448 MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



ordered home to be tried for being rather too quick on the tngger, in capturing the town 

 of Monterey, owns, by inheritance, a fine estate — one which ho has made so— in this 

 very part of the Old Dominion, and is, moreover, regai'ded as one of the most resolute pio- 

 neers, in the course of improvements so visible there within the last few years. We have 

 understood that his field — not patch — of com averaged, last year, not less than fifty bushels 

 to the acre. Years have passed away, alas .' too swifdy, since we remember to have been 

 once and again at " the Pines," and to have enjoyed a running view of that then somewhat 

 haggard looking region. It was not, however, be it confessed, under circumstances very 

 favorable for a leisurely agricultural survey, as the reader may guess when we add that it 

 was when we used to go out from Washington at the "first blush of day" with a set of 

 choice spirits under command of our old fiiend " honest George," as General Jackson used 

 to call him, upon neighljorly and patriotic excursions, to beat up the quarters of the good 

 fanners of Fairfax v^ith a good pack of hounds, purely to save their young pigs and poultry ! 



" Oh 1 how glorious 'tis 

 To right th' oppressed and bring tlie felon vile 

 To just disgrace ! " 



Those were indeed glorious times, with the British Secretaries, the amiable and gentlemanly 



Adams, and the frank, hearty and indomitable Crawford to lead us back to reunite at 6 



around the mahogany of " Sir Charles Vaughan," there to do our duty most loyally to — 



his noble round of beef and his honest sherry I 



" Alas ! 'tis not easy to say what will bring to the mind 

 The joys that are fled and the friends left behind!" 



In another part of Fairfax, lower dowm, near Mount Vernon, a considerable purchase, 2,000 

 acres, has recently been made by a party of " Friends " from Pennsylvania, to be cut up 

 into small farms and cultivated with free labor. This may be an enteiing-wedge to the re- 

 setdement of the country still lower down, which for twenty miles along the high-road has 

 been in a manner abandoned — so that within a few years taxes have been paid or money 

 received for wolves' heads! and the door of General Washington's pew two years ago had 

 been put to the " base use " of being made to secure a free negro's poultry -house. The 

 world does not present such a field for industry, enterprise and capital as Virginia. What is 

 she doing to secure for the rising generation that sort of education which gives capacity for 

 developing her inexhaustible and neglected resources ? Ed. Farm. Lib.'\ 



STRAWBERRIES. — There is an object in the cultivation of this, and indeed in that of 

 every other fruit, luiiversally acknowledged to bo worthy of attention, but seldom attended 

 to, and that is, to have it in succession during a considerable time. It is a remarkable fact 

 that since cultivators began to search for improved varieties by sowing seeds, not one ear- 

 lier than the old Scarlet has been obtained, while of fine late varieties we have abundance . 

 I believe the estrliest now in cultivation is tiie Grove-end ; next to that comes Keen's Seedluig, 

 and .some other good sorts, and among them tiio delicious but neglected Carolina ; and lastly, 

 tlie Elton, which lasts a long time. The Alpine is both an early and late sort, and carrie.t 

 on the .■iiiece,i.<ion till frost commences. Wliat is wanted is an early variety, and to this ob- 

 ject cultivators should lend iheir attention. We have, as yet. no good pale or white variety, 

 and one should be sought for. I have raised a considerable number, and one remarkably 

 prolific, and lasting a long time ; but they all wanted firmness and flavor. By perseverance, 

 and many pursuing this ol)ject. a fine variety may at last be obtained. Although it lias been 

 stated in the Chronicle that strawberry plant^s would continue to yield good crops diu-ing 

 many years with a little care, I am still of opinion tli;it what 1 recommended many ycais 

 ago is of use, viz., to mnhe new planUitiuns every second year. I\Iy reason for tliis recom- 

 mendation was, that when the plants are left longer, new sorts rise among tliem from the 

 seeds of berries that droj) or are left, and thus the crops are, for the most j>art, deteriorated 

 by mixture, and it may become difiicult to recover the original variety. My practice was 

 to plant in Februaiy, not to reckon a crop the same year, and to take two crops at'tei-waril ; 

 so that when I dug down the ])lan1s I liad another set ready to produce. The j>iil>lic would 

 be better si-rvcd wi'li this ami otlur fruits, if iliey were not expijscd to the sun in shop 

 \vindows, and at the doors, but ke|)t in a cool, sliady place. The strawberries brought to 

 the Edinbnrgh market, ont^e famous, are now t()r tlie most part very inferior ; and the effects 

 of careless liaudling are so conspicuous as to be ratlier disgusting. 



[Cunespoudcnce of an Edinburgh paper. 

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