48 ON THE SCIENTIFIC CULTURE OF THE STRAWBERRY. 



gust) would raise forty bushels. His fruit was much larger than any other 

 brought to market, and commanded from 25 cents (Is.) to 37£ cents 

 (Is. 6d.) per quart. His secret he kept to himself, and my attention was 

 first led to the subject by a casual remark of his son's to me one day in my 

 garden ; — that I must get very little fruit, as my plants were all males. I 

 then investigated the matter, and soon discovered that there were what he 

 called male and female plants — a fact I communicated to our market gar- 

 deners. The result was that strawberries rapidly increased in our market, 

 until as fine as Mr. Abergust's were sold at from three cents (three-halfpence) 

 to ten cents (fivepence) per quart." 



There can be little doubt that this gardener, Abergust, obtained his 

 knowledge, either directly or indirectly, from Mr. Keen, who had promul- 

 gated the information he had acquired, some short time previously. 

 Through Mr. Longworih, Keen's discovery and Abergust's secret was tho- 

 roughly ventilated in the United States, and is now universally known in 

 that part of America, where strawberry growing is carried on to an extent 

 little dreamed of in this country. One individual grower (Mr. Culbertson, 

 of Cincinnati) sends to market sometimes 4,000 to 5,000 quarts a day, 

 employing sixty persons to pick them. Numerous cases are known of 

 5,000 quarts per acre being obtained in one season ; and it is held as an 

 indubitable fact, that, by cultivating hermaphrodites (as we do in England) 

 instead of pistillates, only from one-tenth to one-third of a crop can be 

 obtained. 



By far the largest and most delicious strawberries in the world, to our 

 knowledge, are those of Chili ; and we think plants and seeds from that 

 country might advantageously be brought aud domesticated here. Certainly 

 the finest strawberry plant we have ever seen is that of Mr. John Robert- 

 son, of Paisley, w r hich is known under the name of " The Wizard of the 

 North" (that is, supposing the authorised coloured drawing of the plant, 

 in full bearing, to be a true and faithful representation). Sundry appa- 

 rently respectable and trustworthy persons testify by letter to having seen 

 it, with seventy-eight fine large fruit at one time upon a single plant. 



Having obtained a good pistillate, one would be apt to suppose that we 

 had the utmost Ave could reasonably hope for ; but in this we should err 

 very greatly indeed ; for Mr. Charles Peabody, of Columbus, in Georgia, 

 has clearly demonstrated that it is possible to obtain a succession of fruit 

 from the same plants for many months in the year, instead of only one 

 bearing. This most indefatigable gentleman has in truth reduced the 

 culture of the straw T berry to a perfect science. His is no small garden cul- 

 tivation, but comprises many large fields, embracing a very considerable 

 acreage, and justified by more than fifteen years' constant observation and 

 experience. His plan deserves all possible attention and respect. He 

 selects some good pistillate of an ever-bearing variety ; and, to impregnate 

 this, he also chooses a good, ever-bearing hermaphrodite, planting seven 

 rows of pistillates, then one row of hermaphrodites, and so on throughout 

 the field. For many years the varieties he employed were the Hovey's 



