SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
early spring, or they never yield full crops without self- 
exhaustion. We have used no other manure during the 
last few years, than the potash phosphate ofLime. 
THE .STIiAWEEllKY. 
Editors Southern Clh.tivator — Your correspondent, 
“J. F. M.” must have read the opinions of some wise 
Eastern and Western Botanists, who say; “there are no 
pure starninate or pistillate plants,” though a man half 
blind can distinguish the blossoms at the distance of 10 
or 15 feet. At an early day, we had male and female 
plants only. I had an eighth of an acre in Strawberries, 
and had to go to market to buy fruit of an illiterate market 
woman who never read a book in her life, but raised five 
times as much fruit on the same space of ground as 
others could. Aware of this, her neighbors, when she 
thinned out her plants in the fall and threw them on the 
road where they travelled, picked them up and planted 
them ; and the result was, they never bore a single berry. 
The old woman’s object was to deceive them. 
When 1 was green enough to believe in the old wo- 
man's sexual character of the plant and published it, my 
doctrines were ridiculed beyond measure. But our mar- 
ket gardeners, aware of ilte old woman’s success, became 
converts, and the fruit went down to one-lhird its former 
price. From seed nearly all are pure male or female plants. 
A portion perfect in male organs (stamens), and more or 
less perfect in female organs (pistils) and oear more or 
less perfect fruit, more or less deformed ones, and more 
or less entirely barren. These, hermaphrodites, are the 
only kind known in Europe, till enlightened by our mar- 
ket woman, as the great Linnaeus and his followers held 
the doctrine. Wise men could not be expected to believe 
an ignorant market woman, wiser than themselves. I 
would advise “J. F. M.” to get our seedlings, the Prolific, 
McAvoy’s Superior, and the Extra Red. The first is 
hermaphrodite, and the only plant we have ever seen that 
bears a full crop of large, perfect fruit, ft not only is atten- 
tive to its own flowers, but to all flowers in its vicinity, and 
pistillate plants require no other impregnator in the gar- 
den. The males, having no children to aitend to, run at 
random, and soon kick all the women out of bed. If the Pro- 
lific should do this, the cultivator would sustain no loss, as 
no pistillate is as vigorous a grower. None bears a larger 
crop or larger fruit. McAvoy’s Superior I deem the best 
of all pistillates. But she is not a Mormon. She is not 
willing to be one of the hundred wives, even to the head 
priest. If far separated from plants with male organs, 
many berries are imperfect. I should plant every third 
bed or row with the Prolific. Many deem a rich, loose 
loom, best for Strawberries. I mix with my rich garden 
mould, one half of the poorest and stilTest clay I can find, j 
The result is, plants of much larger growth, that stand dry ! 
weallier, bear more and larger fruit, and the plants are I 
never thrown out of the ground in the spring, when the I 
ground thaws. The Extra Red is not equal to the Piolific j 
and Superior in quality, requiring more sugar. The fruit i 
is all of good size, of great beauty of color, and an im- ! 
rnense bearer, and very valuable as a market fruit. The { 
Superior, if taken to market, requires to be taken Muth j 
care, as the fruit is not firm. Thei'e are but few of these i 
•Seedlings yet cultivated for market, as they are a recent | 
production and seldom, if ever seen in market, as it is sold ! 
oy Mr. Heath and others, and private families, at an ex- ' 
tra price. Mr. IMcAvoy, Mr. Schneike, 31r. Ernest, Mr. ' 
Jackson^ Mr. Pentland and Mr. Kelby, and many other ^ 
gardeners, have them for sale. The Prolific, the Superior j 
and Extra Red were from seed I raised by impregnating ■ 
Hovey’s Seedling with the largest English hermaphrodite. 
IUj 
McAvoy planted the seed, and gave some of the plants, by 
my direction, to my tenant, iMr. Schneike. The Prolific 
was among a groat number of plants sent him by Mc- 
Avoy, and was first known as Schneike’s Seedling. A 
premium was oftered by our Horticultural Society for a 
Seedling Pistillate, superior to Hovey’s Pistillate, or any 
other pistillate, ofS'oU, and after afulltest, it was awarded 
to Mr. McAvoy. N. Longworth. 
Cincinnati. Ohio, 1857. 
P. S. — I have seen berries of the [Longworth’s] Prolific 
and Superior that measured b inches. 
FIG Cl ETUKE — FliUIT IN FEOIfIDA, iSrc. 
Wu are indebted to Mr. iMAaoN, of iMonticello, Florida, 
for an article on the cultivation of Figs. Want of space in 
our columns compells us to confine ourselves to some ex- 
tracts from his communication. We fully agree with him 
when he observes that “every farmer, from the great to 
the small one, may adorn his orchard with this delicious 
fruit.” We also should recommend, as in all fruit trees, “c 
rational and moderate pruning of the Fig tree anid, Ike se- 
lection of the most projitable varieties, since they grow equal- 
ly well from scions.'" 
That figs can be resorted to as an article of o.ctual food^ 
there is not the least doubt, since we know, as Mr. M. 
states, that Greeks used figs as a portion o f their al- 
lowance." Slaves in Greece were often kept on figs as the 
Arabs live on Dates. 
Mr. Mason recommends drying the figs in ovens. This 
may be a necessity during the rainy season in Florida ; 
but it is not so here; and figs dried in the sun are muck 
better, nor does this process require much more time. 
The author of the article complains of a deficiency of 
fruit through most parts of Florida. This remark agrees 
with the experience of a friend who lately spent some 
weeks in different parts of that State. He says : 
“It is a strange fact that so few fruits are cultivated in 
a State where the use of fruit would prove so beneficial to 
the public health. Peaches and figs grow easily and bear 
prolusely in this sunny soil, so well fitted for the peach 
tree, and moreover they almost always escape the spring 
frosts so iniurions to our own orchards. The oranges 
this side of Palatka are a very uncertain product. Most 
of the celebrated orange groves are bitter or sour fruits, 
and it is to be feared that the same insect which destroys 
most of the orange trees in the extreme south of Georgia 
and north Florida, will soon find its way to the interior 
and southern part of the last named State. For the pre- 
sent winter a great number of orange trees and oleanders 
have been killed or badly injmed as far as 30 miles south- 
west from Ocala. It is indeed surprising to witness in all 
climates that stange propensity of men to cultivate tropical 
fruits which seldom succeed;and are destroyed at least once 
in 10 or 15 years, while it would be easy to stock farms 
and plantation with fruits of easy raising and certain 
yielding. Amateurs try to cultivate the banana, so easi- 
ly killed by the least frost, and requiring in all cases a 
covering or protection during the winter months. I have 
seen a native Florida apple seedling tree of fineappearance 
and well suited to the climate. Why should Southern apples 
not succeed in the rich soils ot the hammocks 1 Vv’^e can 
see no reason for that. People are too prone to admit 
theories when there aie no facts to sustain these. Many 
of my acquaintances who supposed the Apple and the 
Pear could not succeed in Florida, candidly acknowledged 
that they had never tried, nor 'witnessed any trial of the 
