Lewisburg chronicle. [volume] (Lewisburg, Pa.) 1850-1859, 1857-01-16
For the Lewisburg Chronicle.
STRAW BERRIES.

/ The Strawberry is, in point of favor,
the finest and riches; of all our berries,
and is as wholesome as it is delicious.
The best soil for it is light, warm, and
moist sandy or loamy one, bu, it will, un-
der proper culture, grow almost anywhere.
And the best manures for it are decayed
wood, fine chip dirt rotten leaves, wood
ashes, fine saw-dust, tau-bark, &c. No an
imal manures should ever be used, as they
will not only spoil the favor of the fruit,
but produce rank vines and but little fruit
The usual season of the year for form
ing a Strawberry patch is about the first
week in August, Immediately after the
plants have done bearing. Aud it is form
ed by transplanting into your bed the
strongest and healthiest offshoots produced
by the spring runners. But the month Of
May is better time if you can then get
good vigorous plants of the preceding
years growth, as these will bear fruit the
next season, nearly year sooner than Au-
gust paintings.
You can plant them along the edge of
your garden walks, about ten inches apart;
and if you have two rows, let the distance
between your rows be about fifteen inches
or you can if you wish, plant them in a
small bed by themselves, in rows and hills,
about the same or a greater distance apart,
according to the size Of the variety you
plant, And in order to keep them from
running together in dense mass, and so
smothering your crop, you must, in either
case, keep all the runners GU; of your patch
for the first year, and indeed remove all or
most of them every year, as the Straw.
berry plant is famous for throwing out
new shoots or runners and will, if uDcheek-
ed, soon spread over and densely cover a
large piece of ground. And you must al
so, if you desire fine crop of berries, keep
your patch free from weeds and the soil
around your plants loose by stirring it &C.
casionally with the prOngs of strong fork
or the like, always taking care, however,
not to injure or jag the roots OF your plants.
And to prevent the ripening berries fall
ing on the ground and getting disfgured
or dirty, you should put layer of clean
straw (it is this practice which has given
this berry the name of Strawberry or
oak or other leaves under and between the
plants.
But this thinning process is not the on
ly thing necessary to ensure success in the
cultivation of this fruit, for you must also
clearly understand the serual character of
the plants, as upon your knowledge and
proper selection and preservation of these,
in their due proportions, your whole sue
cess will continually and unavoidably de-
pend. And you will see that this is true,
when tell you-what is the fact-that
the Strawberry plants consist of three diff
fereut kinds as it regards sex, namely.
l. The Female plant, totanically called
PistiVates from their blossoms having the
pistils chiefly Developed. .. The Male
plant, botanically called Sdm'natss, from
their blossoms having stameus and yellow
anthers largely developed: and 8, The
Hrmophrodite plant, which is neither
male nor female, but between the two, for
the Straw berry belongs to class of plants
that coptain both male and female organs
in the same blossom, but the one or the 9TH
er of these organs is generally imperfect,
and hence the plants are styled Pistillate
Or Stamina.e, just accordingly as the male
or female orgaus of the plant happen to
predominate. Thus, for example, among
the Pistillate varieties we have Hovey's
Seeding, the Hudson, Black Prince,
Burr's New Pine; among the Staminates,
Keen's Seeding, and the Wilmot, Iowa,
British Queen, Duke Of Kent, Boston
aud among the Hermaphrodi,es, the
Wood and Alpine varieties, the Large Ear
y Scarlet.
The sexual character Of cash Of these,