APPENDIX. 



119 



irrigate the strawberry grounds by letting water on 

 tlie vines; but the strawberry, cultivated after the 

 manner described, can bear as great a drought as any 

 other plant. It is not the vines and leaves that want 

 the water, but the flowers and fruit; and the water 

 must come in the form of rain, through the clouds, 

 from an engine, or a common watering-pot. 



I have noticed quite a contest going on among hor- 

 ticulturists as to the possibility of strawberries chang- 

 ing their sexual character by cultivation. Without 

 taking part in the controversy, I must state that I 

 would as soon think of high feed turning a cow to a 

 bull, as to change the pistillate character of Hovey's 

 Seedling by any method of cultivation. I have culti- 

 Tated the strawberry under every aspect ; with high 

 manuring, and without manure; in new lands, and on 

 old lands ; have had the vines stand from twelve to 

 eighteen inches high, and in meek submission to hug 

 the ground ; yet I have never found the least change 

 in the blossom. A perfect pistillate or staminate flower, 

 first blooming so from seed, will never bloom any 

 other way. Cultivators are often deceived about their 

 plants, from the fact that they frequently find varie- 

 ties in the beds which they did not plant ; but these 

 spring from seed. The strawberry springs from seed 

 v*r:th astonishing rapidity. Since my beds were started, 

 the whole country around me is covered v/ith straw 



