306 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



pounds of unsteeped fiber, or 400 pounds of pure fibrilia, and will leave 

 about 1,200 pounds of valuable food for stock. 

 Adjourned. JOHN W. CHAMBERS, Secretary. 



April T, 1863. 

 Mr. Edward Doughty, of Newark, N. J., in the chair. 



Strawberries. 



Mr. Wm. R. Prince of Flushing, L. I., read the following paper: 



It is no trivial affair for an Institution like this, when undertaking to 

 give a tone to public opinion, and to guide industrial enterprise; to treat- 

 lightly or carelessly with the prerogative and influence thus assumed. On 

 the accuracy and the justness of your decisions and recommendations, 

 depend the disbursement of countless thousands by the operative and labor- 

 ing classes devoted to Agricultural and Horticultural pursuits. I hold 

 that as a Society and as Individuals you are in a double sense responsible 

 to the vast public, who look to your recommendations as possessing autho- 

 I'ity and knowledge, resulting from critical investigation. Having given 

 up all business pursuits to my sons, I intend, as rapidly as my leisure will 

 permit, to analyze the Transactions of the American Institute from the 

 first day of its existence — in so far as its action has related to the various 

 Pomological pi-oductions of the world at large, and most especially to those 

 Species and Varieties which are the natural products of our own climate, 

 or which have become acclimated by seminal reproduction. 



I have addressed to this Society three Articles which are now being pub- 

 lished in your Transactions, viz: 



1st. The Grapes of the World — their Species and Varieties. 



2d. The Fragaria or Strawberry family. 



3d. The Analogy of the Trees and Plants of China, Japan, and North 

 America; and the Great Normal cause of this Similitude. 



The subject of my remarks to-day will be confined simply to judicious 

 Selections of Strawberries for Field and Garden Culture. 



SELECTIONS OF STR.\WBERRIES. 



The six Varieties recommended in 1859 by a Committee of this Far- 

 mers' Club " for general cultivation," were ranked by them as to value, in 

 the order in which I shall now enumerate* them, and in this connection, I 

 desire now to signalize tlie position they now occupy in the public estimation. 



No. 1. Wilson — which has proven so miserably sour, of bad color, the 

 berries lying on the ground, producing but one crop and then dying out; 

 insomuch that it is now almost universally abandoned. 



No. 2. Longivorth^s Prolific. — A poor bearer, with few fruit stalks and 

 blossoms, runs to foilage. There has never been a basket of the fruit 

 sold in Cincinnati where it originated. 



No. 3. Hooker. — A poor bearer, too soft for market, plant tender, often 

 winter killed. 



