1872.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
183 
as we passed the clump on going to and return¬ 
ing from the city. But those fatal days of 
March ! No matter about the date, but it was 
when plants froze in a room where there was a 
fire. This finished them, and the browned 
leaves hang in mournful helplessness. I fear 
that the flower-buds are killed also. Still, a rho¬ 
dodendron is hard to kill, and I shall not give 
up until I find them dead to the root. 
Bulbs. —It seems strange to have no Bulbo- 
codiums, Snow-drops, nor Crocuses in the first 
week in April. I have had the beds uncovered, 
and found that underneath the leaves the plants 
had just poked their noses above the surface, 
but when the soil freezes hard every night we 
can not expect that the flowers will unfold. 
Covered Things. — The past winter has 
shown the great benefit of a slight covering of 
marsh hay or litter. Spinach and the like that 
was covered is bright and ready to grow, while 
a few things that were overlooked are frozen to 
the very heart. It may look like a small eco¬ 
nomy to rake up the leaves in autumn and put 
them over the beds, but we do not know of 
anything that pays better. 
Herbaceous Perennials. —I have a very 
large bed of these, but did not cover it. The 
soil is too soft yet to walk upon, but from the 
paths I can see that some things have fared 
badly. It pleased me greatly to see that the 
most beautiful—I had almost said of herbaceous 
plants, and I will say—of all Columbines, Acjui- 
legia cwmlia, was one of the first things to show 
signs of life. I think that the first notice, I am 
sure that the first engraving of this charming- 
plant in this country was published in the Horti¬ 
cultural Annual for 1867. If I can make this 
plant as popular as it deserves to be, and make 
people feel that no garden, not even the smallest, 
is “ complete without it,” I shall feel that I have 
done something to benefit floriculture. 
Trial Things. —As spring comes on, or 
rather as time progresses, new seeds and the 
like come in for trial. It is very interesting 
work, this testing of novelties, but horribly 
time-consuming. The whole work from plant¬ 
ing to testing the product requires personal at¬ 
tention, and can not well be delegated. There 
are very few men who can take ten varieties of 
potatoes, and give you at the end of the season 
the returns from each variety separate. Some¬ 
how they will get mixed, the labels will get 
knocked over, or something will happen, to 
make the experiments valueless. Thorburn & 
Co. have sent that remarkable collection of Lax- 
ton’s new peas, which came out from England 
this year. The trial packet contains five varie¬ 
ties of less than a hundred peas each, and sells 
for five dollars. If I get a single pod as large 
as the one figured on the packet as “ Laxton’s 
Superlative, average size,” I shall sing jpmeuliar 
pecans to Thorburn and Laxton, and wish them 
great pececuniary reward. Dreer has sent beaus, 
warranted to be of the snappiest sort. Hender¬ 
son & Co. put me under obligation to try more 
new tomatoes, when I thought the Trophy indi¬ 
cated the end of the fight. R. H. Allen & Co., 
among other seeds, wish me to see what 
I can get out of—goodness gracious—a yellow- 
fleslied watermelon. Can a watermelon be 
good if it is not of the richest crimson ? We’!! 
see. Then Bliss & Sons have new revelations 
in the potato line, and Richardson & Gould send 
COLOCASIA ESCULENTA, Of CALADIUM ESCU- 
lentum, as some have it. These bulbs or rather 
tubers are so much out of the usual way, that 
they deserve a separate paragraph. Such bulbs ! 
We think ourselves lucky if our home-grown 
ones are as large as a turkey’s egg, but these are 
as big as cocoanuts, which, as they came from 
South Carolina, shows what climate will do. 
We have not reached the end of the sweet-corn 
business, for here comes Nicholas Cole, of Pella, 
Iowa, with “ General Grant” sweet corn, claimed 
to be “ larger and sweeter ” than any other. But 
I can not take space to enumerate all, and 
results of things tried will be of more in¬ 
terest than a list of things to be tried. 
How many Strawberries to the Acre? 
BY “NOVICE,” ATHENS, TENN. 
The yield of strawberries is a subject concern¬ 
ing which I am much in doubt. Of experience 
I have but little other than prospective, and 
the authorities within my reach “ agree not 
together.” 
What is a reasonable yield per acre? All the 
evidence I can find is the following: 
Andrew S. Fuller in his Strawberry Cultur- 
ist says: “An acre of the best varieties of 
strawberries, properly cultivated on ordinary 
sandy loam, will in four years produce some¬ 
thing like the following results: Three crops of 
300 bushels each, 900 bushels,” etc. 
From the catalogue of Win. Parry, of Cinna- 
minson, N. J., I quote as follows: “We have 
grown on one third of an acre seventy bushels 
of strawberries, -which was at the rate of two 
hundred and ten bushels or 6,720 quarts per 
acre, . . . and the premium crop of this coun¬ 
try was at the rate of 263 bushels.” 
