The Canadian Horticulturist. 15 



when their efforts fail, while if they would pay more attention to strawberry 

 culture, and other small fruits, they would not only have abundance for 

 their own use, to preserve and can up for winter, but a surplus to send to 

 market. Especially in a northern climate may this thought apply, 

 and we may earnestly urge, with propriety, upon everyone possessing a few 

 Square rods of land, to try a hundred strawberry plants as a test whether 

 he can or not add a delightful luxury to his table, and have in his garden 

 objects of interest well worthy his attention and care. And then if he has 

 a sociable friend upon whose stock of good humor and conversational powers 

 he wishes to draw, let him invite that friend in and set him down before a 

 dish of strawberries and cream, and if he has entertainment in his nature, 

 out it will come ! 



By this time every well regulated garden has gone into winter quarters, 

 and for fear we should have an open winter (the hardest on the strawberry), 

 all the newly planted plants should be well covered with some kind of loose 

 litter as a winter protection. As I need what straw I raised to feed the 

 cows on this winter, I am using tomato tops, bean straw, loose corn leaves, 

 evergreen boughs, etc., etc., as a protection for the strawberry beds. Forest 

 leaves, where they can be had, are a good substitute for straw, as they work 

 into the ground easily the next year. I believe a dry season more favorable 

 for the pistillate varieties, as the pollen is more easily transmitted from their 

 staminate neighbors in dry weather than in wet. I remarked that the Man- 

 chester, for instance, was not nearly so attractive a berry the past summer that 

 it was the year before, and as this last 5'ear was much damper than the pre- 

 vious one during the strawberry season, I have thought that the wet weather 

 was against it for the above named reason. Though the matted row system 

 is the best paying one in which to grow the strawberry, the hill system pro- 

 duces the finest specimens. It pays to keep the weeds down, and runners 

 well cut, that the plants may stock up well for producing fine fruit. The 

 two "Jessie" plants sent me a year ago last spring from the F. G. A., have 

 multiplied in a marked degree. I set out nearly three hundred new plants 

 from them in October, and have more to set in the spring. The "Jessie " 

 bears out well its mooted character. The culture of the strawberry is much 

 on the increase in the neighborhood of Ottawa in the past two years. I 

 believe the stimulus afforded by what has been done on the Experimental 

 Farm, is going to be profited by largely, and well it ought to be. As agri- 

 culture is the mud-sill industry of the nation, anything done to promote its 

 interests and stimulate its workings is effort in the right direction. The 

 amount appropriated by the Government to promote the agricultural growth 

 of the nation is very small compared to that appropriated to the carrying 

 trade in building railways and other kindred enterprises, and surely the 

 farming interests have a strong plea in their behalf to call out aid from " the 

 powers that be" to assist in distributing grains, seeds, fruits, etc., among the 

 farmers of the Dominion of Canada. 



