388 



STRAWBERRIES. 



ity for this purpose. The consequence has been, that their 

 beds have proved more fertile in leaves than in fruit, and the 

 stock has at length been condemned as bad ; whereas its 

 sterility has proceeded from those favourite males, the stools 

 of which having no crop of fruit to support always produce a 

 superabundance of runners, which being also much stronger 

 than the fertile ones have consequently overrun and over- 

 powered them, and literally annihilated the only ones capable 

 of producing fruit. 



Having had a parcel of Hautbois plants given to me some 

 years ago, I planted them out, and suspecting there were 

 many sterile plants among them, I did not suffer a runner to 

 remain the first year. The second year, five plants out 

 of six proved to be so, which I immediately destroyed ; 

 and as soon as the runners of the fertile ones became rooted, 

 I planted out the bed afresh : these produced me one of the 

 most fertile crops I ever saw, and the runners from them 

 produced the successive crops the same. 



I selected a few of the finest of the first berries of those 

 which bore the first year, and sowed the seeds ; these produ- 

 ced, as might be expected, both fertile and sterile plants, the 

 latter of which I again destroyed, and saved a few only of 

 those which produced the finest fruit, and of similar size, 

 figure, and quality ; the runners from these I planted out as 

 before, and they produced me a perfect crop of fruit, without 

 a single sterile plant being found among them : thus was my 

 first stock of prolific Hautbois obtained. 



After stating thus much relative to this class of Strawber- 

 ries, it can hardly be necessary for me to point out the neces- 

 sity of closely examining all new-made beds of them, and of 

 entirely extirpating those worse than useless sterile plants. 



Alpine Strawberries have been recommended by some to 

 be always raised from seed. I have raised many this way, 

 and I have found myself disappointed, in having a portion of 

 them produce inferior fruit to those from which the seeds 

 were obtained. Thus a mixture of Alpines is the result, 

 which in my opinion is no way desirable, as in all cases a 

 crop of the best fruit can never be equalled by a mixture of 

 the best with inferior varieties. 



In propagating the Alpine Strawberry by the runners from 

 one single plant, all its offspring must be the same ; it there- 

 fore becomes necessary to select the very finest kind for the 

 purpose ; the fruit large, broad at its base, and sharply coni- 

 cal. 



