201 
CULTURE OP STRAWBERRIES.—FOREIGN CATTLE. 
CULTURE OF STRAWBERRIES. 
When we consider how easily strawberries are 
cultivated, the delicacy and healthfulness of the 
fruit, that it is the earliest in the season, and ap¬ 
pears without a rival, we are astonished to find how 
few of the farmers have them in their gardens— 
they usually doing without them, or depending 
upon the capricious, wild growth of a small and in¬ 
ferior kind in the fields. To say nothing of the 
luxury of having an abundance of strawberries 
during the season, in our own families, it is one of 
the most profitable fruits cultivated; and many a 
farmer in this vicinity has made a snug fortune by 
growing them for the city market. Particular at¬ 
tention is given to this business in New Jersey, 
where patches will be found in abundance, varying 
from one to fifteen acres. 
They are usually brought to market in small 
baskets holding one-third of a quart, and the price 
varies from 3 to 10 cents, according to the season 
and the time of marketing them. Twenty thousand 
baskets have been picked from a single acre, and 
sold at an average price of 5 cents per basket, 
making a product of $1,000. This is an uncommon 
case, however, and we presume it might be fairer 
to assume that eight thousand baskets would be a 
good average yield per acre, sold at 4 cents, pro¬ 
ducing $320. The expenses of culture and mar¬ 
keting are heavy; but admitting that they net the 
grower only one-and-a-half cents per basket, in the 
field , and that he gets only six thousand baskets, it 
would leave a profit of $90 per acre. Suppose 
that only half this sum, $45 per acre, is realized, it 
would still be a good business to farmers in the 
neighborhood of cities. 
The best months to set out strawberry plants in 
this climate are August, September, March, and 
April; at the South, we should say, October, No¬ 
vember, February, and March. But as it is gene¬ 
rally impossible to get plants from the North before 
March, to send South, they should be ordered for 
that quarter as early as September, and then they 
•would be certain to arrive there in season. The 
vines produce few berries the first year, but very 
abundantly the second and third. After this the 
fruit rapidly deteriorates in size and quality, and 
new plantings should be brought into bearing, and 
the old ones dug up. 
We expect soon to be favored with a series of 
articles, with illustrations, on the culture of straw¬ 
berries, from a gentleman in this vicinity, who has 
devoted much time and attention to them, we there¬ 
fore forbear any further remarks upon the subject 
for the present. 
FOREIGN CATTLE. 
About eight months since, we noticed the 
following paragraph in the New England Farmer: 
“ The Massachusetts Agricultural Society have 
recently imported from England and Scotland, one 
bull and four cows of the North Devon, and a bull 
and four cows of the Ayrshire breeds; all said to 
be good of their several kinds, at a cost of $3,000.” 
It was with great pleasure and satisfaction that 
we read the above paragraph, and it was our inten¬ 
tion at the time to have made some remarks upon 
it, but such has been the demand upon our columns, 
that we have not been able to find a place for them 
till now. This importation, together with a subse¬ 
quent one by Mr. W ebster, of Massachusetts, 
shows that the good old Bay State is alive to the 
improvement of its neat stock, and that a reviving 
interest pervades this as well as many other sec¬ 
tions of the country. We trust that while these 
imported bulls are judiciously bred to native cows, 
the imported cows may be bred to none but these 
bulls, or others of pure breed fully equal to them, 
so that the stock will be kept pure and perpetuated 
with a view of improving that of the country at 
large, for generations yet to come, and not be neg¬ 
lected and suffered to run out, as has been the case 
with pretty much all, heretofore imported. We 
admire the liberality of the Massachusetts Agricul¬ 
tural Society; $3,000 for ten animals—$300 each— 
is a pretty high price though to send abroad these 
times for neat cattle ; and we hope, before any more 
importations are made, that the Societies and people 
of this country will cast about a little, and see if 
they cannot supply themselves equally well at 
home, and at a much cheaper rate ; for we hold it 
the duty of every good citizen to expend his money 
in his own country, when it is possible to get any¬ 
thing like the value for it, rather than send abroad. 
Upwards of four years ago we came to the conclu¬ 
sion, after a pretty thorough personal inspection of 
the different breeds of neat cattle in England, that 
we only wanted now and then a very superior bull 
or so, to give fresh blood to our stock, and that we 
already have about as good materials for all neces¬ 
sary improvement as Great Britain can furnish us; 
and to this opinion we still adhere. 
Let us now look about a little, and name a few 
enterprising persons who have imported and are 
breeding Devons and Ayrshires, saying nothing of 
the numerous and wide-spread Durhams, and the 
choice breeds of Herefords scattered over the 
country. 
Mr. Patterson, of Maryland, has a herd of pure 
Devons, the originals of which were imported up¬ 
ward of thirty years ago, from the best herds in 
England. These he has continued to breed with 
great success ever since, improving their blood with 
continued fresh importations whenever it could 
be of the least advantage for him to do so. His 
herd numbers more than one hundred, all thorough 
bred, and we believe as good animals as England 
can produce. He raises many steers annually of 
the purest blood, and most faultless forms, for the 
simple reason that the demand for his young bulls 
is far short of the increase. So fastidious has he 
been in his breeding, that for several years after he 
commenced, he steadily refused to part with a 
single animal to breed, until he had got his herd to 
suit him in their general excellence, and he had 
made his third trial of imported bulls from England, 
the last one, from Bloomfield’s herd, the same from 
which the Massachusetts bull was taken. At 
length, when he opened his herd for sale, he placed 
the choicest of them, except the selections for his 
own immediate breeding, at the moderate price of 
$100; and neither more did he demand, nor less 
did he ask. Would it not have been quite as well 
for the Massachusetts Society to have purchased of 
