• 



NOTES AND ABSTRACTS. 907 



The result was that "the observations taken in the Botanical Garden 

 (Hamburg) afford no support to this theory." The proper way of growing 

 this Strawberry is then given. — G. S. S. 



Strawberries. By L. C. Corbett (U.S.A. Dep. Agr. Bur. PL 

 Ind., Farmers' Bull. No. 198, 1904).— The introduction to this bulletin 

 gives an account of the parentage of the Garden Strawberry. 



Our cultivated variety owes apparently little or no relationship to our 

 native wild berry, but comes to us as an American product, the descendant 

 largely of a wild Chilian Strawberry, Fragaria chiloensis. 



The Strawberry is a specially convenient subject for the producer of 

 new varieties, inasmuch as a new and profitable sort, once procured from 

 seed, may be propagated indefinitely by runners, without any fear of 

 change of character. 



The bulletin describes all the processes of field culture, forcing for 

 winter fruit, preparing young plants for sale and transplantation, picking, 

 and shipping to near or distant markets. It recommends the use upon 

 the plants of some highly nitrogenous manure at blooming time, such as 

 nitrate of soda at the rate of about 100 lb. per acre, applied preferably 

 in solution. 



" If the fertility of the soil is little more than enough to support the 

 plant, when the heavy strain of fruit production comes on, the plant will 

 only perfect the number of fruits its food supply will allow ; hence the 

 advantage of applying quickly available plant foods just at this critical 

 time." 



Hybridisers are reminded that many individuals, even of the heaviest 

 fruiting Strawberries, have imperfect or pistillate flowers, and that it will 

 be necessary, in order to secure a supply of pollen to fertilise the seed, to 

 plant every fourth row with pollen-bearing plants flowering at the same 

 time as the imperfectly flowered ones. 



The bulletin concludes with an outline map of the United States 

 divided into numbered sections, and a list giving after each number the 

 names of the most suitable varieties of Strawberry to grow in that section ; 

 for while " no fruit is perhaps more cosmopolitan than the Strawberry, yet 

 this is only made possible by the great variation in sorts adapting it to all 

 the varied conditions of soil and climate which it has to encounter." 



M. L. H. 



Strawberries. By L. R. Taft and M. L. Dean (Agr. Exp. Stn. 

 Michigan, Bull. 213-214, pp. 3-10). — Thrive under a great variety of 

 conditions, best on moderately heavy sandy loam or a light clay-loam soil, 

 with abundance of moisture, yet fairly drained. The soil should contain a 

 considerable amount of humus. There is no better way of fitting land for 

 the crop than to turn under a heavy clover sod. The use of liberal 

 amounts of stable manure (30 or 40 two-horse loads per acre) is also 

 advisable, but it should be thoroughly decomposed. If it is not 

 thoroughly decomposed it is advisable to apply it one year in advance, and 

 use the land for some hard crop. If there is a fair amount of humus, use 

 50 or 100 bushels of wood ash, or, say, 100 to 200 lb. of nitrate of soda, 

 200 to 300 lb. of muriate of potash, 200 to 300 lb. of ground bone, 200 



