416 Cultivation of the Strawberry. 



question in relation to the true cause of barrenness had not 

 yet been '• satistactorily settled.'' Since then, additional 

 information has come to our knowledge, which seems, as 

 we have already observed, to wholly explode the idea of 

 separate sexes in the flowers of the strawberry. 



That there may be fertile and sterile beds of strawberries 

 is not denied ; but the cause of their sterile character is to 

 be sought, not i^i a naturally defective organization of the 

 blossom, but rather in the mode of cultivation applied to 

 the plants. It is well known that all flowers have a ten- 

 dency to become double, and when this takes place, it is 

 also known that the stamens are transformed into petals. 

 Now something such a change undoubtedly takes place in 

 the strawberry when under a high state of cultivation, or 

 forced by too much nourishment to extend its runners too 

 far. Repletion is fatal to the perfection of the blossom, 

 though it may produce apparently vigorous growth. 



Many kinds of strawberries have a greater tendency to 

 extend their runners than others ; this excessive running 

 often debilitates the old plants, and a great portion of the 

 young plants, especially those most distant from the parent 

 stock, are too weak to form new plantations; yet in most 

 instances they are taken without discrimination, and espe- 

 cially when a new and valuable variety is obtained, and 

 the desire is to increase it as speedily as possible, every en- 

 couragement is given to extend the young runners. These, 

 when planted out in new beds, and then again forced on 

 by large supplies of manure, are so far removed from a 

 natural state, that sterility is the almost inevitable result. 

 Disappointed in the produce of the fruit, the cultivator 

 either neglects his bed or destroys it, and without further 

 trial gives up the variety as worthless. Precisely such has 

 been the management of many beds of our seedling ; and 

 we know of repeated instances where the beds of last year^ 

 owing to their entire unproductiveness, were given up as 

 unworthy of any care, which the past season produced im- 

 mense crops, though overrun with weeds, and this, too, 

 without being in the vicinity of any other kind. Many 

 such experiments have proved, conclusively, that cultivation 

 alone creates sterile ov fertile plants. 



In conclusion, we think we may safely aver, that there is 

 not the least necessity of cultivating any one strawberry near 

 another to ensure the fertility of the plants, jjrovided they 



