Vermont telegraph. [volume] (Brandon [Vt.]) 1828-1843, 1839-08-28

to penetrate tothe depth Of eighteen inches
or more in a season. It is necessary,
therefore, to produce a fine bed, that the
soil be deep as well as rich. Where the
sub-soiI is not positively bad, the ground
is always much improved by trenching.
1.-TWO spades deep,) before setting the
plants. In doing this. good coat Of ma
nure should be deposited between the two
spits !; old garden soils which have been
long cultivated, are astonishingly improv
ed by this practice, the whole becoming
renewed by the presence of the fresh soil:
and the growth of plants in such mould
when again acted upon by the sun and
air, is of course proportionately vigorous
A deep mellow loan, rather damp than
dry, is undoubtedly the preferable soil for
this plant, bat almost any soil for SO limit.
ed species of culture, may. in the hands
Ola Judicious gardener, be rendered suita-
bic for it. We have seen very splendid
crops OF fruit upon very stiff yellow
clay. mellowed down by mixing with it
anthracite coal ashes and manure.
The best season for making new plant.
atoms of the strawberry is either in spring.
at pretty early period, or directly after
the beds have ceased bearing, in August
1.-THE latter time is chosen, the plants oen.
Eerally get sufficiently well established to
bear. considerable crop the ensuing
year.
There are various modes in which to
| plant the beds when formed, Some ar
range the plants SO as to be kept in hills.
others in rows, and others, again. allow
them to cover the whole surface of the
bed. We consider the first method pref.
cradle, as in that way the ground can be
Kept cultivated between the plants the
fruit is generally larger and finer, being
more exposed to the genial influence Of
the sun, and the duration of the bed is
greater. Three or four rows NAV be
planted in each bed, at a suitable distance
apart, and the runners from the rows
should be shortened or cut off about three
times during the season. If the plants are
not thriving well, light top dressing be-
tween the rows In autumn will be of great
advantage. Burning off the upper sur
face of the bed in the spring has been
highly recommended by some persons
but we have never found it to answer our
expectations upon trial
This fruit receives its name from the
very ancient custom Of placing straw on
the beds, between the rows of plants, to
preserve the berries clean. The custom
IS not yet too antiquated to be of less value
TO those who desire the fruit in its great
est perfection. Clean wheat or rye cbaf'
may be substituted for straw, and it has
the very great additional advantage of not
only preventing most weeds from grow
ing, by excluding the light, but also, by
decomposing with considerable rapiditv
after the fruit season is past it contributes
much to the enrichment of the surface soil
OF the bed. Young and strong runners
well rooted, should in all cases be chosen
to form the new bed, and not old plants,
or those offsets which grow near them.
There is a fact with regard to the straw
berry plant little known, the ignorance of
which puzzles many good cultivator.-
This is the existence of separate fertile
and sterile or barren plants in many of
| the varieties, otherwise plants which pro-
! duce chiefly male, and others that pro-
duce only female, flowers. Botanicallv,
the strawberry should produce both sta.
mems and pistils in each flower, and the
! blossoms should consequently all mature
fruit. This is really the case with the
alpine, the wood strawberries, &c., but
not entirely so with the large scarlet and
pine strawberries. These latter sorts. it
I Ic 1UpIi En0u7n Yrod,,oo tho l. i
finest fruit; but we very often see whole
beds of them in fine hourishing condition,
almost entirely unproductive. The COM
mon parlance in such cases is that the va
riety has run out, or degenerated, but the
idea is confused and ignorant one while
the healthy aspect of the plants fully
proves the vigor of the sort.
The truth is, that in all strawberries of
the foregoing classes, although each bios
som is furnished with the stalnens and
pistils, yet, in some plants the pistis are
so few that they can scarcely be perceiv-
ed in others, there are scarcely any sta
mems visible. When the plants bear bios
SONS furnished with stamens only. for in
large proportion,) they are of course
barren when pistils only are produced,
they are fertile. To have bed planted
so as to bear abundantly, about one plant
In eight or ten should be staminate orbar-
rem poisoning plants; the others the
fertile ones-for ifthe latter only be kept,
they alone will also be found unproduc-
tive.
If any person will examine bed of the
Hudson or any of the large scarlet straw
berries when they are in blossom, he will
discover a great number of plants which
bear large snowy blossoms filled with fine
yellow stamens. These are the barren