24 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



winter here, and the Sir Charles Napier and British Queen, which 

 are also very large, but ripen imperfectly, like the Agriculturist. 

 A staminate variety is perhaps better for general cultivation than 

 a pistillate. In 1836 he set out twelve plants of Hovey's Seed- 

 ling in an old asparagus bed, in one row twelve feet long, and one 

 foot apart, where it was a little shad3^ They grew luxuriantly 

 and filled a space twelve feet by three, and he gathered from the 

 bed twelve quarts, besides a great many which were eaten from the 

 bed, and given away. This was at the rate of from 12,000 to 

 20,000 quarts per acre, but it would be as fallacious to conclude 

 from this limited experiment, that an equal crop could be grown 

 by the acre, as it would because the crop of a single Beurre Diel 

 pear tree had sold for seventy-five dollars to reckon on a whole 

 orchard at the same rate. Strawberries cannot be cultivated to 

 advantage in a hap-hazard way, as with the Jersey cultivators, 

 who get but from fifty to seventy-five bushels per acre. We hope 

 that something may yet be produced better than any we now pos- 

 sess, and Mr. Hovey was glad to see the Cambridge cultivators 

 again in the field. 



Mr. Wilder said that he was glad that Mr. Hovey had alluded 

 to the dropping of seed in the bed. It was undoubtedly in this 

 way that the Hovey's Perfect, advertised as a Hovey's Seedling 

 with perfect fiowers, was produced. In raising seedlings he had 

 found Hovey's Seedling as good a mother as could be used. 



Mr. Rand spoke of the beauty of Fragaria Inclica for greenhouse 

 cultivation, and especially as a basket plant, bearing lively 3-ellow 

 flowers and brilliant red fruit, which, however, is not eatable, on 

 its hanging runners of more than a foot in length. 



President Parkman added that this species has attracted much 

 attention in France and England. It does not survive our winters. 



Mr. Moore said that some of the highly praised new varieties 

 are pistillate, such as Champion, Late Prolific, and Green Prolific. 

 He thought that a careful cultivator, who understood the subject, 

 could get a better crop from the pistillates than from the staminates ; 

 they do not show as much fruit, but they perfect all. Mr. Moore 

 remarked that Mr. Hovey, in his estimate of the crop from an 

 acre, made no allowance for space occupied by paths. 



Mr. Hovey repeated his belief that in the hands of amateurs 

 the staminates would give most satisfaction. The Green Prolific 

 was an old sort. The Shaker or Austin is a tasteless fruit ; spec- 



