STRAWBERRY. 159 



eter. During summer they are kept in a warm situation 

 and encouraged to grow, flowers and runners being care- 

 fully picked off. In the beginning of winter they are shel- 

 tered in cold frames, and they are afterwards successively 

 placed into hotbeds or forcing-houses, so as to keep up a 

 succession of fruiting plants. The air should be kept 

 moist, and they must be plentifully supplied with water. 

 Where the means are abundant, a moderate supply of ripe 

 fruit may thus be maintained during the late winter and 

 the spring months. Some cultivators provide new plants 

 for forcing every year. But the same plants may be forced 

 for several successive years, provided they be shifted in 

 August, and, at the time of repotting, the black torpid 

 roots be cut off, leaving only those of a paler color, and 

 which are connected with the new shoots or offsetts. 



At the meeting in 1849 of the National Congress of 

 Fruit-growers, the following varieties were recommended 

 as the very best for culture, namely : Large Early Scarlet, 

 Hovey's Seedling, Boston Pine ; and, as giving promise of 

 being worthy to be added to the list, Burr's New Pine, 

 and Jenney's Seedling. 



The Large Early Scarlet is of medium size, staminate 

 or male, moderately but uniformly productive, and of good 

 flavor. 



Hovey Seedling is very large. Specimens are often four, 

 five and even six inches in circumference; dark red, and 

 very handsome oval shape, sometimes coxcomb \ reasonably 

 productive when not too richly cultivated ; of good flavor, 

 and a favorite fruit for the table or market. In some 

 locations and under some cultivators it is a fickle bearer. 

 Pistillate. 



Boston Pine is also a large, round, high flavored fruit, 

 bears high cultivation well ; should be in single plants two 



