124 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
increase its productions, and would other¬ 
wise be of vast benefit to our country. It is 
rather surprising that we Americans, so 
famed for our enterprise, should be so far be¬ 
hind the British farmer in the use of steam 
engines. In implements, especially for har¬ 
vesting, we have been considerably in ad¬ 
vance ; but in other respects, we leave for 
the hand and the horse to laboriously per¬ 
form what the steam engine and water mill 
would more easily and cheaply accomplish. 
—Ed. 
RAISING- STRAWBERRIES. 
Plain, Practical Instructions to Beginners. 
[The following correspondence explains 
itself. We should perhaps add, that Mr. 
Pardee is the author of “ The Strawberry 
Manual”—the only American work upon 
this subject. Messrs. C. M. Saxton & Co. 
of this city, have just issued the third edition, 
which has been thoroughly revised and en¬ 
larged. This book contains full information 
upon the growth and culture of strawberries, 
and should be in the hands of those devoting 
any attention to the culture of this delicious 
fruit. Price 50 cents ] 
Office of American Agriculturist, > 
February 15, 1856. 1 
lv. li. Pardee, Esq. : 
Dear Sir—A subscriber (who is doubtless 
a fair representative of many others) says 
he was born in this city, and has always 
been in business and resided here until last 
fall, when he went into the country and pur¬ 
chased a house and one-fourth of an acre of 
land, which he wishes to use to the best ad¬ 
vantage. One of the first things he intends 
to cultivate is a plot of strawberries ; but he 
is entirely ignorant of the method of pro¬ 
cedure. He has looked into books, but they 
confuse him somewhat. 1 will put his que¬ 
ries into regular order : 
1. What is meant by pistillate and what 
by staminat.e strawberries 1 
2. YV hat are the names of some of each 
kind ? 
3. Should these be planted together : and 
if so, what proportion of each ? 
4. What are the best kinds for him to se¬ 
lect for a bed of about twenty feet square, 
and how many of each! 
5. Where can he get the plants, and at 
about what cost ? 
6. Can he do any thing towards setting 
them this spring ; and if so, when shall he 
commence 1 
7. His soil is an ordinary one, in Fordham, 
N. Y., which has never been used as a gar¬ 
den, and has consequently received no ma¬ 
nure. Indeed three or four inches of the 
surface is covered with the cellar-diggings. 
What is the simplest method of preparing it 
lor setting the plants, and when should it be 
done 1 
8. How shall the plants be set out! how 
®far apart, &c. 1 Please direct a perfect 
novice in the matter. 
9. What after cultivation is required in 
early summer, in mid-summer, in autumn, 
and what care in winter? 
By giving a few plain answers to the above 
questions, such as a “ green hand,” as he 
calls himself, can understand and practice 
upon, you will not only greatly assist him 
but also a multitude of others in like cir¬ 
cumstances, and confer a favor upon your 
friend, o. J. 
REPLY. 
To the Editor of the American Agriculturist: 
Dear Sir—Your note of the 15th is at hand. 
I receive by letter many inquiries similar to 
those of your Fordham subscriber, and cheer¬ 
fully avail myself of the medium of your 
paper to answer them. I will reply to the 
questions in their order. 
1 and 2. Pistillate (or female) strawberries 
are so called from the pistillate blossoms, 
which appear on such varieties as Hovey’s 
Seedling, Burr’s New Pine, Crimson Cone, 
&c. The center of the flower has a smooth 
surface of closely packed pistils, almost as 
smooth as velvet. The staminate (or male) 
plants have a dozen or more stamens, or lit¬ 
tle shoots, extending upward a sixteenth of 
an inch or so above the mossy bed of the 
pistils, with distinct anthers (or little balls) 
upon the upper point. These are so easily 
discernible to the naked eye, as to be readily 
perceived by the most casual observer. The 
Large Early Scarlet, or Iowa, and Boston 
Pine, are good specimens of the staminate 
varieties. The pistillates are the greatest 
bearers. 
3. They should always be planted and 
kept separate; otherwise the rampant stam- 
inates—as Mr. Longworth calls them—will 
soon drive all the bearing pistillates from 
the bed. A bed of staminates of about one- 
tenth the size should be placed within ten to 
thirty or at. most fifty feet of the pistillates, 
to impregnate them. The pistillate or fe¬ 
male plants will not fruit well if there are 
no staminate or male plants near enough to 
have the pollen from the anthers of the lat¬ 
ter carried to the flowers of the former, by 
the air or upon the bodies of bees or other 
insects. 
