1854 . 
THE CULTIVATOR 
309 
very wide of the mark, provided the mixture is in the 
right proportion , and the right kind of an instrument 
(a shovel) is used—for we never in our practice found 
a man, with a hand large enough , to sow lime or ashes, 
on land that really required such a dressing. That 
the land of your subscriber is deficient in the first 
named ingredient, the fact that it is covered with sor¬ 
rel (which he intimates is natural to the soil,) we re¬ 
gard, almost, as conclusive evidence —far more reliable 
han any of the Jive dollar analyses he could obtain* 
We can look back to the time when white-washing 
the land, was, comparatively speaking, first introduced 
in this section of country, when some of our (so called) 
grass or pasture fields, in their appearance, might al¬ 
most have induced a stranger to suppose they had been 
red-washed; but the sorrel now, has very generally 
disappeared, and there are few farms in our county 
(along our public roads at any rate,) that have not 
been limed once, twice or thrice over. 
From our own experience in this respect, we recom¬ 
mend your subscriber to make a free use of lime. If 
his land has been well manured from the barn-yard, 
and abounds with vegetable matters he might safely 
use 100 bushels per acre of shell lime or a smaller 
quantity of a more caustic kind. We speak of slaked 
lime—and would not recommend him to use it as a 
dressing for wheat, but think his timothy seed, sown 
with the latter, or rather just after it, and before the 
ground has been rendered compact by a fall of rain, 
would be much more likely to do well. Clover and 
timothy, generally speaking, are apt to fail with the 
oat crop, which rather smothers them out, it being lia¬ 
ble in strong ground to lodge. 
We have no doubt your subscriber will find, after the 
lime has been freely and intimately mixed and incor¬ 
porated in his soil, the sorrel will gradually disappear 
—that the lime will neutralise and render harmless 
the acid, which now abounds, and on which the sorrel 
in great measure depends for its support and growth, 
and that when this effect has been produced, as soon¬ 
er or later it will be (as more or less of lime shall have 
been used,) his land will then be in fit state to produce 
clover, timothy and other grass. Then perhaps he 
may find one or two bushels per acre of plaster, a good 
application to bis clover early in the spring. 
We can hardly refrain to recommend to the notice 
and perusal of your subscriber if he has not read the 
work, “ Ruffin’s Essay on Calcareous Manures/ 5 We 
incline to think that the theory advocated in that work 
in regard to the use of lime (or calcareous manures) 
and its effect on acid soils, has stood the test of time— 
has not been contradicted by facts, as some other theo¬ 
ries of a more modern date have been, and that the 
work is a very useful one, especially to persons about 
to engage in liming and improving their land. 
As J. F. B. seems to have the right kind of a hand 
for sowing grass seed —that is, sows it liberally—we 
hope in due time he will reap by the same scale or 
measure, and that one failux*e will not discourage him. 
C. W. Salem Co., N. J., 8 th Mo. 2Uh, 1854. 
Culture cf the Strawberry. 
Messrs. Editors— In reading the article on straw¬ 
berry culture, No. 8, vol. 4, I was surprised that one 
well posted up as the Editor of the Horticulturist, 
should take such ground, and recommend a course for 
garden or extensive field culture, in some respects, so 
radically defective, (or at least so to my mind.) Now 
I believe that he cannot sustain himself, when he says 
that strawberries, will generally in beds produce small 
insipid berries, and of course unfit for market. I will 
say that as far as my experience goes, it is directly op¬ 
posite, for I have sold about three thousand quarts 
this season, mostly Hovey’s and many of them were an 
inch and five-eighths in diameter, and they were grown 
on beds two and a half feet wide, and averaging a 
plant to every five or six inches on the bed. I am not 
an advocate of letting all the runners grow till they 
have made the bed one solid mat, but do contend that 
strawberries may and should be grown in beds, because 
it is attended with less trouble, and vastly more worth 
can be obtained from an acre, for I have grown at the 
rate of seventeen hundred dollars to the acre at twen¬ 
ty-five cents a quart, and I know of others doing as 
well. 
And here let me say that I have never protected 
my beds in winter, or mulched the alleys in summer; 
nor have I ever had any trouble in selling them, but 
could to-day engage the next year’s crop to any fruit 
dealer in our market; which by the way knocks down, 
I think, another position taken by the Editor, which is, 
that every system of culture which stops short of stir¬ 
ring the soil around each plant is defective. It seems 
to me perfectly clear that to put out strawberry plants 
three feet by eighteen inches, would require five acres 
to get as much worth as can be obtained from one acre 
of beds properly managed; besides it is no small ope¬ 
ration to cut straw to mulch ten or twelve acres. And 
here I will say that I do not know of a single horticul¬ 
turist in this vicinity but what cultivates in beds, and 
I should be willing to have our exhibitions compared 
with those that are grown in rows. 
My advice to those who intend to put out strawber¬ 
ries for field culture, is, to put out your plants as early 
in April as the ground will do to work, in rows two feet 
apart, and one foot in the row, and let the runners take 
possession of every other space until the plants will 
average one to every five or six inches, and not to al¬ 
low runners or any thing else to take possession after 
that. I would not set myself up as possessing all 
knowledge on the subject of strawberry culture, but 
have given my experience, which, if good for any thing 
can be adopted—if worthless rejected. Practical. 
New Haven, Ct., August, 1854. 
Sterling Pear. —We have been favored by Dr. H. 
Wendell of this city, with samples of this fine sum¬ 
mer pear which is said to be a seedling, raised by a 
Mr. Sterling in the western part of this state. It is of 
full medium size, handsome, of good flavor, and must 
be a valuable addition to our list of early pears. 
