THE GEN'ESEE FAPtMER. 



251 



from the atmosphere. Its best results have been 

 upon clays, marls, and other cohesive soils ; and 

 upon peaty grounds having an excess of vegetable 

 matter. 



" It is u-iiial to begin paring early in the spring ; 

 if by manual labor, men follow each other with 

 breast-plows, and will turn up an ancre a-piece in 

 about tour days; if with a plow, the field is com- 

 pleted in a little time, and all becomes dry simul- 

 taneously. In two or three weeks, the turf, suffi- 

 ciently dried, ie put into small heaps for burning, 

 the sods being loosely packed in the centre, but 

 closely set together on the outside. The art in 

 burning is to Keep a smoulilering tire, never smoth- 

 ering it with too much earth, and keeping the out- 

 side layer of sods so close as to prevent the fire 

 from kindling into flame. Experience, fio less 

 than theory, tells us that the mass should be only 

 scorched and blackened, and by no means burned 

 into red cinders. But actual trial will teach the 

 farmer to do this much better than mere written 

 directions. Tiie ashes should be spread, time al- 

 lowed for their cooling, and then plowed in with a 

 very shallow furrow to keep them near to the sur- 

 face. The cost of paring and burning, of coiii'se, 

 varies exceedingly, according to circumstances. In 

 paring old sward, from 12s. to ISs. is the cost, and 

 for burning the same, 10s. an acre may be consid- 

 ered a proper sum; the parings being first har- 

 rowed over to disturb the furrows, and sliake 

 some of the earth off. The spreading of these 

 ashes will cost from 2s. to 4s. an acre, but the 

 most of tiiem are carted oft' the land, piled up in a 

 heap, and thatched over till the month of May, 

 when, with other manure, they are used as a com- 

 post for the turnip crop. In paiing lignt arable 

 lands by hand, as wheat or barley stubble, the cost 

 will of course be less than this, as 7s. or 8s. an 

 acre; and the harrowing after it would be more 

 severe, resulting uideed in the entire separation of 

 the plants irmn the earth, the former being in 

 general raked together and burned by day labor. — 

 But paring, especially in this caso, is properly work 

 for horses — not for men. One of the best modern 

 paring-i)lows will pare the land as true as with a 

 breast-plow, taking twice the width of a common 

 plow, yet drawn by only two horses. 



"In breaking up the sandy and chalky downs of 

 Wilts, Hants, and Dorset, the following mode has 

 been found to answer fietter than any yet devised : 

 Pare the sward as thin as possible with the breast- 

 plow ; burn in small heaps at equal distances on 

 the land, care being taken that the turf ts not too 

 dry, the ashes being much richer when it smoulders 

 away than if it burned quickly. When the ashes 

 are well spread, the land is shallow raftered (that 

 is, plowing only one half the land, turning the fur- 

 row plowed upon the same breadth of land left un- 

 plowed,) and the part left uncut by the rafter is 

 then cut with a breast-plow at about one inch and 

 a half in depth. The land is then manured, and 

 remains until the autumn, when wheat is sown 

 broadcast, and harrowed in. The Wiltshire downs 

 when first broken up, are invariably pared and 

 burned, and tlien sown with wheat. 



"On loamy soils, paring and burning has proved 

 a most successful method of breaking up grass- 

 land, — destroying the roots and seeds of weeds, 

 reducing to ashes the turf that would cover the 



land in the shape of loose sods, and render it too 

 'hollow' for a wheat croii; producing valuable 

 manure, in the form of burned soil and charred 

 vegetable matter; and killing the insects that 

 would devour the first produce. 



" Olay-bukning is a process of Ibng standing 

 find renown, of undeniable and extraordinary bene- 

 fit, precisely the improvement re(piired upon many 

 thousands of acres, yet hitherto applied in very 

 limited areas." 



We make these extracts to show our incredu- 

 lous horticultural friends that ihe thing ca7i be done, 

 and done cheaply. That in many instances it 

 would be the cheapest and best method of prepar- 

 ing a rough piece of land for a garden or orchard 

 there can be little doubt. From what we know 

 of the value of ashes, and we have seen them used 

 very extensively on English farms, we feel con- 

 fident that they will prove the greatest benefit in 

 many ways to the gardener and fi-uit grower. 



SEXUALITY OF STKAWBERRIES. 



This vexed subject has been revived by Mr. 

 Prince, of Flushing, N. Y. His remarks are allu- 

 ded to as follows by Dr. Lindlet in the London 

 Gardeners^ Chronicle of July 4th : 



A recent article on the Strawberry in the Tech- 

 nologist, in which the writer, Mr. W. R. Peince, 

 asserts that "very erroneous views" on the subject 

 have existed in both America and England, seems 

 to deserve a passing notice. The author returns to 

 the old statement that in such sorts as the pine, the 

 scarlet, the Chili, and some others, the same partial 

 sterlity naturally occurs as is characteristic of the 

 hautbois. So, at least, we understand the some- 

 what confused statement in the work alluded to. 

 But we are told that here, in Europe, the males, or 

 "staminate" ])lants, have been exterminated, and 

 only hermaphrodites left, while what are called the 

 "productive American female varieties" have been 

 almost totally excluded. " Europe, at the present 

 time, possesses no female varieties except the pistil- 

 late hautbois, which she exterminates, and the few 

 pistillate varieties of Virginiana, mostly obtained 

 from America, 200 years ago, and two only of our 

 estimable pistillate varieties, which have recently 

 been introduced there; this deficiency having re- 

 sulted from her fatuity in ignoring the rapid pro- 

 gress made in the strawberry culture in America 

 during the last 50 years." 



Fatuity is a hard word, but we let it pass, consid- 

 ering whence it comes. Mr. Prince goes on to 

 say, that " it is plainly apparent that in Europe 

 this sul)ject of sexuality has been almost entirely 

 overlot)ked by the mass, and that investigation has 

 been neglected by the professedly scientific, and 

 discouraged by the prolonged assumptions of Dr. 

 Lindlet and others, that the 'science' of the other- 

 wise 'cute' Americans was mere 'theory and asser- 

 tion,' which simply required a little English 'prac- 

 tice and common sense' to regulate it. Thus they 

 have, during the whole period of 44 years since, 

 the _ establishment of the London Horticultural 

 Society's Garden, remained in the ignorance of 

 ' intellectual exclusiveness.' " 



