AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
209 
THE AETER TREATMENT OF THE STRAW¬ 
BERRY. 
A correspondent, who followed our di¬ 
rections for making a Strawberry bed, asks 
for farther instructions upon its cultivation. 
What is to be done with the runners, &c.l 
This is a matter of a good deal of importance, 
to the amateur, and to the market gardener. 
The process must be a little different, ac¬ 
cording to the objects in view. If the object 
is to get the largest amount of very fine 
specimens of fruit, and of the highest quali¬ 
ty, we should not suffer a runner to make a 
new plant during the season. Go over the 
ground as often as once in three weeks, and 
clip every runner. The plants set this 
Spring will bear very little fruit, and the 
whole management should be in reference to 
the next year’s crop. The clipping of the 
runners will concentrate the energies of the 
plant upon making roots, and forming flower 
buds for the next year. If allowed to run, a 
multitude of young plants will be formed, 
and all the strength of the parent plant will 
be drawn off to these. We noticed in a bed 
of the McAvoy’s Superior, which we left for 
forming new plants, that many of the old 
plants were entirely exhausted by the effort, 
and did not survive the winter. Many pursue 
this course with their bearing beds, thinking 
it less trouble to cut up the young plants, and 
form new rows in the Spring, than to keep 
them carefully clipped. But this is a sloven¬ 
ly method, and does not give so good results. 
Removing the runners has two advantages. 
It gives opportunity for constant cultivation 
during the summer, and makes strong plants 
with full large heads. A plant thus treated 
sends out its roots in all directions, and will 
take complete possession of a cube of earth 
too feet upon each side of it, if it finds it un¬ 
occupied with other plants. In the second 
Spring, there will be a compact head of leaves 
and flower stalks, and the fruit will be large, 
and of the best quality, the variety is capa¬ 
ble of producing. The amateur will find 
much more satisfaction in cultivating them 
by this method than by the more common 
and more careless one of leaving the runners 
to take possession of the ground, and to strug¬ 
gle with the weeds. 
During the second season when the plants 
are expected to bear, they should be watered 
abundantly, with weak liquid manure. This 
is particularly important after the berries 
have set, and before they reach their ma¬ 
turity. After they begin to ripen they should 
be watered less frequently. 
If the quantity of fruit is more of an object 
with the grower than size, and quantity, we 
think it a good plan to allow one plant to 
grow between those already set, bringing 
them nine inches a part in the row and just 
doubling the number of plants upon a given 
area. This is particularly desirable with the 
Hovey’s Seedling, which requires less room 
than some of the other varieties. The fruit 
of course will not be so large, but there will 
be more of it. Whether the cultivator will 
gain any thing by the larger quantity, will 
depend very much upon his market. In the 
large cities, size and quality command a 
much higher price than an ordinary article. 
But in many markets a Strawberry is a 
Strawberry, and a quart of acid lowas will 
bring as much as a quart of the highest fla¬ 
vored Pines. 
Our direction then for the after treatment 
of the Strawberry is to keep the runners close 
cut, cultivate thoroughly’ and apply liquid 
manure in the bearing season.— Ed. 
OUR GARDEN-HOW WE WATER AND HOW 
MANURE IT FOR NOTHING. 
We have a kind of experimental plot of 
nearly one-fourth of an acre, upon which we 
have put out a large variety of seeds, roots, 
plants, etc., of both old and new varieties. 
As we did not get possession until after the 
first of May, and was then hindered by rains 
and other pressing business from working it 
for ten days more, most things put out had a 
late start. We added no stable manure, and 
the ground had never had but one slim coat¬ 
ing. We procured a barrel of fine bones, 
(sawings from a factory) which cost us deliv¬ 
ered $3 75 per barrel. A small portion of 
this was mixed with soil, and put into the 
hills and drills with the seeds. The main 
manuring is still to be given as follows : 
In one corner nearest to the house, we 
have sunk a pine hogshead, the top of it, 
from which the head is removed, is even 
with the surface of the ground. The remov¬ 
ed head is used as a cover, a strip of board 
being nailed across the top, which projects 
from the sides far enough to prevent it from 
falling in, and at the same time answer for 
handles. The hogshead is an ordinary one 
in which crockery came packed, and which 
would not have held w ater were not the soil 
packed firmly around it, and not even then, if 
used for clear water. Into this hogshead all 
liquids from the house, from the kitchen, 
wash-room, and chambers are poured. The 
fine materials sifted from coal-ashes also go 
into the same common receptacle. The 
coarser cinders are dug into a piece of heavy 
clayey soil. The dish-water, including waste 
food, the soap-suds, urine, etc., all furnish 
rich fertilizing materials. The alkaline ‘suds,’ 
and ashes, serve to keep down disagreeable 
odors. Should these arise in very hot wea¬ 
ther, we shall add a trifle of chloride of lime. 