4. Hovey’s Seedlings, Burr’s New Pine, 
Crimson Cone, and Early Scarlet or Iowa, 
are an excellent selection of strawberries. 
Set on the bed of twenty feet square four 
rows of Hovey’s Seedlings (pistillate or fe¬ 
male plants), two feet apart, with the plants 
twelve inches from each other in the rows. 
This will require 80 plants. Then the same 
quantity of Burr’s New Pine (also pistillates) 
in the next four rows, three feet from Ho¬ 
vey’s. Three feet farther on, put one row 
of Large Early Scarlet or Iowas (staminate 
or male plants), and let boards six inches 
wide be set up edgewise between each varie¬ 
ty to prevent their becoming mixed. 
5. A good nurseryman can scarcely be 
found who will not supply, of those kinds, 
the 200 plants required, at $1.50 per 100. 
6. The spring is an excellent time to set 
them. As soon as the frost is out of the 
ground, throw it up into ridges, and as soon 
as we have settled weather and the soil in 
good order to work, spade it deeply and 
pulverize very finely and evenly, leaving it 
level; then set the plants. 
7. A good application..of leaf mold (rotten 
leaves with the surface soil from the woods), 
bog or muck earth, if the latter has been ex¬ 
posed to the air and frosts for six months or 
more, will be excellent. If the above can 
not be had, then apply good loam or turf, 
with tw'o quarts of salt, one peck of lime and 
one bushel of wood ashes, to a bed of 20 
feet square. If other manure is used, let it 
be hog, cow or hen droppings, in moderate 
quantities, decomposed and thoroughly min¬ 
gled with the soil to a good depth. The 
sooner this can be done the better— when 
the ground is first throwq,up intou-idges will 
be the best time. 
8. The distance to set the plants in a gar¬ 
den, we have stated above, to be one foot, 
apart, in rows two feet from each other. 
Be very careful to place the roots in pure 
virgin earth, and not set too deep. The 
plants should be well watered when set, and 
sometimes, if it is dry, the watering should 
be continued for a day or two afterwards. 
9. The bed must always be kept clear of 
weeds. At first the hoe can be used care¬ 
fully for a few weeks, and then weed by 
hand. If tan-bark or sawdust can be had, 
apply a coating one inch in thickness to the 
whole bed, care being taken to leave the 
crown of each plant free. The tan will 
answer to mulch with, and will keep the soil 
moist, which is always favorable for the 
strawberry, and prevents the growth of 
weeds and thus saves the greater part of the 
labor and expense of after cultivation in pull¬ 
ing weeds, &c. 
In autmn, remove all the runners not 
wanted, and clean the bed. In no instance 
should one of the new plant’s runners be 
allowed to remain nearer than ten or twelve 
inches to another plant. Those nearer than 
this should be taken up and sold or given or 
thrown away. Do not dig much around or 
between the rows, lest you disturb the thou¬ 
sands of little fibrous roots attached to each 
plant and thus maim it. 
We repeat, the soil should be most thor¬ 
oughly trenched, handled, mingled and 
plowed in the first preparation, so that it 
will not become readily baked and hard, for 
the reason that it is so difficult to work 
among them after the plants have become 
well grown. 
On the approach of winter, throw a light 
coating of straw or leaves over the bed, to 
protect it from the frost. 
The grand secret of strawberry cultivation 
is, plenty of air, pure, fine soil, sun and water. 
R. G. Pardee. 
New-York, February 20, 1856. 
Hard Winter in Texas. —Mr. Butler, of 
Seven Oaks, Galveston Co., Texas, writes 
us, under date of Feb. 4 :' “ We have had, 
from Christmas day to this time, the sever¬ 
est cold Aveatlier ever known in this State. 
The autumn was delightful, the weather 
mild and congenial until Dec. 25th, when it 
became cold and sleety, and from that time 
to this we have not had more than two or 
three of our usual balmy, mild winter days. 
Orauge trees, bananas, figs, and all of our 
tropical fruits, are cut down to the roots. 
In many places even the roots are destroyed. 
The sugar cane no doubt has suffered too, 
and several planters will be deficient in seed 
cane. 
