302 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
April 18, 
Ruralisms 
Strawberry Forcing Trial. —For hy¬ 
bridizing purposes two plants each of 
several native and foreign strawberry 
varieties were recently fruited in the 
Rural Grounds greenhouse, thus mak¬ 
ing in a small way a comparative trial 
of the forcing qualities of the various 
kinds, under rather trying conditions, as 
a glasshouse in which tomatoes and 
other subtropical plants are successfully 
grown must be kept too warm for best 
results with strawberries. Marshall and 
Nic Ohmer are the varieties most in 
favor with gardeners that grow mid¬ 
winter berries under glass and we now 
regret they were not included in this 
trial. The kinds selected for our ex¬ 
periment were Success, Gandy, Presi¬ 
dent, Wm. Belt, Stevens’ Late and Car¬ 
dinal, well known native sorts; Royal 
Sovereign and .Laxton’s Reward, of 
British origin, and three French kinds; 
Reine d’Aout, Jucunda and Alfonso 
XIII. The plants were ordinary August 
runners, rooted in the field in two-inch 
pots, and transferred as soon as they 
could be handled to four-inch pots of 
good garden soil in which a small quan¬ 
tity of Peruvian guano and ground bone 
had been mixed. These four-inch pots 
were half plunged in cinders in a sunny 
place and regularly watered. By the last 
week in September roots had thor¬ 
oughly filled the pots and a final shift 
was made to the six-inch size, using the 
same compost and packing it firmly 
about the balls of earth and roots. As 
freezing weather came the pots were 
covered with sash to prevent too violent 
action, but care was taken to have 
plants and soil fairly well frosted before 
taking in the greenhouse in early De¬ 
cember. Experienced berry forcers like 
to have their plants as thoroughly 
frozen as possible, short of bursting the 
pots, and very gradually to accustom 
them to warmth when taken in, thus 
imitating to some degree the gradual 
advance of Spring. Our plants were 
kept in the lightest and coolest available 
portion of the house, but the unneces¬ 
sary warmth started the blooms too 
rapidly and probably reduced the yields. 
The different varieties behaved about as 
follows: 
Royal Sovereign was first to open 
blooms and ripen berries, but the earliest 
ones were disappointingly rough, owing 
to the gloomy weather of early January. 
The later settings produced fine, large, 
dark red berries, with white flesh of 
very indifferent quality. The foliage is 
broad and abundant and the blossoms 
large and showy, with conspicuous 
stamens. Though of quite recent in¬ 
troduction it is much used in England, 
both for forcing and outdoor commer¬ 
cial culture, as it is prolific and easy 
to manage, though never considered of 
first quality. We understand the largest 
and most showy berries grown in Great 
Britain are of this variety. When grown 
outside near the Rural Grounds the 
foliage is not able to endure our hot 
sunlight. When coddled in partial shade 
a fair crop of attractive berries of pleas¬ 
ant flavor is produced. As a forcing 
variety under proper conditions it ap¬ 
pears to merit consideration in this 
country. In our trial the first fruits 
ripened February 16 and there were 
still promising green berries April 1. 
Laxton’s Reward returned us small 
compensation for our trouble. Growth 
was weak, foliage flabby and blooms de¬ 
fective, yielding but a few small ber¬ 
ries. It is a staminate variety, highly 
lauded by the British originators. In 
the field the growth is feeble and the 
leaves subject to sunscald and mildew. 
Evidently not adapted to American con¬ 
ditions. Quality'of berries good. 
Reine d’Aout appears to be a French 
duplicate of the last variety. It lacks 
vigor both under glass and in the open. 
Very unpromising. 
Jucunda. This old French sort has 
merit as a fancy berry. The quality 
both under glass and in the open is ex¬ 
cellent, about the most agreeable flavor 
we know in strawberries. Foliage large 
and handsome while cool weather lasts, 
but subject to scald in hot or dry 
weather. Productive under glass, less 
so in the garden. The large light scarlet 
berries with their yellow seeds are very 
attractive. 