Probably 25 cents worth will serve for the 
whole season. 
From this tub the roots of every plant 
in the garden will receive an occasional dose 
during the entire summer. If the liquid gets 
too strong by evaporation, or by an unusual 
accumulation of strong liquids from the 
kitchen or chamber, it will be thinned by 
adding water from the cistern. The materi¬ 
al is raised from the hogshead with a small 
bucket having a long handle nailed upon one 
side. From experiments of a similar char¬ 
acter, we are quite sure our garden plot will 
need no other application to make it as flour¬ 
ishing as could be desired. The slops, in¬ 
stead of running from a sink-spout into a 
sluggish drain, to breed—if not a pestilence 
—at least a noisome stench, are by this 
means all got rid of conveniently and even 
neatly, and this alone will pay for all trou¬ 
ble, while our plants, trees, &c., will get at 
least twenty dollars worth of manuring for 
-NOTHING ! 
We are fully prepared by both experience 
and observation to strongly recommend this 
plan, or a similar one, to all. When we get 
time to erect our “ home-made poudrette fac¬ 
tory,” we will describe that also. 
RADISHES NOT FIT TO EAT. 
We have no partiality for radishes “ raw 
or cooked” and never have had—we have 
never been able to find anything “ delicious” 
in a radish root, tough or crisp, strong or 
tasteless, as a pine board. Still, as others 
like them, we have always provided them for 
our table. This Spring we have scattered 
seed in the vacant nooks and corners of the 
garden, among the currant bushes, between 
the rows of potatoes, and in a hundred or 
less other places, to be pulled for use, or 
dug up as weeds,according to circumstances. 
A sixpence worth of seed will probably fur¬ 
nish some bushels, with no loss of ground, 
or extra labor in cultivation. (See our meth¬ 
od, at page 185, last month.) But we are 
half disposed to dig them all up at once, and 
to repent every word we have written to aid 
others in growing this plant, after reading 
the following in the Soil of the South, from 
the pen of Mr. Peabody, who is pretty good 
authority. He says : 
We are frequently taken to task for the 
war we have waged upon this worse than 
worthless vegetable. For fifteen years, we 
have not permitted one to grow in our gar¬ 
den, or to Disgrace our table, and we have 
found the advantage of pursuing this course, 
in the improved health of our family. Man 
is the only animal that will eat a radish, 
either raw or cooked. The sagacious hog 
will starve before he will eat the poisonous 
trash. Crude radishes are the most indiges¬ 
tible food that can be taken into the human 
stomach, independent of the acrid, poison¬ 
ous substance they contain. But they do 
not hurt me, exclaims one, I can eat them 
with impunity! and with a relish. But, 
dear reader, do you not have the headache, 
or a bad breath 1 Have you no doctor’s bills 
to pay 1 A radish eaten in the spring may 
cause a fever in the fall. If any one doubts 
the poisonous qualities of radishes, let them 
cut in thin slices, three or four, and soak the 
slices in water for twelve hours, and then 
taste the water. Our word for it, they will 
never taste another radish. As a watchman 
upon the horticultural watchtower, we can¬ 
not commend the culture of a vegetable, that 
we know to be injurious. 
The Curculio. —The Kentucky Horticul¬ 
tural Society have come forward nobly, and 
offered a reward of $500 for the discovery 
of a certain, effectual, and easily applied 
remedy against the Curculio. Let other So¬ 
cieties imitate their example, if not on the 
same scale. A good lot of premiums, 
amounting say from $3,000 to $5,000, will 
set experimenters to work, and something 
valuable will ere long turn up. Money could 
not be appropriated to better advantage. [Ed- 
Strawberry Freak. -The Louisville 
Courier states that a singular freak of nature 
