CULTURE CPF STRAWBERRIES.-1. 
81 
Lucerne is much cultivated here; and madder to some 
extent. I shall examine the cultivation of this latter 
crop minutely when we get to Sicily, where we pro¬ 
pose going from Marseilles, and thence through Italy, 
Prussia, Austria, Belgium, and Holland, again to 
Paris, and thence to England, examining, as 1 go, all 
that is interesting in horticulture. I have sent home 
many new varieties of pears and other fruits, with 
some three hundred kinds of grapes, to be tested in 
our climate. S. B. Parsons. 
Nismes, South of France, Jan. 22, 1845. 
(a) We presume our correspondent means the 
Irish ivy, as this bears the English name on the Con¬ 
tinent. It may be seen covering the front walls of 
the Hospital in this city, and the walls of Castle Gar¬ 
den on the Battery. It stands our climate perfectly ; 
and is of a deep, rich green all winter. The Irish 
ivy is brighter and deeper in its color than the Eng¬ 
lish, has much larger leaves, and grows four times as 
rapidly. We found, when in England, that it was 
fast taking the place of their own, being greatly 
preferred, for its superiority of growth and foliage. 
CULTURE OF STRAWBERRIES. 
I have for several years practised with success the 
following method with my strawberry beds, and am 
therefore induced to offer it for publication in your 
paper. 
The beds are to be formed in the usual manner, 
three feet in width, and marked by lines running 
lengthwise and transversely, the former being one, 
and th£. latter from two to four feet apart—the plants 
to be set at the intersections. 
If Hovey’s Seedling, Methven, Downton, or other 
variety requiring fertilizers be cultivated, three or four 
of them are sufficient for a bed, to be set at the points 
F, as in Fig. 13, and kept trimmed of their runners. 
Now commence raking the beds as often as necessary, 
not to get out the weeds and grass, but to keep them 
out. 
Fig. 13. 
When the runners begin to grow, they are to be 
turned by the rake or hand to form rows one foot 
apart, lengthwise of the beds. The rake should be 
of light construction, about ten inches wide, and the 
teeth an inch and a-half long, and an inch apart. 
Fie. 14. 
Towards the close of the season, when the rows 
are full, if plants are wanted for new beds* the run¬ 
JZ ©F a PRIZE heifer. 
ners may be allowed to take root in the intermediate 
spaces, and the raking be discontinued. They must, 
however, be taken out of the way early in the suc¬ 
ceeding spring. If not wanted for this purpose, they 
should be taken off by the rake or other more conve¬ 
nient instrument, and the spaces between the rows 
kept entirely clean. 
Fig. 15. 
Late in the fall, or very early in the following 
spring (according to soil and climate), the beds should 
be slightly covered with litter of some kind for pro¬ 
tection during the winter, if necessary, or at least to 
keep the berries from the ground. After bearing, the 
litter should be immediately taken off and the rake 
put in operation, which, with very little labor, season¬ 
ably applied, will keep the bed in excellent order. 
After two or three years, when it becomes neces¬ 
sary to renew the beds, it can be done by hoeing out 
all but a few of the plants, and turning the runners 
into the rows, according to the process previously de¬ 
scribed. If there be occasion to apply manure to 
them, it can easily be worked in with a spade between 
the rows. 
The above method is deemed preferable to that of 
cultivating the plants in hills, (the only other that 
should ever be thought of for a garden); first, on 
account of the greater facility in filling a bed with 
the requisite number of plants; and second, because 
that in a bed containing a greater number of plants, 
the operation of raking is both more easy and more 
effectual, and it must consequently yield a greater 
product. In the ordinary mode of culture, in which 
the vines are allowed to run at random all over the 
beds, and the weeds and grass, if removed at all, are 
to be pulled out by the fingers, the prospect is truly 
discouraging; and it is probably more for want of a 
better method than from any other cause, that so 
many are content to do without the fruit. 
Philetus Phillips. 
Middletown Point , N. /., Feb., 1845. 
Model of a Prize Heifer.— Francis Rotch, Esq., 
of Otsego, now in London, writes us that the Short- 
Horn heifer of Sir Charles Tempest, which took the 
prize of the gold medal, as the best animal at the 
Smith field club exhibition, was as near perfection as 
an animal well can be. An artist, every way quali¬ 
fied for the task, has taken a model of her from mi¬ 
nute measurement, and if $75 can be made up, he 
will furnish thirty beautiful plaster casts of her four¬ 
teen inches long, which will make them cost $2.50 
there, or not to exceed $3.00 each delivered here. 
This is a rare opportunity for gentlemen to furnish 
themselves with a superb model of a Durham cow. 
and we hope a subscription list will be immediately 
filled up for it. We will gladly forward any money 
sent us, to Mr. Rotch, for this purpose. A plaster 
model like the above, would be invaluable as a study 
to our breeders. 
