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1860] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
117 
How to Raise Strawberries. 
Our old subscribers need little instruction on 
this point, as our former volumes -will testify ; 
but our new friends will look to us for words of 
counsel. And as this present month of April is 
the best season of the year for planting strawber¬ 
ries, we give our counsel now. 
Strawberries can be raised on almost any soil, 
and with almost any treatment, but there is a 
right way of growing them, and this we desire to 
point out. 
As to soil, a warm, sandy loam is the best. If 
it is naturally deep and rich, it will need no spad¬ 
ing and manuring, but such soils are rarely found. 
Every one must have noticed that strawberry 
beds on shallow soils often dry up before the 
crop is half grown. It is chiefly to obviate this, 
and to secure large handsome berries, that it is 
important to deepen the soil, thus furnishing room 
for the roots to ramble in search of food and 
drink in dry weather. 
Having first laid off the plot of ground de¬ 
signed for planting, begin on one side, take off 
the top soil one spade deep, over a space four 
feet wide, and carry it in a wheelbarrow to the 
other side of the patch. Then give this uncov¬ 
ered space a good dressing of old manure, and 
spade it under, mixing it all thoroughly. Now 
uncover another breadth four feet wide, throwing 
the top soil of the same upon the bed already 
Fig. 1. 
manureU and spaded. Then dress the new bed 
with manure, and spade it in as before. Pursue 
this method until the whole plot is trenched and 
manured. The top soil taken off from the first 
bed will, of course, cover the last. Then, if con¬ 
venient, spread a coating of ashes and black 
earth from the woods over the entire plot, and 
work it into the surface, and finally rake smooth. 
This plot may now be set with vines either in 
rows or beds. If pistillate varieties are culti¬ 
vated either in rows or beds, at least every fourth 
division should be planted with staminate, or per¬ 
fect (hermaphrodite) plants, which are preferable, 
to fertilize the pistillates. The annexed illus¬ 
trations will enable the inexperienced to determine 
V 
Fig. 2. 
the sexual character of the strawberry blossom. 
#, fig. 1, shows a staminate or male plant. It 
has in the center only stamens, made up of thread 
like fibers (filaments) each terminated by a little 
knob (anther) containing the yellow fertilizing 
dust (pollen)—A and c, fig 1, represent pistillate 
or female plants. The central parts consist of 
small greenish protuberances, which are the em¬ 
bryo or undeveloped fruit, but contain no per¬ 
fect stamens. The filaments are sometimes pres¬ 
en' as i” b but thev no anthers, and hence 
can not fertilize the pistils below them by a dis¬ 
charge of pollen. In fig. 2, a perfect or hermaph¬ 
rodite flower is shown. It contains both the pis¬ 
tils and perfect stamens, p represents the pis¬ 
tils of a flower— a, b , a single stamen; a being the 
anther, and b the filament. The following are 
among the best strawberries now raised, accord¬ 
ing to our experience and observation : Wilson’s 
Albany Seedling, perfect flower; Hooker’s Seed¬ 
ling, perfect flower ; Hovey’s Seedling, pistillate ; 
Longworth's Prolific, perfect; McAvoy’s Superi¬ 
or, pistillate ; Peabody’s New Hautbois, pistillate; 
Early Scarlet, perfect. 
There are two leading methods of managing 
the plants. One is that of clipping the runners 
continually, and so keeping them in hills or rows; 
the other, that of letting them cover the bed or 
plot at once, spading under the older plants every 
year, or breaking up the beds entirely and mak¬ 
ing new ones as fast as the old run out. The 
latter is probably the easiest method ; the first 
produces the largest and best fruit. Lazy men 
and very busy men generally choose the latter— 
amateur growers adopt the former. 
---— • — — — - 
A Dish of Peas. 
The pea is perhaps the most popular vegetable 
grown ; it garnishes the table of Jew and Gen¬ 
tile all over the globe. Doubtless, it is not as 
nutritious as roast beef or baked beans, but it is 
very palatable and useful. The Doctors say that 
peas purify the blood ; the good doctors like peas ! 
