CULTURE OF THE STRAWBERRY. 



Mr. Buchanax : — It occurs to me, that in connection with your publi- 

 cation in relation to the grape culture, and the manufacture of wine, 

 engravings of the Strawberry blossom, and a short description of their 

 sexual and bearing character, will be highly beneficial, if properly un- 

 derstood. Ever} family having thirty feet square of ground, may have 

 an ample supply of fruit. In our best species of Strawberries, there 

 are four distinct kinds, as to their sexual character, and this character 

 is never changed, if each kind were cultivated for a thousand years. 



The last persons to believe in this difference in the sexual character 

 of the plant, are our botanists. For it is true that the Strawberry be- 

 longs to a class of plants, that possess both male and female organs in 

 the same blossom. But in their wild state, and in raising from the 

 seed, there are three kinds produced, entirely differing in their charac- 

 ter. And in raising from seed, one may be found in many thousand 

 plants, distinct from the former three. Of the last description, until 

 recently, I had met with but two, the Eberlein, and Duke of Kent. 

 The size of their fruit is too small to render them very desirable. A 

 new Seedling, raised by one of my tenants in the Garden of Eden, 

 (Mr. ScHXErKE), from seed that I furnished, is of this character, and 

 should it sustain the bearing character it has for five years (the period 

 since it first bore fruit), it is superior to any plant of its character, or 

 any Hermaphrodite in cultivation. It has produced each season a full 

 crop of extra large fruit, of fine quality. The pistillate blossoms not 

 only produce a certain crop, having staminates in the truss, but each 

 Hermaphrodite blossom has proved perfect in both organs, and pro- 

 duced large, perfect fruit. In this, it thus far differs from all Hermaph- 

 rodites The famous Keen's Seedling, Swainstone, and others of that 

 class, will not average one-fourth of a crop of perfect fruit. One of 

 the three varieties first named above, is always perfect in the male 

 organs, but the female organs are so defective that not one blossom in ten 

 thousand will bear a perfect fruit, and rarely a defective one. We call 

 them staminate. Another of the three, always perfect in the female 

 organs, but so defective in the male, that it is a rare occurrence for them 

 to produce even a defective berry, without impregnation from other 

 plants. These we call pistillates. The third one we term Hermaphro- 

 dites. Being perfect in stamens, and more or less perfect in pistils ; 

 these bear from one-tenth to one-third of a crop This variation in 



