Cooper's Clarksburg register. [volume] (Clarksburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1851-1861, 1857-09-25
EXPOSING THE STRAWBERRIES.

EXPOSING THE STRAWBERRIES. !
A correspondent of the New York
Tribune. writing in relation TO the straw
berry culture OF Ohio. says:
MIR. Longworth is the father of the
straw berry culture as well as tie vine
culture, He has given to the world the
fruit of a remarkable discovery in the
shape of three new seedings-the Superb
or, the Prolific, and the Extra Red, each
of which has an excellence of its OVID.
This new discovery was the property OF
an ignorant market woman, who FIST in
Philadelphia, next in Cincinnati, beat all
her neIshbors in the abundance as we'll
as the tneness OF her crop. Every spring
she would carefully go over her beds,
pull up numbers ofthe largest bcssoming
plants and threw them over the fence.
The rival gardeners, emulous Of her sue
cess, carefully picked up these rejected
plants and set them out in their gardens.
But not yet had they caught the goose
that laid the golden egg. Her castaways
did no better than the old ones, if as well,
and still she raised tive times as many
berries as any one else. On coming to
Cincinnati, she still distanced all compel
itors-why, no one could discover. At
length her son carelessly dropped hint
in The hearing of Mr.. Lopgworth. who
caught il up and experimental, until he
found out the curious fact that the straw>
berry is sometimes male, sometimes fe-
male, and and sometimes, hermaphro>
dite- having both organs more or less
complete-a fact, the judicious use where
of has brought the price of strawberries
a. - to x
cents ger quart. and made them a staple
ot.the State. 1t was the male strawber-
'ries whose blossoms are always the lar.
yest that the market woman threw over
The fence, keeping just gentlemen enough
in her bed for the ladies'. Too many
not only take up room, but as their ener"
gies are no. exhausted in bearing fruit,
grow aud spread SO fast as 10 seriously
encroach upon the harems, sothat If not
looked to 10 time, they are likely, as Mr.
Longworth says. "to kick all the women
out Of bed" Hence it is that many
people find. to their great surprise, thai
they have fewer and fewer straw berries
though the blossoms are larger and larger
every spring. On the other hand the
females can do nothing without inter
course with the other sex, Of course. Ho
vey's seeding. so long the tavorite straw
berry OF the the East. is a pure female
and bears only when it has companions ir
the bed. as it is almost sure to have few
or none. The English strawberries are
said to be always hermaphrodite, which
renders it difficult for John Bull to believe
thai there ale pure males and females
Not,the least curious thing is the way ir
which, the male impreguates the females
He does it by Lroxy, honey bees and
other insects playing the gO>between
They carry the dust on their feet as they
fly from flower 10 flower. This fact ha:
been established, l bevieve, beyond cavi
by series OF experiments. such as cover
ing some OF the female plants with gauze
when they are sure to be barren, but be-
gin to doIheir duty the momentthe gauze
is removed. There is, therefore. no need
Tor putting the male plant in the same
bed with the females, and in practice
each is usually placed by itself, from q
foot to a yard apart from its coDiugial
companions OF The three varieties Just
mentioned OF Mr.. Longworlh's seedlings.
now in general cultivation here, the Su,
perior and Extra Red are female, and the
Prolific is Eermaphrodite.