AGRICULTURAL TOUR.-VARIETIES OF THE STRAWBERRY. 
273 
gia, analyzed it. I composted it with straw, and let 
my cattle trample and let fall their droppings upon it, 
and it proved to be excellent manure. Our soil re¬ 
quires this dressing, much of it, for the surface is 
not generally fertile in itself. Some farmers made 
mistakes in managing it. f put my marl compost in 
the drills where I planted my cotton, and that cotton 
grew as large again as the other did. I am for a 
thorough analysis of soils, in order to decide posi¬ 
tively what kind of manure one ought to apply. We 
in Alabama are asking our Legislature for a protec¬ 
tive agriculture. The Almighty has placed the marl 
where it is required. I present to the Club speci¬ 
mens of my cotton of 1844. It is green seed cotton, 
short staple, raised by me by good management, so as 
to be worth three cents a pound more than the ordi¬ 
nary best crops. 
This cotton was examined by the Club, and admir¬ 
ed for its beautiful silky quality. 
Mr. Meigs —Martin E. Thompson invited me to 
look at two grape vines he had been raising. Last 
spring they were about three feet high. He placed 1 
a zinc plate in the ground near one of them, and a 
copper plate in the ground near the other—they 
being about twelve feet apart He connected the two 
plates by a galvanized iron wire, and attached the 
tendrils of one of the vines to the wire, and that vine 
has grown sixteen feet. The other vine was not 
attached to the wire, and has grown four feet. 
AGRICULTURAL TOUR. 
Enjoying the pleasure of a visit to your city, and a 
personal acquaintance with yourself, and having taken 
some interest in the promotion of agriculture, I will 
offer you a few thoughts on the subject that you are 
endeavoring to advance. I reside, as you know, in 
the southern part of Alabama, in what is termed the 
cotton-growing region. At the commencement of the 
present year, quite a number of meetings were held 
for the purpose of adopting some plan to reduce the 
quantity of cotton planted. So far as l have been en¬ 
abled to get information in my journey through the 
states of Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi, the 
crop of cotton planted this year has been equal to the 
last; but owing to the severe drouth that has prevail¬ 
ed throughout the states of Georgia, South Carolina, 
and Alabama, the crop of cotton will be reduced 
ready, and the crop of 1845 will fall off to an extent 
erelofore unknown, from the want of rain. The 
crops of wheat, corn, and hay, in the states of Illinois 
and Indiana, will be good. Indeed, from the best in¬ 
formation I could get on my recent journey through 
those states, they would be abundant, though they 
suffered from the immense floods of rain which fell 
during the month of June; for while the southern 
states were literally burnt up, the western states were 
half drowned. 
In my trip through the west, I had the pleasure of 
examining several extensive nurseries. The nursery 
of Mr. Curtis, of Edgar county, Illinois, is a very fine 
one. This gentleman has purchased several farms 
from the sale of his fruit trees. He has ten acres in 
his nursery, and employs ten hands. The nursery of 
Mr. Mc’Kintosh, of Cleveland, I found to contain 
thirteen acres. It appeared in a highly flourishing 
state. The nurserj^ of Mr. Bryant, of Buffalo, is 
larger than either of the others, with a greater variety 
of fruit, shrubs, &c. These enterprising gentlemen*. 
at the same time that they are promoting their own 
interests, will add much to human comfort and lux¬ 
ury. I had the pleasure of attending the Farmers’ 
Club of your city on the 19th inst., at the American 
Institute. The subjects discussed were of a highly 
important character. The value and properties of 
marl and mud, applied as manure, received tnat atten¬ 
tion that their importance deserved, and much light 
was thrown out that could not be other than useful 
to the farmer and gardener. The subject of insects, 
the causes of their increase, and the best mode of de¬ 
stroying them, was next treated of: this also is a 
most useful and interesting matter to the cultivator of 
the soil. After spending two hours with the Farmers’ 
Club, I came to the conclusion, that if those Clubs 
could become universal throughout our entire country, 
the greatest good would result to the cause of agri¬ 
culture. 
Alexander McDonald. 
New York , Aug. 21, 1845. 
The respected writer of the above has been making 
an agricultural tour from the south, through the west, 
and then east We have been highly gratified with 
his personal acquaintance, and hope other planters 
will annually follow his example. They will find a 
hearty welcome here, and for one we shall endeavor 
to place them in the way of seeing such things as best 
exemplif}’ our agriculture. We trust that Col. Mc¬ 
Donald, as well as other southern gentlemen, will at¬ 
tend the State Agricultural Society show at Utica, for 
there they will see congregated together as fair a 
sample as this state can give of its farmers and their 
productions. 
VARIETIES OF THE STRAWBERRY. 
1 have perused the very intelligent article on the 
Strawberry Culture, from N. Long worth, Esq., of 
Cincinnati, in your August number, which fully ac¬ 
cords in its principles with the views of my father, 
the late Wm. Prince, as well as with my own ex¬ 
perience. And most singular is it, on the other har.;i, 
that Mr. Downing should, at this late day, have blun¬ 
dered into the same errors as some previous com¬ 
pilers. There is one other point requiring investiga¬ 
tion, which is that the strawberry referred to by Mr. 
L. as the “ Hudson,” is a misnomer. I had made a 
note to this effect a year since, on perusing a former 
communication from his pen, with the intent of notic¬ 
ing the error. I will now describe the genuine va¬ 
riety. 
Hudson’s Bay. — Thom. Pom.. Man. Down. Prince’s 
Catalogue for more than 50 years. 
Hudson’s Bay Scarlet. — Hort. Trans., London. 
Hudson’s Pine, of Scotland. 
Mulberry, Ken. 
Fraisier de la Baie de Hudson, of the French 
publications. 
This variety, the native Scarlet of our forests, and 
the English red wood, are the most ancient strawber¬ 
ries of extensive culture in this vicinity, and probably 
throughout our country generally. It was sent from 
our nurseries to the London Horticultural Society 
shortly after the formation of that noble institution. 
In the Pomologieal Manual, published by my father 
and self in 1831, it is thus described . 
“ This variety is more extensively cultivated for 
supplying the markets of New York than any other 
