of cucumbers as one of the most digestible of vegetables, and quite nutritive. 



