92 On the Culture of some Nav Varieties of Strawberries. 



Wood Strawberry. — This old variety has excellent proper- 

 ties : if well cultivated, a greater crop may be obtained 

 from the same space, than of any other kind : the period of 

 its ripening is of long duration : it may be cultivated with 

 as little labor, and it Avill produce Avell for three successive 

 years, on beds running into mats. — With this, as with all 

 other fruits, the red is of higher flavor than the white. 



Alpine. — This old variety may be managed very similarly 

 to the Wood : it has been sometimes recommended to culti- 

 vate it by seed, as a preferable mode to using the runners ; 

 but it is believed without much reason. I once attempted 

 it Avith the White Alpine without runners ; the seed, thought 

 to be very choice, was received from the Horticultural So- 

 ciety of Paris. The plants were brought forward in a frame, 

 and, at a proper period, they were transplanted : the stools 

 enlarge themselves by offsets, and, like all this variety, it 

 continued bearing till into autumn. Its extremely long and 

 slender fruit had nothing peculiar in its flavor, nor did it seem 

 to be worthy of cultivation, farther than as a matter of 

 variety. 



It is desirable, in a private garden, to make a new bed 

 annually, which will enable the cultivator to turn in an old 

 one at the same lime, and still keep up a succession ; as the 

 strawberry is a great exhauster of the soil, the ground occu- 

 pied by the old bed should be appropriated to some other 

 crop. 



Some distinguished cultivators have recommended burn- 

 ing the vines ; in the spring, they put on a covering of dry 

 straw, an inch in thickness, and set on fire different portions 

 of the same bed at three different periods. It is said to 

 lengthen out the succession of the crop, and that the pro- 

 duct is much larger. I have had no experience in this 

 practice. The results of the exertions which have been 

 made in this vicinity, within a few years, to improve the 

 cultivation of this fruit, are very apparent, as seen in the 

 increased quantities which the market of the metropolis 

 affords, as well as in the introduction from England, of those 

 large and splendid varieties, which, till very recently, were 

 unknown, even in that country ; and when it is recollec- 

 ted that the English catalosfues now contain over one hundred 

 distinct varieties, and that ihey are constantly increasmg, and 

 that such are the facilities with Avhich new and valuable fruits 

 are now obtained from abroad, it may reasonably be expected 

 that the number of choice varieties will not only be augmen- 

 ted, but that the period is not distant, when a fruit, which is as 

 universally a favorite as it is simple and harmless in the use, 

 will be produced in quantities more commensurate with the 

 wants of the community. 



Dorchester, Feb. 15, 1836. E. Vose. 



