10 



STRAWBERRIES. 



going. The plants remaining are then thinned out with a hoe and 

 special pains is taken to cut out all weeds and old or weak plants. 

 This leaves the old bed clean and with plenty of manure close by, 

 in which the old plants can make new roots. The plants socn send 

 up new leaves which are much healthier than they would be were 

 the old foliage allowed to remain, and if we have an ordinary sea- 

 son an abundance of runners will be sent out, and by winter the 

 old bed wiU look nearly as vigorous as a new one. 



This method of renewing the old bed has the merit of destroy- 

 ing all the diseased foliage, and to some extent also injurious in- 

 sects. It is very important that the renewed bed be kept healthy 

 by frequent cultivation and the destruction of any Insects that may 

 appear in order to have it do its best in fruiting the following 

 season. 



Sexuality of the Strawberry Blossom. — We have two 

 classes of varieties of the strawberry, distinguished by their blos' 

 som. One class has perfect flowers, i. e., all its flowers have sta- 

 mens and pistils (male and female organs) . These can be planted 

 alone without any other variety near, and will produce fruit. This 



Pig. 2. Si-sexual, or perfect Mower 

 of strawberry. A, petal: B, sep- 

 al; C, Stamens; D, pistils. 



Fig. 3. Pistillate, or imperfect 

 flower of strawberry. A, petal; 

 B, sepal; J), pistils (notice the 

 stamens are wanting. 



class may be called bi-sexual {See Fig. 2). The other class has 

 pistils (female organs), but does not have stamens, or has but very 

 few of them. This class is called pistillate {See Fig. 3) . It is found 

 in practice that the varieties with pistillate blossoms generally pro- 

 duce more fruit than those with bi-sexual flowers, consequently it 

 is advantageous to raise as many of such kinds as possible and as 

 few of the others, but it is necessary to have some of the bi-sexual 

 kinds near the pistillate kinds or no fruit is produced. Just the 

 proportion that should exist between the bi-sexual and the pistil- 

 late kinds is a disputed point, but it is probably about one to three 

 or four, depending upon the weather at the time of blossoming. 

 It is safe to say that when pistillate kinds are used every 

 third row should be of some bi-sexual kind, selected so that it will 



