IQO THE HOME ACRE. 



highly praised strawberry is the Jewell. The origi- 

 nator, Mr. P. M. Augur, writes me that " plants 

 set two feet by eighteen inches apart, August I, 

 1884, in June, 1885, completely covered the ground, 

 touching both ways, and averaged little over a 

 quart to the plant for the entire patch." All run- 

 ners were kept off, in accordance with the system 

 advocated in this paper. " At Boston a silver 

 medal was awarded to this variety as the best new 

 strawberry introduced within five years." People 

 reading such laudation well deserved, I believe 

 might conclude the best is good enough for us, 

 and send for enough Jewell plants to set out a bed. 

 If they set no others near it, their experience 

 would be similar to that which I witnessed in the 

 case of Hovey's Seedling thirty odd years ago. 

 The blossom of the Jewell contains pistils only, 

 and will produce no fruit unless a staminate variety 

 is planted near. I have never considered this an 

 objection against a variety; for why should any 

 one wish to raise only one variety of strawberry? 

 All danger of barrenness in pistillate kinds is 

 removed absolutely by planting staminate sorts in 

 the same bed. In nurserymen's catalogues pistil- 

 late varieties are marked " P.," and the purchaser 

 has merely to set out the plants within a few feet 

 of some perfect flowering kind to secure abundant 

 fruit. 



