On the Culture of some New Varieties of Strawberries. 89 



Art. II. Results of the Culture of some of the Neiv Varieties of 

 Straivberries, recently introduced into this Country ; with the 

 Method adopted. By the Hon. E. Vose. Dorchester, Mass. 



A good many persons having attempted the cultivation of 

 the new large growing kinds of strawberries, with very 

 various success, I will, agreeably to your request, state the 

 results of my own experiments with some of them, and 

 of which you have, I believe, seen specimens of the fruit, 

 Avhich have at different times been exhibited at the Horti- 

 cultural Shows. 



The Downfon, or KnighVs Seedling. — This variety, almost 

 every one knows, was produced from seed, by the venera- 

 ble Mr. Knight, President of the London Horticultural So- 

 ciety ; and first introduced to notice in this country, I believe, 

 by S. G. Perkins, Esq. 



The soil upon which my strawberry plat is situated, is 

 constituted of a light mellow loam, resting upon a sandy 

 sub-soil ; somewhat sheltered from the north-west. In the 

 latter part of August, suitable preparation having been made, 

 old rotten manure, to the depth of three inches, was turned 

 in to the full depth of the spade ; and the beds lined out, so 

 as to leave the rows twenty inches asunder, and the plants 

 fourteen inches from each other in the rows, placed in the 

 quincuncial order. Before the severe frosts set in, they 

 were covered slightly with leaves, and a little old manure 

 thrown on top, to prevent their being blown away. Scarce- 

 ly a plant suffered through the winter, and the first year, 

 the stools consisting of single plants, the quantity of fruit 

 was small ; many of the berries were however quite large, 

 and of the coxcomb shape. The next season, the stools 

 had become well established ; and in April the leaves and 

 manure, with which they had been covered, were pointed 

 in, and the beds dressed. When coming into bloom, and 

 before the fruit had set, the spaces between the roAvs, and 

 between the stools, were wholly covered with newly mowed 

 grass, cut from the banks and the turf edges round the 

 walks. This was used as a substitute for, and in preference 

 to, straw ; it is more easily arranged about the stools ; and 

 it is readily obtained, as it is required about the period whea 

 you wish to crop the banks the first time. "Grass cut 

 from lawns," is recently recommended in Loudon's Maga- 

 zine for the same purpose ; although it is not many years 

 since, that Sir Joseph Banks advised a return to the old 

 practice of the use of straw, (from which this fruit has de- 

 rived its name) as preferable to the many contrivances of 



VOL. I. NO, III. 12 



