90 Results of the Culture of some of the 



trenches between the rows, boards laid lengthwise, and tiles, 

 which had been substituted for the same object. 



As it is possible that every person who may be about plant- 

 ing a strawberry bed, may not be aware of the uses of the 

 grass, I will allude to them. In the first place, it protects 

 the plants against drought, by shading their roots from the 

 sun^s rays, and also by resisting the escape of the moisture, 

 which would otherwise evaporate into the atmosphere. 

 Of all the large sorts, the scapes, or stems, are too feeble to 

 support the fruit, Avhen ripe, in an upright position, conse- 

 quently, all that which grows on the outside of the stools, 

 falls into the soil, and is, of course, spoiled ; heavy showers, 

 too, beat up the soil, over much of the fruit, and make it 

 gritty. When the beds are dressed in the spring, it is desi- 

 rable not to disturb them till the crop is gathered, and the 

 grass serves to keep the weeds down. It is said also to 

 prevent the attack of slugs, as they cannot pass over it. 



This was properly the first bearing year, and nothing 

 could look finer than the vines Avhen in fruit : the crop was 

 abundant ; many of the berries were of the coxcomb form, 

 and some of them assuming circular and fanciful shapes, with 

 the calyx nearly invisible in the centre. 



After the fruit season had passed, the grass was removed, 

 and the vines were permitted to extend themselves, and 

 such of the runners as had not been used, were dug in, be- 

 fore covering in the autumn, so as to keep the stools entirely 

 distinct. 



The next year, the stools having increased in size, the 

 quantity of fruit was greater in proportion ; the berries, 

 however, were much more generally conical in shape. The 

 third season, which was the last, the product was fully equal 

 to the previous one. 



The flavor of this variety being equal to the smaller sorts, 

 and the flesh finer and more delicate than any of larger 

 ones, it is, on all accounts, entitled to a preference over any 

 of the new varieties which I have cultivated. 



It is important, however, with the Downton, in making a 

 bed, that the runners be all taken from fruitful plants, bearing 

 as it does, its staminate and pistillate flowers on different roots: 

 there is danger of obtaining some that are called males, which 

 are entirely useless, and exhaust the soil to no purpose ; and 

 as they are not weakened by the production of fruit, the 

 runners extend themselves much more rapidly than the 

 others. It is not long since, that, in England, it was thought 

 necessary, in planting, to apportion 07ie sterile to about ten 

 fruitful plants ; but this opinion is exploded, and now all 

 but the fruitful ones are carefully avoided ; nor is it neces- 

 sary to wait for the flower to determine them ; the difference 



