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a grape or raspberry that shall be best over the en- 

 tire fruit-growing land. The fact is that those very 

 peculiarities that make a fruit or grain perfect in 

 one soil and climate, must necessarily -mijit it for a 

 very dissimilar one. In Massachusetts, the Bald- 

 win apple is nearly perfect, in Kentucky nearly 

 worthless, whilst on the bleak prairie of northern 

 [owa the wintry blasts cut it down like a fig. 

 Rawle's Jannet is fine in Virginia, poor in Maine, 

 and kills in Minnesota. Duchess of Oldenburg, 

 that is little sought or esteemed south or east, holds 

 high carnival amid the fiercest blasts of a north- 

 western winter, and in summer yields abundant 

 fruit of surpassing beauty. The Concord grape at 

 lona Island is pronounced poor, in Missouri fine, in 

 Georgia worthless. Delaware that on the rich, high 

 dry prairies of northern Iowa is ihrifty, healthy and 

 fine, in Missouri and many other localities is de- 

 dounced as dwarfish, unproductive and specially 

 liable to mildew and loss of foliage. 



Thus it is with our entire list of fruits, not one 

 is, — and it is contrary to the laws of nature that 

 one should be, — perfectly adapted to all locations. 

 When we as horticulturists "accept the situation," 

 "submit to these laws," abandon our lists for "gen- 

 eral cultivation," and devote our energies to per- 

 fecting Hsts for "special locations," then will horti- 

 culture be on the high road to success. Then the 

 sterile hills of chill New England (God bless her), 

 the rich sunny alluvial plains of Louisiana, the hot 

 sands of Carolina, the beautiful rolling prairies of 

 Iowa, will each produce, in wonderful abundance 

 and perfection, its chosen sorts, — and, altogether, our 

 great country will furnish an amount and variety of 

 fruits that will swell with national pride the heart 

 of the American Horticulturist. 



THE BEST DISTANCE TO PLANT STRAW- 

 BERRIES. 



BY M. T. 



Much has been said about the best way to make 

 strawberry beds, but no decision has been made on 

 which the novice can rely. There are as many found 

 to advocate hill culture, as to grow them in beds ; 

 and as many to recommend cutting off" all the run- 

 ners, as to let them run altogether as they will. 



There is no doubt that large growers who raise 

 for market find their advantage in any of these 

 methods, according to circumstances ; and people 

 infer, accordingly, that there can be no rule laia down 

 to guide the amateur as to which is best for him to 

 do in his small plot of garden ground. But, what- 

 ever may be best for him, who can work his large 

 plantation by the plow, — or who, by a heavy invest- 



175 



ment of capital in strawberry growing, has at com- 

 mand, at the right moment, plenty of help to out- 

 run the strawberry growth ; I am quite sure 

 there is another way which is much better for the 

 amateur, and which will insure him enormous crops 

 on a small piece of ground with very little labor or 

 expense. 



The Strawberry is a gregarious subject, and does 

 not like an isolated life. It believes that in "union 

 there is strength ;" and it will bear a great deal bet- 

 ter when it is moderately near a neighbor than 

 when alone by itself. Why it is, or how it is, we 

 do not know, nor is it of much consequence here to 

 tell ; but of that fact am very well assured my 

 observations have not deceived me. T therefore 

 put my strawberries four inches apart, in straight 

 lines, and this is parallel with another straight hne, 

 twelve inches from the last — ^just wide enough to 

 hoe between. 



Thus I continue until my strawberry plantation 

 is made up, with no beds or alleys between. What- 

 ever runners come within these 12-inch lines are 

 hoed out, just as if they were " any other " weeds. 

 The crops I get from this system are entirely sat- 

 isfactory, — and, strange to say, I really see very 

 little dilFerence in the productiveness of any one kind 

 over the other, by this system, — except, perhaps, 

 that Albany Seedling bears a little more than the 

 others, — but very little, indeed, more than Tri- 

 omphe de Gand, when grown in this way. 



There is one point, as to the direction of these 

 lines, worthy of remark — that is, that a bed will re- 

 main longer productive when planted on a gentle 

 slope, with the rows running across, than any other 

 way. It was sometime before I could get at the 

 reason, but this is it : — 



The Strawberry plant is really an annua]. No 

 part of it, now alive, will be alive next year, though 

 apparently the same hill : for, as soon as the grow- 

 ing season comes, the plant pushes out three or four 

 series of leaves from the crown, and a new set of 

 fibres from the bases of these new leaves, and the 

 stock below immediately dies, like an old Gladiolus 

 bulb, exactly. The plant is thus elevated a quarter 

 of an inch higher than it was before ; and in the 

 course of another year or two becomes considerably 

 above the level ot the ground, and suffers aeoord- 

 ingly — very frequently gets winter-killed. But when 

 across the slope, and set rather thick in the rows, 

 the soil continually washes down and covers the ele- 

 vated rootlets, and thus aids to maintain continuous 

 fertility for some years. 



I have said the old stalk dies away like a 

 Gladiolus, but it does not, like that, so entirely dis- 

 appear. It being ligneous, remains a dead stick ; 

 and any one who examines an old strawberry stool 

 will find but a set of dried stalks, on the top of 

 which living strawberry crowns are set. Those who 

 never made the observation will find an examination 

 interestins: and instructive. 



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