CULTURE OF THE STRAWBERRY. 131 



writes me, '* I have conversed with Mr. Hobson and others, 

 who pay great attention to the cultivation of the strawberry, 

 and they all unite with me in opinion." " The Hudson is 

 the principal sort cultivated for market, and has been for 

 fifty years. It is what we call female or prolific. It never 

 has a neck. A Mr. Abergust, who was my near neighbor, 

 and excelled in strawberries, removed to Cincinnati about 

 thirty years since, and took the true Hudson with him, and 

 the same now cultivated here. All our principal market gar- 

 deners now begin perfectly to understand the difference be- 

 tween s laminate and pistillate plants, and find the former 

 such strong runners as generally to prefer keeping them in 

 separate beds." Mr. Abergust for many years sold nine- 

 tenths of the strawberries brought to our market, and raised 

 the Hudson only. While I could, from one-fourth of an 

 acre, scarcely raise a bushel, he would raise forty bushels. 

 His fruit was much larger than any other brought to market, 

 and commanded from 25 to 37-J- cents per quart. He made 

 a handsome competence from the sale of his fruit. His 

 secret he kept to himself, and had been as much noted for 

 the size of his fruit and the quantity raised on a given space 

 of ground in Philadelphia as he was here. A chance obser- 

 vation of a son of his one day, in my garden, saying, "I 

 must raise but little fruit, as all my plants were males," first 

 led my attention to the subject. I soon discovered that 

 there were what he called male and female plants, and com- 

 municated the fact to our market gardeners. The result was, 

 strawberries rapidly increased in our market, till as fine as 

 had been raised by Mr. Abergust were sold at from 3 to 10 

 cents per quart, and he ceased to cultivate them. 



The British Queen is, at present, the most popular straw- 

 berry in England, and much sought for here. Messrs. Cun- 

 ningham & Son, of Liverpool, write me, that it is a fruit of 

 fine size and superior flavor, but with them is a bad bearer ; 

 that, in some soils and situations, it is said to be a good 



