PERPETUAL STRAWBERRIES, 
821 
Mr. Charles A. Peabody, of Columbus, Georgia, quoted by 
Mr. R. G. Pardee, wrote as follows :— 
“ In European gardens autumnal crops of Strawberries have 
been obtained sometimes by pinching off the flower stems in 
spring, suppressing the runners, and feeding and watering the 
plants liberally during summer ; but this process partakes more 
of the art of forcing fruit than of the ordinary cultivation. What 
was needed was a variety of large-fruited Strawberry, flowering 
and bearing fruit naturally in summer and autumn, just as the 
Alpine does. Ananas perpAtuel was a harbinger of the new races 
to come. After a short period of popularity, however, it seems 
to have sunk into oblivion. 
“ It is now well known throughout the Southern States that 
for many years I have cultivated the Strawberry extensively, and 
have had from my beds a constant succession of fruit six months 
in the year, and frequently have it ten. While I am now writing 
(December 24) one of my beds—of an acre—is loaded with ripe 
fruit, specimens of which I have sent to New Orleans, Mont¬ 
gomery, Savannah, Charleston, Mobile, and New York. This 
bed has scarcely produced a runner the past season. The causes 
of this will be found in my method of culture. ... I prefer a 
sandy soil and new land. My grounds are on what are called 
‘ piney woodlands,’hills and valley with never-failing streams 
meandering through them. I have taken the grounds bordering 
on the streams, ploughed them deep, and laid them off in rows 
two feet apart. I plant seven rows of pistillate (Honey’s seed¬ 
ling) and one row of hermaphrodite (early scarlet). I plant the 
pistillate for fruit and the hermaphrodite for impregnators; and 
the only two which I have found to bloom and fruit together 
the whole season are the Honey’s seedling and the large early 
scarlet. The first season I let the runners fill the ground ; in 
the fall go through the grounds with hoes, thinning out to eight 
or ten inches, leaving the vines to decay just where they are cut 
up. I then cover the whole bed with partially decomposed leaves 
from the woods or swamps. I never use animal manure of any 
kind—nothing but the leaf-mould and an occasional sprinkling 
of wood-ashes. The leaf-mould keeps the ground cool and 
moist, as well as the fruit clean, and does not stimulate the plants 
to runners. The potash and acids contained in it are just what 
the fruit wants. A few years of this culture will check their 
