358 AMJSKICAN AGEICULTUEIST. 
Jfartoltal Department 
Brooklyn Horticultural Society. —We refer 
our Horticultural readers to the announcement 
of the Show of this Society, to be found in the 
advertising columns. We have received a copy 
of the Regulations, list of Prizes, &c., which we 
will refer to in due season. 
- - 
NEW-YORK HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
The regular meeting of this Society was held 
at No. 600 Broadway, en Monday evening, Aug. 
8th, Vice-President, John Groshon, in the 
chair. On motion of Mr. Suttle, Mr. William 
A. Burgess was elected member of the Society. 
Messrs. Gamgee, Reid, and Hamlin, were chosen 
as special committee to report upon the flowers 
on the table. Of these there were some very 
beautiful specimens, including balsams, phloxes, 
lilly-flowers, (hibiscus rosea sinensis,)hollyhocks, 
and others. The first premium on balsams 
was awarded to Wm. Cranston. Best six 
phloxes, to Thos. Hogg & Son, and also a pre- 
miun for best five cut flowers. A premium was 
recommended to Wm. A. Burgess for five holly¬ 
hocks. The next Conversational Meeting will 
be held on Monday, August 15. Subject, The 
Preparation of the Strawberry-bed, and the 
Cultivation of the Blackberry. 
STRAWBERRIES AND THEIR CULTURE. 
Who does not love strawberries? We have 
scarcely met with a person who would not will¬ 
ingly sacrifice almost any other luxury on the 
table, for a dish of strawberries and cream. 
The cream can be got any where, and the straw¬ 
berries ought to be plentiful every where, when 
in their season. Every person with a small 
plot of ground, may, by expending a few hours 
only of time, have an abundant supply. If 
they are desired for next summer, it will only 
cost the spading of the bed, a little time in 
transplanting during next month, and a small 
degree of attention in the spring, to secure a 
bearing plot for that time. We did intend to 
write out simple directions for their cultivation, 
but we find a very good article on the subject 
in the August number of the Horticulturist , 
and we will give a portion of it in this week’s 
paper. 
To grow large, handsome, fine-flavored fruit 
in abundance, it is not necessary to employ a 
chemist to furnish us with a long list of speci¬ 
fics, nor even to employ a gardener by profes¬ 
sion who can boast of long years of experience. 
Any one who can manage a crop of Corn or 
Potatoes, can, if he will, grow Strawberries. 
We say this much by the way of encourage¬ 
ment, because so much has been said in regard 
to various methods of culture, and various ap¬ 
plications and specifics, that some people have 
become persuaded that a vast deal of learning 
and experience is necessary to produce large 
crops of Strawberries. 
Judging from what we have seen, we believe 
that the great cause of failure is negligence. 
The Strawberry plant—not like a tree, which, 
when once set in its place, remains there—is 
constantly sending out shoots (runners) in all 
directions, taking possession of the ground rap¬ 
idly around the parent plant. In a short time, 
therefore, unless these runners are kept in 
check, the ground becoming entirely occupied 
with plants, the parent plants become ex¬ 
hausted, and the ground can no longer be stir¬ 
red or kept in such a condition as is necessary 
to sustain their vigor. The result is, the 
ground is covered with a mass of starved and 
weakly plants, choking up each other in a hard, 
uncultivated soil, and producing a sparse crop 
of small, insipid berries, that dry up on their 
stalks before they are ripe, unless rain happens 
to fall every day. 
The constant stirring of the soil around the 
plants, is one thing which in our climate is ab¬ 
solutely necessary; and any system of culture 
which precludes this, or throws any obstacle in 
its way, is defective. If any one will examine 
his Strawberry beds, he will find the plants 
along the outer edges of the beds, where the 
soil has been kept clean and fresh by the fre¬ 
quent use of the hoe, vigorous and healthy, with 
luxuriant dark green foliage, and large, fine 
fruit; while in the interior of the beds, where 
the plants have grown into masses, and covered 
all the ground, so as to prevent its cultivation, 
they are yellow and sickly looking, and the 
fruit poor and worthless. This we see in our 
own grounds, and every where that we find 
plants growing under similar circumstances. 
Does not this show the necessity of cultivation 
close around the plants? No matter how deep 
we may trench the soil, or how unsparing we 
may be with manures, or how copiously we 
supply moisture, this cultivation cannot be dis¬ 
pensed with, if we aim at producing fine fruits 
and abundance of them. “ But,” says one cul¬ 
tivator, “by allowing the ground to be all oc¬ 
cupied with plants, we save all the labor which 
would be consumed in removing the runners, 
and we avoid the necessity of applying a 
mulching to keep the fruit clean.” Very true, 
you save some expense; but what do you get 
in return ? A crop of fruit not fit for the table— 
small, insipid, and so dirty, if a heavy rain oc¬ 
curs about ripening time, that it must be put 
through the wash-tub before it is placed on the 
table. It is possible that the market grower 
may be able to produce berries of this kind at a 
less price per quart than he could by a careful, 
cleanly, and thorough system of culture; but 
then he can expect to sell such fruit only when 
no better can be had. We have some doubts, 
however, as to the economy of bad culture in 
the long run. If a proper system were 
adopted at the outstart, and followed up with 
regularity, it would not be found so profitless or 
expensive. In this, as in every other kind of 
culture, a system is absolutely necessary. A 
certain routine of operations which are easily 
executed if taken at the right time, become bur- 
thensome when deferred; and being so, they 
are not unfrequently put off altogether. Pre¬ 
cisely thus it is that Strawberry beds are neg¬ 
lected, both in market gardens and private gar¬ 
dens, until they are grown wild beyond hope of 
recovery. Now, we say to every one who 
wishes to cultivate Strawberries, resolve at once 
upon abandoning the “ lazy-bed” system ; and 
if you cultivate but a square rod, do it well. 
