106 
EXPORTATION OF FRUIT. 
7 nale parts in one flower, and the female in anoth¬ 
er. Still the latter varieties are reckoned the finest 
flavored fruit. Keen, a successful cultivator of 
this fruit, observes, that great care is necessary to 
be taken in selecting young plants of these sorts 
for making out new plantations; that there be a 
proper proportion of male plants to the female, 
not having too many of the former, as they bear 
no fruit, and are more prone to run into leaves and 
runners than the others. He considers that the 
proportion ought to be one male to ten females, 
and states his reasons for making such a choice. 
Having been formerly in the habit of selecting fe¬ 
male plants alone for his beds, he failed in being 
able to procure crops; but in 1809, suspecting his 
error, he obtained some male blossoms, which he 
placed in a bottle on the bed of female hautboys. 
In a few days he perceived the fruit near the bot¬ 
tle to swell. On this observation, he procured 
more male blossoms, and in like manner placed 
them in bottles in different parts of the beds, re¬ 
moving the bottles to fresh places every morning, 
and by this means obtained a moderate crop where 
he had no fruit the preceding year.” See Loudon, 
M’Mahon, and others. 
Lindley is the only writer who appears to favor 
your correspondent’s theory, and he admits that 
there are fruitful and sterile plants, yet what is 
very extraordinary, he does not give the botanical 
character of these plants. 
I have examined Keen’s seedling with great 
care, upon one set of flowers the stamens and an¬ 
thers were absent, and the pistils only existed ; on 
the other the stamens and anthers were present 
without the pistils, and this will be found to be in¬ 
variably the case with this kind of hautboys ; and 
I will venture to assert, that S. S. may put virgin 
soil, guano manure, or Bommer’s, or any other 
that he pleases, and he will not produce a perfect 
strawberry ; and for this simple reason, that he 
can not violate a law of nature, which requires two 
sexes to produce a species. Besides all this, the 
male plants are not less distinguishable in their 
flowers than in their runners ; for every practical 
gardener knows that the runners are always red¬ 
dish in the male, and greenish in the female. 
Again, S. S. says: “ Now to call any perfect 
strawberry plant a male or female plant , is to as¬ 
sert a fact at variance, the writer believes, though 
no botanist, with the habits of all other plants; 
that is to say, there are no intermarriages of plant? 
changing the sexual character of their progeny, 
and passing them from the description of those 
like the strawberry, Ieosandria polygynia, (males 
and females on the same plant,) to those like the 
hemp and palms with male and female on differ¬ 
ent plants.” 
Now, if I understand S. S., his argument is, 
that no monoecius can produce a dicecius plant. 
Here S. S. is again at fault, for the grape, ( vitis ,) 
which is pentandria monogynia, does produce a 
diaecius grape, called the Scuppernong; and the 
common sweet-scented grape, (vitis riparia , or 
odoratissinia of some authors.) This I think 
knocks his argument into a cocked hat. 
The writer again says, that he uever saw a wild 
he strawberry. If he will look less after the shes 
and more after the lies, he will be gratified ; for in 
thii part of the world the hes have established a 
complete monkery, so that not one female is to be 
found. It is evident then, that a monoecius plant 
can produce a dioecius, and if it can on the grape, 
there is no reason that the same result should not 
be shown on the strawberry. It may be called a 
sport of nature, but it is one of those means she 
takes to produce varieties so important to our com¬ 
fort and welfare. 
S. S. has made some important remarks upon 
the cultivation of fruit well worthy of considera¬ 
tion ; and as he appears to be a lover of horticul¬ 
ture, I have deemed it right to direct his attention 
to an error which has escaped his usual sagacity. 
T.R.R. 
Long Island , near Huntington , Jan., 1844. 
EXPORTATION OF FRUIT. 
In my opinion, the importance of growing fruit 
as an article of export, has been most generally 
overlooked in this country. It is true the fruit- 
dealers of Boston have been shipping apples and 
cranberries to Europe for many years, and of late, 
apples have been shipped to Calcutta. There is 
no doubt that quinces and the finest quality of 
winter pears could be shipped to some parts of 
Europe with the same success as our other fruits. 
The business being new in this section of the 
country, I propose saying something relating to the 
export of fruit for the benefit of new beginners. 
All fruits sent abroad should be of the very first 
quality. The Boston dealers ship their celebrated 
Baldwin apples. The most valuable variety in 
this vicinity is the Newtown pippins, as they keep 
sound and retain their flavor late in the spring, 
when most other varieties are gone. A distin¬ 
guished horticulturist of New York, ships his ap¬ 
ples to London in the following manner: After be¬ 
ing carefully picked, and placed by hand in baskets, 
they are carried by men and put in an open bam 
for the purpose of sweating 15 or 20 days. Some 
are then packed in barrels with perfectly dry sand, 
some in buckwheat, and others are put in barrels 
without anything with them. («) They are then 
taken on a sled, or in the box of a wagon hung 
with spiral springs, to a boat on the North river, 
and thence to the vessel which takes them to Lon¬ 
don. In all these trans-shipments the barrels are 
never rolled, jolted, or jarred, so that the apples 
escape bruising, and the consequence is they arrive 
in London in far better order than they are in 
general when brought to the New York market. 
These precautions in shipping apples agree per¬ 
fectly with some facts I obtained from Mr. Serrell 
of the American Institute, formerly engaged as a 
managing ship-owner in London, connected with 
the fruit-trade. In drawing charter parties for a 
vessel to take fresh fruits from Spain and Portugal 
to London, a special clause is inserted that the 
boxes of oranges shall be hoisted into the vessel 
by the takle being attached to each ; and that the 
boxes also are to be stowed on their bottoms, and 
never on their sides or ends. On landing in Lon¬ 
don, the same care is taken in hoisting them out 
of the vessel. The boxes are then placed on the 