From a paper read before the Farmers’ Club 
by Henry T. Williams I also quote: “On the 
light lands south of us the average number of 
quarts per acre is about one thousand. Yery 
few fields average over 1,500.” 
This certainly is diversity, but I can not see 
the unity. Are these gentlemen correct in their 
statements? Mr. Fuller’s imaginary results are 
30 per cent greater than Mi-. Parry’s best actual 
resalts, and nearly 15 per cent better than the 
best known results as recorded by Mr. Parry— 
viz., “ the premium crop of this country.” And 
Mr.Williams’s’statement of the average yield of 
a large berry-growing- district is only about one 
tenth of Mr. Fuller’s imaginary crop, viz., 30j 
bushels; while “very few fields average over” 
about one sixth of the same, viz., 47 bushels. 
With this evidence before me, I can not well 
guess what a novice, with average common- 
sense and a disposition to do everything in the 
best possible manner, may expect as the result 
of his labors in the cultivation of strawberries. 
Remarks. —“ Novice” does not seem to have 
taken into consideration the facts that there is 
great difference in the productiveness of differ¬ 
ent varieties of strawberries, and that the same 
variety may be very fruitful in one soil and 
climate and worthless in another. We have no 
doubt that all three of the gentlemen quoted 
are right. Mr. Fuller’s estimate was probably 
made from the yield in the grounds he then oc¬ 
cupied, a naturally strong soil in high cultiva¬ 
tion; Mr. Parry shows what can be done in 
the light warm soils of Southern New Jersey; 
while Mr. Williams probably tells -what he has 
seen in Delaware, where strawberry culture on 
the large scale is yet a new thing. Belmont, 
near Boston, is a great strawberry-growing place, 
and there from four to five thousand quarts to 
the acre is considered a fair average crop, but 
this is obtained with varieties which would pro¬ 
bably not grow at all willi our Tennessee friend. 
Fruit culture of all kinds is a matter of local 
experience, and one in which large sums have 
been lost by a premature counting of chickens. 
If “Novice ” has no near fruit-growing neighbor 
by whose experience he can profit, he must learn 
by experiment what varieties are adapted to his 
locality, and will give him the best results. 
Growing Horseradish. 
To answer many letters, we give in brief the 
following directions: 
Around the City of New York the gardeners 
usually grow it as a second crop. The ground 
is very plentifully manured, and then marked 
off into rows one foot apart. Every alternate 
row is then planted with early cabbages, and 
after the plants are all set out the horseradish 
sets are planted in the intermediate rows at the 
distance of eighteen inches apart. If the horse¬ 
radish starts too soon it is cut off in hoeing the 
cabbages, which does not injure the horseradish 
roots in the least. In July the cabbages are 
harvested and sold, and the ground is left en¬ 
tirely to the horseradish. Such, in short, is the 
method practiced around New York. As the 
farmer is supposed to produce only one crop 
from his land each year, he can manage the 
crop without so much labor. The soil must be 
deep, so as to allow the roots to penetrate a foot 
or more if possible. The sets which are planted 
consist of the small roots taken from the large 
ones, and are from four to six inches in length. 
In order to distinguish the bottom from the toil 
end of the sets, a slanting cut is made across the 
lower end, while the top is cut off square. 
When planted upside down they will grow, but 
the roots are apt to be irregular and branching. 
These sets are planted in May, in rows two feet 
apart and eighteen inches between the plants. 
During the summer it is only necessary to keep 
the weeds down and the soil loose. Horseradish 
is not injured by frost, and may remain in the 
ground until quite late. Just before the ground 
closes up the roots are dug, and after trimming 
off the small rootlets for sets for planting the 
next season, the large roots are either stored in 
pits in the open ground, or preserved in sand 
in a cool, dry cellar. The small rootlets are 
preserved in sand, taking care not to make the 
layers of roots so large that they will heat. 
Lawns and Grass-Plots. 
There is no horticultural operation more 
likely to prove unsatisfactory to the amateur 
gardener than the making of a lawn. The un¬ 
certainty of the seasons, and the unreliable 
character of much of the seed, are against his 
success, and if his operations are upon old soil 
a host of weeds will take possession of the 
ground before the grass is visible. Perseverance 
will command success in lawn-making as in 
other matters, but we wish to advise the novice 
that establishing a lawn is not so easy as some 
represent it to be. In view of the difficulties of 
the case, we advise those who have small plots 
which they wish to convert into lawns to lay 
turf wherever it can be obtained of good quality 
and at not too great an expense. The soil 
which is to be sodded should be well enriched 
before the turf is laid, and the job well finished 
by beating or rolling, so as to bring the grass 
roots in close contact with the soil. In England 
a method of grassing lawns is successfully prac¬ 
ticed which we have never tried, but which 
looks as if it might be useful. Sod is cut or 
broken into pieces three or four inches square 
and scattered over the surface, seed is then sown 
in the usual manner, and afterwards the surface 
is made even b.v rolling or beating. 
