890 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
Dec. 
B8SfeBmiB3BBmaBBS8BaBBiiSEaaB6E3gMraBSgS539im36maBBmBroB^ 
ing of the Boston Pine, a second fine seedling 1 of his 
own raising-, he is seen bearing away on the other tack, 
if not with all sails set, yet with enough to give the 
ship headway in the right direction: “Let the causes 
be what they may, it is sufficient for all practical pur- 
poses to know, that the most abundant crops (italics 
ours) can be produced by planting some sort abounding 
in staminate flowers, in the near vicinity of those which 
do not possess them;” p.293. And on p. 444 he re¬ 
iterates the advice to plant near the staminate varieties. 
In the August number for 1846, p. 309, Mr. Hovey 
shows himself a thorough convert to Mr. Longworth’s 
views, by endorsing, in the main, the report of the 
committee of the Cincinnati Horticultural Society. We 
hope after so various a voyage touching at so may points, 
that he will now abide steadfast in the truth. 
We look upon this as a very grave matter; not be¬ 
cause the strawberry question is of such paramount, al¬ 
though it is of no inconsiderable importance; but it is of 
importance whether accredited scientific magazines 
should be trustworthy; whether writers or popular edi¬ 
tors should be responsible for mistakes entirely unneces¬ 
sary. We blame no man for vascillation while yet in 
the process of investigation, nor for coming at the truth 
gradually, since this is the necessity of our condition 
to learn only by degrees, and by painful shiftings. The 
first requisite for a writer is, that he be worthy of trust 
in his statements. No man can be trusted who ventures 
opinions upon uninvestigated matters; who states facts 
with assurance which he has not really ascertained, who 
evinces rashnesss, haste, carelessness, credulity, or 
fickleness in his judgments. The question of perfect or 
imperfect blossoms depends upon the simplest ex¬ 
ercise of eye-sight. It requires no measurements, 
no process of the laboratory, no minute dissections or 
nice calculations, it requires only that a man should see 
what he looks at. 
When a boy, playing “ how many fingers do I hold 
up,” by dint of peeping from under the bandage, we 
managed to make very clever guesses of how many 
lilly fingers some roguish lassie was holding in tempt¬ 
ing show before our bandaged eyes, but some folks are 
not half so lucky with both eyes wide open, and the 
stamens and pistils standing before them. 
If such latitude is permitted to those who conduct 
the investigations peculiar to horticulture, who can 
confide in the publication of facts, observations, or ex¬ 
periments? Of what use will be journals and magazines? 
They become like chronometers that will not keep 
time; like a compass that has lost its magnetic sensi¬ 
bility; like a guide who has lost his own way, and 
leads his followers through brake, and morass, and 
thicket, into interminable wanderings. Sometimes, the 
consciousness of faults in ourselves, which should make 
us lenient towards others, only serves to produce irrita¬ 
ble fault-finding. After a comparison of opinions and 
facts, through a space of five years, with the most dis¬ 
tinguished cultivators, east and wegt, Mr. Longworth 
is now universally admitted to have sustained himself 
in all the essential points which he first promulgated— 
not discovered, for he made no claim of that sort. The 
gardeners and the magazines of the east have, at length, 
adopted his practical views, after having stoutly, many 
of them, contested them. 
It was, therefore, with unfeigned surprise, that we 
read Mr. Hovey’s latest remarks in the September 
number of his magazine, in which, with some as¬ 
perity, he roundly charges Mr. Longworth with mani¬ 
fold errors, and treats him with a contempt which 
would lead one ignorant of the controversy, to suppose 
that Mr. Hovey had never made a mistake, and that Mr. 
Longworth had been particularly fertile of them. Thus: 
“Mr. Longworth’s remarks abound in so many errors 
and inconsistencies, that we shall scarcely expect to 
notice all. “ Another gross assertion ,” &c. Refer¬ 
ring to another topic, he says: “This question, we 
therefore, consider as satisfactorily settled, without 
discussing Mr. Longworth’s conflicting views about 
male and female Keen.” 
This somewhat tragical comedy, is now nearly played 
out, and we have spoken a word just before the fall of 
the curtain, because, as chroniclers of events, and critics 
of horticultural literature and learning, it seemed no 
less than our duty. We have highly appreciated Mr. 
