228 [Assembly 



the present year had greatly raised it in his estimation. Grown in 

 hills, he had seen very large crops and fine fruit. By the Massa- 

 chusetts Horticultural Society, this season, the first and third prizes 

 were awarded to the Boston Pine. 



Dr. MoNSON had cultivated Hovey's and the Methven, and had 

 been perfectly satisfied with them, till he became acquainted with the 

 Boston Pine, He had never seen so prolific a bed as that of this 

 variety belonging to Mr. Terry. He at once engaged plants of him 

 and dug in one half of his Hovey's Seedling to make room for plant- 

 ing them. This variety was superior in bearing qualities to any that 

 he had seen. 



Mr, HovEY remarked that he had preferred to hear what others 

 had to say of this strawberry, rather than to speak of it himself. It 

 had been exceedingly gratifying to him to hear so many commenda- 

 tions of his tw^o strawberries — the Seedling and the Boston Pine. 

 Gentlemen were present from the remotest parts of the country, and 

 they unanimously agreed upon their excellence. The Boston Pine 

 was raised at the same time, and from the same lot of seed, as the 

 Hovey Seedling, in 1834. But after selecting the latter variety, so 

 many others remained of promising quality — and the quantity of land 

 at command being rather limited — that it took some time to give 

 them all, successively, a trial — and it was not until 1844 or '45 that 

 the Boston Pine was first offered to the public. That was its origin. 



Mr. H. said he would embrace this opportunity to say a few words 

 in regard to the cultivation of the Boston Pine. One gentleman had 

 remarked that he cultivated his vines in hills ; another, his in beds; 

 others, theirs in rows — and all had succeeded equally well. But as 

 one gentleman had said that he did not exactly understand what was 

 meant by cultivating in hills, he would briefly explain. 



Gentlemen were probably aware that Hovey's Seetlling, the Early 

 Virginia, and other varieties, rarely produced more than three or four 

 trusses of fruit to each root, and then, when grown thickly in beds, 

 produced very good crops. This, however, was not the case with 

 the Boston Pine, generally — the constitutional tendency of the plant 

 being to produce ten or twelve trusses of fruit to each root. One 

 hundred and fifty berries had been counted on a single plant, as the 

 President could testify. The consequence was that when the vines 

 occupied all the ground, there was a deficiency of nourishment, and 

 the berries did not fill up. Hence had arisen many failures in the 



