20 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



MEETING FOR DISCUSSION. 



Saturday, January 16, 1875. 



The discussion was opened by the reading of the following 

 paper : 



Hardiness of Strawberries, 

 by benjamin g. smith. 



Mr. President and Ladies and Gentlemen : 



At the request of several of our members, I offer a brief account 

 of m}'' experience, showing the comparative hardiness of eight varie- 

 ties of straioberries on clay soil. 



In the cultivation of the strawberry, more or less plants are de- 

 stroyed during winter in consequence of being thrown out of the 

 ground by the frost, notwithstanding they are covered in the usual 

 manner. 



In the spring of 1873, I prepared eight beds of as many varie- 

 ties. All were treated precisely alike, the ground previously hav- 

 ing been thoroughly underdrained ; working the soil to the depth of 

 eighteen to twenty inches and adding a compost of leaf mould, 

 well decomposed barnyard manure, and wood ashes, sufficient to 

 cover the ground to the depth of three or four inches. Each bed 

 contained one hundred plants, twelve by fifteen inches apart, of 

 the following varieties : President Wilder, Lady of the Lake, 

 Wilson, Hovey's Seedling, Jucunda, Triomphe de Gaud, Charles 

 Downing and Green Prolific, All the above varieties were cul- 

 tivated in the hill, all the runners being cut off. Last spring, on 

 uncovering the plants, more or less dead ones were discovered. 

 Perhaps it may be of some service 'o amateur cultivators, if not 

 to others, to know the comparative loss of plants in the different 

 beds. They were all covered Avith forest leaves and strips of 

 boards placed upon them to prevent blowing off. The loss of 

 plants was as follows : 



Jucunda, none ; Wilson, two ; Triomphe de Gand, four ; Presi- 

 dent Wilder, four ; Lady of the Lake, five ; Green Prolific, six ; 

 Hovey's Seedling, nine ; Charles Downing, twenty. 



It will be noticed that this experiment was on a strong clay soil, 

 not a sandy loam. No advantage was found in hill culture, ex- 



