STRAWBERRIES. 501 



these produced me one of the most fertile crops I ever 

 saw, and the runners from them produced their succes- 

 sive crops the same. 



I selected a few of the finest of the first berries of 

 those which bore the first year, and sowed the seeds; 

 these produced, as might be expected, both fertile and 

 sterile plants, the latter of which I again destroyed, 

 and saved a few only of those which produced the finest 

 fruit, and of similar size, figure, and quality ; the runners 

 from these I planted out as before, and they produced 

 me a perfect crop of fruit, without a single sterile plant 

 being found among them : thus was my first stock of 

 prolific Hautbois obtained. 



After stating thus much relative to this class of 

 Strawberries, it can hardly be necessary for me to point 

 out the necessity of closely examining all new-made beds 

 of them, and of entirely extirpating those worse than 

 useless sterile plants. 



Alpine Strawberries have been recommended by 

 some to be always raised from seed. I have raised many 

 this way, and I have found myself disappointed, in hav- 

 ing a portion of them produce inferior fruit to those 

 from which the seeds were obtained. Thus a mixture 

 of Alpines is the result, which in my opinion is no way 

 desirable, as in all cases a crop of the best fruit can 

 never be equalled by a mixture of the best with inferior 

 varieties. 



In propagating the Alpine Strawberry by the runners 

 from one single plant, all its offspring must be the same ; 

 it therefore becomes necessary to select the very finest 

 kind for the purpose ; the fruit large, broad at its base, 

 and sharply conical. t 



If the runners are planted out in August or the 

 beginning of September, the beds will be covered with 

 runners by the spring ; these should not be removed, as 

 directed for the other classes, because the first and 



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