28 



Culture of the Straiaherry. 



Vol. XI. 



Culture of the Strawberry. 



The strawberry is the most delicious and 

 the most wholesome of all berries, and the 

 most universally cultivated in all gardens 

 of northern climates. It is a native of the 

 temperate latitudes of both hemispheres, — 

 of Europe, Asia, North and South America; 

 though the species found in different parts 

 of the world are of distinct habit, and have 

 each given rise, through cultivation, to dif- 

 ferent classes of fruit — scarlet strawberries, 

 pine strawberries, wood strawberries, haut- 

 bois, &c. 



The name of this fruit is popularly un- 

 derstood to have arisen from the common 

 and ancient practice of laying straw be- 

 tween the plants to keep the fruit clean. 

 In the olden times the variety of strawberry 

 was very limited, and the garden was chiefly 

 supplied with material for new plantations 

 from the woods. Old Tusser, in his " Five 

 Hundred Points of Good Husbandry," points 

 out where the best plants of his time were 

 to be had, and turns them over, with an ab- 

 rupt, farmer-like contempt of little matters, 

 to feminine hands: — 



" Wife, into the garden, and set me a plot 

 With strawberry roots, of tlie best to be got; 

 Such growing abroad, among thorns in the wood, 

 Well chosen and picked, prove excellent good." 



The strawberry belongs properly to cold 

 cliiTifites, and though well known, is of com- 

 paratively little value in the south of Eu- 

 rope. Old Roman and Greek poets have 

 not therefore sung its praises; but after that 

 line of a northern bard, 



" A dish of ripe strawberries, smothered in cream," 



which we consider a perfect pastoral idyl — 

 as the German school would say — in itself, 

 nothing remains to be wished for. We have 

 heard of individuals who really did not, by 

 nature, relish strawberries, but we confess 

 that we liave always had the same doubts of 

 their existence as we have of that of the 

 unicorn. 



Ripe, blushing, strawberries, eaten from 

 the plant, or served with sugar and cream, 

 are certainly Arcadian dainties with a true 

 paradisiacal flavour, and fortunately, they 

 are so easily grown that the poorest owner 

 of a \'e\v feet of ground may have them in 

 abundance. 



To the confectioner this fruit is also invalu- 

 able, communicating its flavour to ices, and 

 forming several delicate preserves. In Paris 

 a cooling drink, havnroise a la ^recqiie, is 

 made of the juice of strawberries and lem- 

 ons, with the addition of sugar and water. 



The strawberry is perhaps the most whole- 

 some of all fruit?, being very easy of diges- 



tion, and never growing acid by fermenta- 

 tion, as most other fruits do. The often 

 quoted instance of the great Linnaeus curing 

 himself of the gout by partaking freely of 

 strawberries — a proof of its great whole- 

 soiiieness — is a letter of credit which this 

 tempting fruit has long enjoyed, for the con- 

 solation of those who are looking for a bitter 

 concealed under every sweet. 



Propagation and Soil. — The strawberry 

 propagates itself very rapidly by runners,* 

 which are always taken to form new planta- 

 tions or beds. These are taken off" the pa- 

 rent plants early in August, and either 

 planted at once where they are to grow, or 

 put out in nursery beds, or rows, to get well 

 established for the next spring planting. 

 When the parent plants have become de- 

 generated, or partially, or wholly barren, 

 we should avoid taking the runners from 

 such, and choose only those which grow 

 from the most fruitful ones. In order to be 

 sure of the latter point it is only necessary 

 to mark the best bearing plants by small 

 sticks pushed into the bed by the side of 

 each when the fruit is in perfection. Some 

 varieties, as the Prolific Hautbois, the Eng- 

 lish wood, and the Large Early Scarlet, are 

 not liable to this deterioration, and there- 

 fore it is not necessary to select the runners 

 carefully; but others, as the Pine strawber- 

 ries, and some of the Scarlets, are very liable 

 to it, and if the runners are taken and planted 

 promiscuously, the beds, so made, will be 

 nearly barren. 



The best soil for the strawberry is a deep, 

 ricii loam. Deep it must be, if large berries 

 and plentiful crops are desired; and the 

 wisest course, therefore, where the soil is 

 naturally thin, lies in trenching and manur- 

 ing the plot of ground thoroughly, before 

 putting out the plants. But even if this is 

 not necessary it should be dug deeply, and 

 well enriched with strong manure before- 

 hand. 



The best e.xposure for strawberries is an 

 open one, fully exposed to the sun and light. 



CnJlnre in roios.-^Tho finest strawberries 

 ore always obtained when the plants are 

 kept in rows, at such a distance apart as to 

 give sufficient space foe the roots, and 

 abundance of light nnd air fiir the leaves. 



In planting a plot of strawberries in rows, 

 the rows should be tu^o feet apart, and the 

 phints, of the large growing kinds, two feet 

 from each other in the rows; of the smaller 

 growing kinds, from one foot to eighteen 

 inches is sufficient. The runners must be 

 kept down by cutting them ofl^at least three 



* Excepting the Bti.^/i Alpines, which have no run- 

 ners, and are propagated by division of the roots. 