Hovey’s various exertions for the promotion of the art 
\and science of horticulture, nor will his manifest errors 
and short comings in this particular instance, disincline 
us to receive from his pen whatever is good. 
We hope that our remarks will not be construed as a 
defence of western men or western theories, but as a 
defence of the truth, and of one who has truly ex¬ 
pounded it, though in this case, the theory and its de¬ 
fender happen to be of western origin. Whatever er¬ 
rors have crept into Mr. Longworth’s remarks should 
be faithfully expurgated; and perhaps it may be Mr. 
Hovey’s duty to perform the lustration. If so, cour¬ 
tesy would seem to require that it should be done 
with some consciousness that through this whole con¬ 
troversy, Mr. Longworth is now admitted to have been 
right in all essential matters; and if in error at all, only 
in minor particulars; while Mr. Hovey, in all the con¬ 
troversy in respect to the plainest facts, has been chang¬ 
ing from wrong to right, from right to wrong, and 
from wrong back to right again. We do not think 
that the admirable benefits which Mr. Longworth has 
conferred upon the whole community, by urging the 
improved method of cultivating the strawberry, has 
been adequately appreciated. We still less like to see 
gratitude expressed in the shape of snarling gibes and 
petty cavils. 
We will close these remarks by the correction of a 
matter which Mr. Downing states. While he assents 
to all the practical aspects of Mr. Longworth’s views, 
he dissents to some matters of fact and philosophy, and 
among others to the fact that Hovey’s seedling is always 
and only a pistillate plant. He thinks that originally it 
had perfect flowers, but that after bearing twice or 
thrice on the same roots, the plants degenerate and be¬ 
come either pistillate or staminate. He says: “Ho¬ 
vey’s seedling strawberry, at first, was a perfect sort in 
its flower, but at this moment, more than half the plants 
in this country have become pistillate. 
Mr. Hovey himself stales the contrary on p. 112 of 
his Magazine for 1844. He denies that there are two 
kinds of blossoms to his seedling, and says, “ the flow¬ 
ers are all of one kind, with both pistils and stamens, 
but the latter quite short and hidden under the recepta- 
cle .” This is the common form of all the pistillate 
blossoms, and shows in so far as Mr. Hovey’s observa¬ 
tions are to be trusted, that at its starting point and 
home, Hovey’s Seedling was, as with us it now invariably 
is, so far as we have ever seen it, a pistillate plant. 
PRICES OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS. 
New-York, Nov. 20, 1846. 
COTTON—-New Orleans and Alabama per lb., 8 fall£c.—Flori¬ 
da. S^alO— Upland, 6£al0£ cts. 
BUTTER—Orange County, per lb., 16al8c.—Western dairy, 
13al5c. 
CHEESE— Per lb., 7a8c. 
FLOUR— Geiresee, per bbl., $5.50—Ohio and Michigan, $5.3/£ 
a$5.40. [The late foreign news has depressed prices full 50 cts. 
^ GRAIN—Wheat, per bushel, $1.05a$1.07 for Red,—$1.16a 
01 17 for Gent see. Corn, 73a73Jets. Rye, 76a73c.—Oats. 36a 
37c. 
HEMP—Russia, clean, per ton, $210— Manilla, $150. 
I-IAMS—Smoked, per lb., 6£a9 cts. 
BEEF— Mess, per bbl., $7a$8.25. 
LARD—Per lb. 7^a8e. 
PORK— Mess, per bbl., $9.87—Prime, $8a$S.12£. 
HOPS—Per lb., 9al0c. 
TOBACCO—Connecticut, per lb., lOallc—Kentucky, 4c. 
WOOL— (Boston prices.) Nov. 18: 
Prime or Saxon fleeces, washed per lb.*. 38a40 cts. 
American full blood fleeces,.. 32<z33 ‘ 
“ three-fourths blood fleeces,. 25a23 
“ „ half blood do . 23a25 “ 
“ one- fourth blood and commo n,. 20«22 
iT 1 UANO—200 tons, the balance of the ship Shakspeare’s earg 
'c*’ f rom Ichaboe, in tight casks, for sale in lots to suit purcha 
serS) by E. K. COLLINS & Co., 56 South-st. 
The many experiments made this season from this cargo, no? 
only prove the great gain in using it, but that it is at least equal l! 
not superior to any other guano. 
Sept, 1, 1846.—tf 