We advise planting in rows not less than two 
feet apart, unless ground be very scarce, when 
eighteen inches might suffice, and the plants to 
be twelve to eighteen inches apart in the rows. 
In extensive field culture, the rows should be 
at least three feet apart, in order to admit the 
use of the plow and the cultivator between 
them, or even the passage of a cart to deposit 
manures or mulching material. The spade and 
wheelbarrow are too costly implements for an 
extensive culture where labor is scarce and 
high, as with us. From the time the plants are 
set until the fruit is gathered, the runners 
should be cut away as fast as they appear, and 
the ground be kept clean of weeds, and well 
worked. 
In the fall, or before the setting in of winter, 
a mulching of half-decayed leaves or manure 
should be placed between the rows, coming 
close around the plants, leaving the crown or 
heart uncovered. The mulching prevents the 
plants from being drawn out and weakened, or 
destroyed by freezing and thawing in winter. 
We have sometimes covered the entire beds, 
plants and all, with newly fallen leaves; and by 
raking them off early in spring, the plants came 
out in fine order. In the same way we have 
covered with clean wheat straw, and found it 
answer well. In all the northern and western 
States, some winter protection is of great ser¬ 
vice, although not indispensable. In field cul¬ 
ture, the earth might be plowed up to the 
plants, as is done with nursery trees, in such a 
manner as to afford considerable protection 
against the action of frost on the roots. 
As soon as the fruit begins to attain its full 
size, and approach maturity, the spaces between 
the rows, which up to this time have been 
under clean culture, should be covered with 
straw, litter, or moss. This will serve the 
double purpose of keeping the fruit clean and 
retaining the moisture in the soil. When co¬ 
pious supplies of water are to be applied, which 
should be always done when practicable, stable 
litter is a good mulching, as the water poured 
on it carries down with it to the roots of the 
plants the fertilizing materials which it contains. 
The application of water in abundance we 
must again recommend to all who want the 
finest fruit. Rains are very good, but they can¬ 
not be relied upon, and they always deprive the 
fruit of its flavor, while artificial waterings do 
not. On this account the French Gardeners say 
that the Strawberry “ prefers water from the 
well to water from the clouds.” It is supposed 
that the electricity which prevades the atmos¬ 
phere during our summer rains, affect the flavor 
of the fruit. 
When the crop has been gathered, the mulch¬ 
ing material between the rows should be re¬ 
moved, and the ground be forked over, so 
that if plants are wanted to form a new planta¬ 
tion, their growth will be encouraged. The 
same plants should not be relied upon for more 
than two crops. The labor of making a new 
bed, save the trenching of the soil, is no more 
than that of planting a plot of cabbages. 
As to the season for planting, we would re¬ 
commend the spring for large plantations, be¬ 
cause then there is comparatively no risk of 
failure. The amateur, however, who wishes 
only to plant a bed in his garden, may do it at 
any time that he can procure good plants. If 
the growth of the runners is encouraged in 
July, after the fruit is gathered, good well- 
rooted runners may be had about the first of 
September, or it may be sooner. The young 
plants nearest the parent plant should always 
be chosen, if possible. In planting during the 
month of August or September, rainy weather 
should be chosen, if possible; but it may be 
safely done even in a dry time, by using water 
freely. Water the plants well before taking 
them up, as it injures the roots very much to 
draw them out of dry soil; then water the soil 
thoroughly where they are to be set, before 
planting. A sprinkling will be of no use; it 
must go down deep, as a heavy rain would. 
Set the plants in the evening, and shade them a 
few days with boards set on edge, forming a 
sort of roof over them. Mulch them, too, with 
short litter; and it will be well, if the plants 
be large, to remove some of the lower and 
larger leaves. Planting can be done safely in 
spring any time until the plants are in blossom— 
and all summer, for that matter, with proper 
care. 
We have thus briefly sketched the principal 
operations in Strawberry culture; not in regu¬ 
lar order, it is true, but we hope so as to be un¬ 
derstood. We are not writing a book, and can 
not enter into all the details with minuteness. 
We have said nothing of the soil, and will only 
remark that any good garden soil fit to produce 
culinary vegetables, or any good farm land fit 
for grain or root crops, will produce good Straw¬ 
berries; but it must be deeply plowed, or 
trenched, say twenty inches at least, and liber¬ 
ally manured with well-decomposed stable ma¬ 
nure or a good compost. The quantity of ma¬ 
nure must vary according to the degree of na¬ 
tural fertility of the soil. In one case, a quan- 
