940 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[August, 
The Wonderful New Strawberry—The 
Plants to be Presented to the Public. 
None but those who were at the Agriculturist 
Office on Thursday, June 18th, can have a full 
conception of the enormous size to which this 
delicious fruit has been grown. The accompany¬ 
ing engravings (fig, 2, 3) are exact sketches of 
two of the berries of the New Seedling, taken 
from accurate measurement with calipers. 
These were not abnormal specimens, of chance 
growth, for there were plenty more nearly as 
large. And what is remarkable, the berries 
were not hollow, nor poor flavored, but were 
solid, a rich crimson color to the core, and of 
excellent flavor, having the pleasant pine taste 
of one of the parent plants. The general form 
is that of fig. 2, conical and partially necked. 
The plant itself bears large leaves, is very vig¬ 
orous, and shows a good bearing propensity. 
Taken all in all, this new seedling is probably 
the largest and the most remarkable production 
in the Strawberry way, that has ever appeared. 
Its Origin. —Mr. Seth Boydeu, upon the re¬ 
sults of whose inventions in the manufacture of 
polished leather (called “patent leather,”) and 
in the production of malleable cast iron, etc., 
much of the growth and prosperity of the large 
City of Newark, N. J., depends, has for many 
years devoted more or less attention to the im¬ 
provement of the Strawberry. “ Boyden’s 
Mammoth,” and “ Boyden’s Green Prolific,” are 
widely known. The Green Prolific he has 
hitherto considered his best product. It was 
obtained by hybridizing Hovey’s Seedling, and 
Kitley’s Goliah. Following up his experiments, 
he hybridized the Green Prolific with Peabody’s 
Seedling, the latter a large, excellent pine ber¬ 
ry, but too little productive to meet with gen¬ 
eral favor. One of the products of this last hy¬ 
bridization, is this new seedling which has re- 
centlyattracted so much attention. 
The Name. —Mr. Boyden simply called it his 
“No. 10” Seedling. It was proposed by some 
to call it the Seth Boyden; by others, Boyden’s 
Giant; by others, Boyden’s Wonderful, and so 
on. But to avoid confounding it with the al¬ 
ready well known Boyden’s Mammoth, it has 
by common consent been named^the “ Agricul¬ 
turist Strawberry ”—partly because brought out 
at the Agriculturist Exhibition, and partly be¬ 
cause, at large expense, the Proprietor of this 
journal secured all the plants, and is cultivating 
them for free distribution. 
The Purchase of the Plants. —No one outside of 
Mr. Boyden seems to have known anything of 
this new variety, until he came in quietly at the 
opening of the Exhibition, and placed upon the 
table the plates of berries, and a growing speci¬ 
men of the plant. It at once attracted much 
attention, exciting the admiration of all who 
saw it, and there’ was an eager desire to get the 
plants. Mr. Boyden, who is noted for looking 
out very little for his own interest, while con¬ 
tributing so much to the prosperity of others, 
accepted the first offers, voluntarily made to him, 
of one to three dollars each. Some of the en¬ 
terprising clerks in the American Agricultur¬ 
ist office immediately called the attention of 
the Proprietor to the matter, and proposed 
that it be secured for distribution. He at once 
examined the fruit and plant, and seeing its 
great merits, made Mr. Boyden an offer for all 
the plants unsold, which offer was promptly 
accepted. In order to keep the plants pure, gnd 
prevent speculation in them, he bought up at 
$10 each those plants already sold, except a 
single one in the hands of an amateur friend, 
who will cultivate it only for his own person¬ 
al use. M. Olm immediately went with men 
and teams to New-.Tersey, and took up all the 
original plants carefully, and transplanted them 
to the Proprietor’s grounds at Flushing, where 
they are now doing well, not one having been 
lost, though moved 25 miles in the hot days oi 
June 22d and 23d. M. Olm, than whom 
there is no more skillful cultivator in the coun¬ 
try, lias them in special charge, and will multi¬ 
ply them as rapidly as possible. There is little 
doubt that several tens of thousands of plants 
•will be ready for distribution during next sea¬ 
son (1864.) The design is to make this, the 
greatest and best production of this delicious 
fruit, a free gift to the public. No plants are 
offered for sale on any terms, though as high as 
$50, and even $100 dollars, have been offered 
by enterprising cultivators, for a single plant. 
Plan of Distribution. —The plants will be dis¬ 
tributed during the year 1864, and as our ex¬ 
perience has proved that they can be sent safety 
by mail, hundreds and even thousands of miles, 
this mode will be adopted for all who do not 
live near enough to take them by hand. Those 
living at a distance will therefore be on a par 
With those residing here, We purpose to pro¬ 
duce as many plants as possible, and send them 
out to all subscribers to the American Agri¬ 
culturist. , and that will embrace pretty nearly 
everybody in the country who takes an interest 
in such matters. The number of plants will 
depend upon the weather from this time on¬ 
ward. We hope to have 100,000 plants, which 
will give at least one to every subscriber. Lest 
there should be any failure in getting enough 
for all, we shall begin at once to enter down 
the names of all subscribers for 1864 who de¬ 
sire the plants, beginning with the 1st of 
July, and supply them in the order of receiv¬ 
ing the names. (As soon as our intention 
was known, many persons who saw the plant 
and fruit at once subscribed ahead for 1864.) 
We feel safe in promising 30,000 to 50,000 plants 
at least. Those whose subscriptions already 
extend to next year, need only to send in their 
application, with the trifling sum named below, 
and their names will be put down for the plants. 
Expenses of Distribution. —The expenses of pur¬ 
chasing, propagation, etc., will amount to some 
Fig. 2. 
thousands of dollars, which we will cheerfully 
pay. In the distribution, the cost of postage 
and oil cloth will be about 5 cents for each par¬ 
cel. This small sum, small to each, but large 
in the aggregate for 50,000 to 100,000 parcels, 
should be met by those who receive the plants. 
We therefore ask each one who desires the 
plants to enclose an extra 5 cents along with 