Alfonso XIII appears to have gen¬ 
uine merit both as a garden variety and 
as a forcer. The foliage is moderate 
in size, bright dark green in color, thick 
and leathery in texture,, standing per¬ 
fectly our Summer sun. It is a good 
plant-maker, throwing out an abundance 
of runners early in the season. Blooms 
large and perfect, borne on pedicels of 
good length. Berries medium to large 
in size, uniformly conical in form, clear 
attractive scarlet in color, with red- 
brown seeds uniformly placed. Flesh 
light pipk, quite firm. Quality very 
good,, better than any native sort. One 
of the most attractive plants and highly 
finished berries we have ever seen. Our 
glasshouse plants grew splendidly and 
bore heavy crops. Fig. 151, page 355, 
reproduces in natural size one of the 
earliest clusters of berries to form. The 
large ripe berry in center was cross- 
pollinated and is defective in form, due 
to the insufficient number of seeds thus 
formed. The most promising European 
variety that has come to our knowledge 
President bore immense and attrac¬ 
tive berries where carefully hand pol¬ 
linated. The flavor when allowed to 
ripen fully under glass is insipid. Plants 
grew well and produced immense foli¬ 
age. Very likely the most showy fruits 
could be grown on President where 
abundantly pollinated with other varie¬ 
ties, but the lack of quality does not 
make it worth while. We understand 
President is increasingly used abroad as 
a forcer, the showy berries being prized 
more for table decorations than for 
eating. 
Wm. Belt divides honor with Alfonso 
as a forcer under our conditions. Our 
plants bore fine crops of large, highly 
colored berries of very agreeable qual¬ 
ity. The foliage was so luxuriant that 
much of it had to be removed to let in 
sufficient light to ripen the berries. We 
would not omit it from further trials. 
Stevens did fairly well and the fruits, 
so low in quality when field-grown as to 
be scarcely edible, were quite pleasant 
to the taste, the usual sour, astringent 
flavor of the outside product being 
greatly modified. 
Cardinal was a flat failure, starting 
late into bloom and producing only a 
few runty berries under the most pains¬ 
taking pollination. Cardinal is so vig¬ 
orous outside that its failure under glass 
is a matter of surprise. 
Gandy grew well and perfected better 
crops of handsome berries than similar 
field plants generally do. The fruits 
were well finished, of good size and 
pleasant acid quality, but less sour than 
when grown outside. 
Success ripened almost as early as 
Royal Sovereign, but all the berries 
were smooth and well formed. It is 
always a well-flavored variety and the 
glass-grown fruits were of excellent 
quality. Appears quite productive when 
forced, but the berries run too small to 
make the variety worth while. The 
crops borne by the varieties that suc¬ 
ceeded were quite comparable to those 
to be expected from the most vigorous 
outdoor plants. The only fertilization 
aside from that contained in the potting 
soil was a weekly watering with much 
diluted liquid manure, and on two occa¬ 
sions a pinch each of guano and potas¬ 
sium sulphate was scratched into the 
soil. While the experiment was pri¬ 
marily for the purpose of crossing cer¬ 
tain varieties and thus securing seed¬ 
lings early in the season the conclusion 
appears to be that Wm. Belt and Al¬ 
fonso are hopeful varieties for early 
forcing work. w. v. f. 
Boiler Tube for Drains.— -Drain tile 
is very scarce and high-priced here, but I 
am in possession of some boiler tubes 13 
feet long and three inches in diameter, 
outside measure. My scheme is to fill with 
water, plug the ends and freeze. The 
engineer asures me they will open one side 
about 1-16 of an inch. My land has plenty 
of fall, but they will lie in tine sand in 
places. I would like opinions on the feas¬ 
ibility of my plan. e. l. 
Massachusetts. 
Fire Blight on Tears. —In 18 years’ 
experience with a unite extended com¬ 
mercial pear orchard. I have found no trou¬ 
ble in eradicating fire blight by timely cut¬ 
ting back to a sound branch or bud’; but 
the cutting must be in perfectly untainted 
wood and must be done at once after it 
shows on the tender growth on terminals 
of branches. I will except, however, Flem¬ 
ish Beauty, Idaho and Clapp’s Favorite. 
They are hard to save. I have used no dis¬ 
infectants on tools. D. R. G. 
Clinton, Mich. 
“For the Land’s Sake use_ Bowker’s 
Fertilizers; they enrich the earth and 
those who till it. Est. 1873. For prices 
or agencies address Bowker, Boston or 
New York.” 
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m 
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