294 Description of a new Seedling Straicberry. 



We have given great attention to the strawberry, and cul- 

 tivated all the varieties introduced for the last twenty years, 

 and proved nearly twenty sorts the present season. Of the 

 whole number, however, there are only four which can be re- 

 commended for general cultivation. Others will do for the 

 amateur, who minds not time or expense to ensure their 

 growth; but our object has been to produce fruit for the 

 "million," — varieties which need not the fostering care of 

 the gardener, or which heed the intense cold of our northern 

 clime, — but such as with ordinary care may always, and in 

 every soil, be depended upon for a crop. We started with 

 such a purpose in view, and we believe it has been accom- 

 plished. Should an opportunity present, we hope to give an 

 article, showing the comparative merit of the varieties we 

 fruited the present year. 



The four varieties are the Old Scarlet or Early Virginia, 

 the best and largest very early variety : the Boston Pine to 

 succeed it, and in small gardens to take its place : Hovey's 

 Seedling, and the common Red Wood. These will give a 

 continued succession of splendid fruit of unsurpassed excel- 

 lence, from early in June to the end of July, a space of two 

 months ; and when desired, with some care, the Alpine will 

 prolong the season to October. The market affords the best 

 test of the superiority of any kind for general cultivation. 

 Let a comparison be made, of the supply, and the sorts, three 

 years ago, with the past season. Keen's Seedling, imported 

 in 1826, out of all the foreign kinds, was the only large one 

 to be seen, and that exceedingly scarce. This year nearly 

 the whole stock consisted of Hovey's Seedling, the Early 

 Virginia, and the Wood: three cultivators alone sending to 

 Boston market more than four thousand five hundred quarts 

 of the former variety. 



We have some statistics to offer at a future time in relation 

 to the productiveness of the several kinds we have recom- 

 mended. The idea is so prevalent that large varieties cannot 

 be equally as productive as the smaller ones, that we wish to 

 offer some facts to dispel it, and also to show that the time 

 saved in gathering, and the enhanced price which superior 

 fruit commands, are alone sufficient, provided the crop was 

 no greater, to induce cultivators to substitute the large and 

 improved varieties for the small ones. 



