
          812

Strawberries - Sunbury June 1825

A bed from 5 to 3 years old measuring 56 by 45 feet
= 2520 square feet about 17th part of an Acre.
Picke 133 quarts from 25 May to 13 June [illegible] equal
to 4 Bus. [Bushels] & 5 quarts - 4 Bushels are at the rate of
68 Bus. [Bushels] p [per] Acre.

From 20 to 24 May (4 days) my Gardener was sick & absent 
The Cedar Birds in flock, cleared all the fruit as it
ripened. I am confident 12 to 15 quarts were lost
in this way.  On the 18th June there was still many
Strawberries left on the Vines.

The kind Higbees Scarlet Strawberries, large
round, rich & productive.

Experiments made this Season - 
When the vines were in full Blossom I
carefully marked about 50 of the finest & most
luxuriant vines apparently filled with
male blossoms, generally believed to be unproductive.
When the fruit was well formed
I found these staked vines as well filled as the others.  The
whole number of 2500 hills planted 12 inches
apart I could not discover more than 30 to 40
barren hills - Then I carefully eradicated.
On the whole I am inclined to
believe that the Strawberry plant is an * hermaphrodite
producing male & female blossoms on the same plant
and that occasionally there are plants producing
exclusively male blossoms & <s>illegible</s> other producing
exclusively female blossoms, & that all of
the former are unproductive - and it is probable
the latter would also be barren unless a sufficient
number of males should be growing near them
on other plants to impregnate them.

London Hort. Tran.
vol. 2. p. 393. 
* [begin left brace]
Hautboys one kind has the male & female <s>blossom</s> organs on the
same blossom & bears very freely, but the kind most approved is that
which has the male organs in one blossom & the female in another
[end left brace]
        