As this vegetable is so easily and quickly grown, 
every owner of a garden should be ambitious to 
have an early and abundant supply. To bring 
out all their good qualities, they should be cooked 
properly One garden author says, “ they are often 
■miss-boiled." Does he mean that young Bridget 
is allowed to cook them, instead of her mistress 1 
They should be picked, shelled, cooked and eaten, 
all within four hours. To give them the last 
touch of perfection, some nice cooks throw in a 
sprig or two of mint, while boiling. But let us 
raise them, and afterwards attend to the cooking. 
Culture. —For the earliest garden crop, choose 
a warm corner, under the lea of a high, tight 
fence, and with a light, dry soil, not over-rich. 
The ground should have been enriched the preced¬ 
ing year ; if manured the same season, the crop 
will run to vines with little fruit. A light dres¬ 
sing of ashes may perhaps be allowed. Spade up 
the ground as soon as the frost has fairly left it, 
and level off with a coarse rake. Make drills 
about two inches deep and six inches apart. Sow 
the peas about an inch apart in the drills, and 
cover them with the back of the rake. Then 
leave a space four feet wide for a walk, and make 
another double row of drills in the same way. 
As soon as the peas are up, or before, they may 
be “bushed,” the bushes being set between the 
narrow drills—one row of bushes answering 
for two drills. Of course, the size of the bushes 
will be regulated by the known size of the vari¬ 
eties of peas planted. Some persons prefer anoth¬ 
er mode of sustaining the vines, like this : Set 
firm stakes, four to six feet high, along the sides 
of the rows, abou‘ six feet apart. Fasten strong 
cotto.n twine from pole to pole, raising the first or 
adding a second line as the vines grow. Two 
lines will generally be enough for a row. 
We need hardly add that the plants should be 
hoed as soon as they rise a few inches above 
ground, and this tillage should be continued for 
several weeks. To hasten the maturity of the 
first crop, nip off the ends of the vines, soon after 
the blossoms appear. This checks the growth 
into mere vines, and throws the strength of the 
plants into the pods. One can gain several days 
in the growth of his early crop, by planting the 
drills east and west, and setting up boards a foot 
wide on the north side of each row. 
As to the best kinds of peas for garden-culture, 
our own experience would class them about thus 
For the earliest: Daniel O'Rourke. For the 
next earliest; Early Kent, ox Prince Albert. To 
follow these, we should at the same time plant 
the Champion of England. This last is one of tho 
best peas now grown. 
Inexpensive Household Ornaments-III. 
SKELETON LEAVES. 
If a leaf of a tree be examined particularly, there 
will be seen numerous small fibers or ribs, run¬ 
ning in various directions through its substance, 
composing, usually, a fine network. These fibers 
are really little branches of the wood of the tree, 
spreading out and ramifying until the finer 
ones are too small to be seen without a mi¬ 
croscope. The interstices between these veins 
are filled with a softer substance, cellular 
tissue, containing the coloring matter. The cel¬ 
lular tissue decays more readily than the woody 
fiber, and if properly managed can be removed, 
leaving a network more delicate and beau*iful 
than the finest lace. Specimens of this w, rk 
may often be found executed by insects, as, for 
instance, when the slug infests rose bushes ; it 
eats the tender tissue only, the woody part being 
too hard for its teeth. 
We recently received from Mr. J. Fogle, Mus¬ 
cogee Co., Ga., some very beautifully prepared 
leaves, one of which we have engraved, and pre¬ 
sent it with his description of the process, which 
may be new to many. Leaves of a rather firm 
texture are selected, as the apple, pear, camellia, 
ivy, bay, cape jessamine, etc. The best time foi 
using is when they are just matured. Previous 
to this they are too tender and the fibers are 
broken ; if too ripe, the cellular tissue becomes 
hardened, and is not easily removed. 
Single leaves, or branches containing leaves and 
seed vessels, are steeped a few minutes in hot wa¬ 
ter, then placed carefully in cold rain water,and left 
undisturbed until sufficiently decayed. This will 
require from twelve days to three weeks or even 
more. The water need not be changed. When 
the leaf becomes soft and pulpy, take it out care¬ 
fully, lay it on a plate containing just water enough 
to cover it, and pass a fine camel’s hair brush 
gently over it to remove the pulp. If it does not 
all come off easily, return it to the water for a few 
days more, until all but the fibers can be brushed 
off. The skeletons are improved in appearance 
by bleaching, which may be done by mixing about 
a teaspoonful of Chloride of lime, to half a pint of 
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