Notes and Gleanings. 37 



Detecting Barren Strawderry-Plants. — Whilst engaged in filling our 

 strawberry-house with plants that have been prepared for forcing, I have been 

 led to remember what was said last spring about barren strawberry-plants ; one 

 of our gardening friends being disappointed, after forcing his plants, to find 

 that very few of them showed any blossoms. It is quite evident, from what he 

 said about his plants, that they were barren. Barren strawberry-plants may 

 easily be distinguished from fruitful plants now, or while they are being prepared 

 in the autumn. I prepare for forcing nearly two thousand plants every year, 

 and I have had a little trouble myself with barren ones ; for, after forcing my 

 plants, I very often make plantations of them in the kitchen-garden, and f fre- 

 quently find some that have become barren. When I come to look for early 

 runners from these plantations, I find that I can take them much sooner from 

 barren than from fruitful plants ; but all that they will give me for my trouble 

 will be leaves and runners. In the spring, they first produce a leaf, and 

 then a runner, and so on alternately ; and my firm belief is, that, when strawberry- 

 plants once begin to do that, no one can make them to grow any other way. It 

 matters not how many runners are taken ; for I find that these will produce 

 nothing but leaves and runners again. It is quite possible for strawberry-plants 

 to be unfruitful one year, and very fruitful the next ; but such plants grow very 

 differently from the above. — H. Mansley, i?t Eiig. Jonrttal of Horticulture. 



What Varieties of Potato shall we cultivate? — Some forty years 

 since, we reckoned as surely upon a crop of potatoes as we now do upon a crop 

 of beans. The potato-disease was unknown ; and, no matter what variety we 

 planted, we expected a return of thirty or forty and sometimes sixty fold. True, 

 there was a difl^erence in quality then as now ; but as long as all varieties were 

 healthy, and the tuber was mainly used in feeding stock, we considered the 

 variety as of minor importance. Many farmers planted the varieties indiscrimi- 

 nately in the same field, and housed them in the same bin. This was ever a 

 slovenly practice, a mixing of tares and wheat, which we fear some continue to 

 this day. There is as much choice in the varieties of potato as there is in 

 the breeds of cattle ; and, if we wish to attain any excellence or profit as cultiva- 

 tors, we must exercise the skill and discrimination of the stock-breeders. Some 

 are hardy, others delicate ; some ripen early, others late ; some are well flavored, 

 others unpalatable ; some prolific, others unproductive ; some well formed, 

 others ugly ; some farinaceous, others soggy. Now, if we plant healthy and 

 diseased potatoes together, it is much like placing a robust child to sleep with 

 an aged and infirm person. It is possible that the vigor of youth may counter- 

 act the tendency to disease, which contact with the decay of age is sure to 

 induce; but the chances are against it. Disease of every kind propagates itself 

 " One rotten egg corrupts the whole clutch," as the Irish saying is ; and we all 

 must have noticed how one rotten apple spreads decay through the whole barrel. 

 So, in a hill or bin, one rotten potato is a prolific source of disease to all its 

 companions ; and if we plant healthy and delicate potatoes together, or house 

 them together, we either show ignorance of the law of catalysis, or gross care- 

 lessness. 



