ON THE SCIENTIFIC CULTURE OF THE STRAWBERRY. „ 47 



in some gentleman's garden, being regarded as a great treasure ; the next 

 season, abundance of blossom, but no fruit. This first miscarriage may be 

 attributed to late frosts, slugs, &c, &c. ; so another season is awaited, but 

 the same result disgusts both master and gardener, and the poor unmated 

 females are declared worthless, and are cast on the dungheap. In this 

 manner profuse bearers are thrown away, and the partial bearing herma- 

 phrodite takes their place, and gives rise to the universal complaint, " How 

 badly my strawberries do bear ! I had a fine show of bloom, very fine, but 

 somehow or other I have had scarcely any fruit. It is provoking !" Yes, 

 so it is — very provoking, indeed ; and, knowing and feeling this, we are 

 now endeavouring to diffuse a little information on the subject, hoping that 

 our readers will circulate this information, as well as take advantage of it 

 in their own practice. 



After Keen, a Mons. Duchesne arrived at a similar knowledge of the 

 sexual differences in the strawberry plant ; but as far as the practice in 

 England is and has been concerned, it really seems as if the discovery made 

 and published by Keen had been entirely lost sight of. We have conversed 

 with some of our largest and most eminent nurserymen and seedsmen, and 

 have even ventured in our innocence to speak on the subject of staminates, 

 pistillates, and hermaphrodites to the fruitsellers in Covent-garden Market 

 and in the City; but the blank looks of some, and the honest confession of 

 others that they really did not know anything about the matter, would lead 

 us to the conviction, that, if these sexual differences are known and recog- 

 nised at all in England, it must be by very few indeed. It may be that 

 some of the strawberry growers possess this knowledge ; but, if so, they 

 keep it remarkably secret, perhaps that they may reap the greater (sup- 

 posed) advantage from its exclusive practice, although we can scarcely 

 imagine this. We were ourselves as ignorant on this subject as the English 

 public at large, until we visited the town of Cincinnati, in the United States, 

 and had the matter clearly explained to us by our highly esteemed friend 

 Robert Buchanan, the celebrated wine grower of Cincinnati — a gentleman 

 who, together with Nicholas Longworth, has done so much real good for 

 his country. In Mr. Buchanan's instructive little brochure on " Grape 

 Culture " is included some very interesting letters, statements, and reports 

 upon the culture of the strawberry plant ; and,' as these afford most valu- 

 able information, we shall briefly allude to them. 



It appears that a plain, uneducated market gardener, of the name of 

 Abergust, removed some forty-six years ago from Philadelphia to Cincin- 

 nati, and went largely into the cultivation of the strawberry, in which he 

 marvellously surpassed all his neighbours by means of a secret method of 

 managing the culture, and which method he had most successfully prac- 

 tised at Philadelphia. So well did he keep his secret, that for very many 

 years it was not even guessed at ; and he supplied nine -tenths of all the 

 strawberries consumed in Cincinnati, making thereby a very handsome 

 competency. To give Mr. Longworth's own words, " While I could, from 

 one-fourth of an acre, scarcely raise one bushel of strawberries, he (Aber- 



