Strawberry Report^ read before Cincinnati Hort. Soc. 229 



We will suppose that only 42 berries set and perfect their 

 fruit out of 100 flowers; now it is not material that every 

 berry should set, provided it is the character of the variety to 

 push up te}i steins or scapes to each plant, for, if each scape 

 has ten flowers, then there will be fifty perfect berries, — full 

 as much as one plant ought to bear. This is precisely the 

 case with the Boston Pine ; Hovey's Seedling, on the contrary, 

 will rarely produce more than two stems, bearing each twenty 

 berries, all, or nearly all, of which will be perfect, provided 

 they are in the vicinity of staminate kinds. If the committee 

 will examine our beds in the month of June next, or will 

 authorize any one to do so for them, they will find that the 

 Boston Pine is one thing, and the Perfect another — the latter, 

 if we may believe the report, being very far from deserving 

 such a name, by whomsoever given. 



And lastly : — 



Hovey's Great Seedling is now so universally known, and so generally cul- 

 tivated, that it would be hardly worth while to refer to it again, were it not 

 for the fact, that two of the leading horticultural journals have differed in 

 their descriptions and accounts of it. From their observations of it, under 

 various modes of culture, your Committee think, that, though it stands de- 

 servedly at the head of the list, still, its splendid appearance and size have 

 been overrated. The largest ever exhibited here, was five and three-eighth 

 inches in circumference; and this is a very unusual size. Nor can they 

 confirm Mr. Hovey's accounts, in his August No. (1847), p. 363, that his 

 " Seedling, under ordinary treatment, measures five and a half" inches 

 in circumference ; and this expression, from the connection in which it 

 stands with preceding words, means the average size. Whereas, all culti- 

 vators of this fine variety have been forced to regret, that, after the first and 

 second berries, the size should diminish so rapidly, as it does with us — under 

 our ordinary culture — so that, when exposed for sale by the quantity, those 

 persons who seek it for its size alone, are frequently disappointed. It is so 

 deficient in flavor, that our epicures purchase some of the tart or musky 

 sorts, to eat with it. Another peculiarity they have not seen mentioned, 

 but which is familiar to all, is its short period of ripening ; the best berries 

 are all gathered at the first picking; indeed, there are few left for the 

 gleaners. 



This is blowing hot and cold with the same breath. How 

 can a variety "deservedly stand at the head," and yet be 

 "overrated," only "2| to 3 inches in circumference," so 



VOL. XIV. NO. V. 20 



