The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1905-02-25

frost under the mulch to any consider
able degree In other words, as these
spells are generally of short duration
the frost and plants will remain almost
intact until the breaking up of winter
On the other hand, if your beds are
not mulched you will find that many of
the roots of the plants will be drawn
out and broken by the action of the frost,
similar to a field of red cloevr during
a winter of a great deal of alternate
freezing and thawing. Second, the
mulch holds moisture and prevents evap-
Grafton at the most critical period in the
life of the plant, viz: Its development
of fruit. Third, it keeps the berries
clean and free from grit and instead
of gathering a lot of dull, lustreless
berries, you will always find them bright
and inviting.
VARIETIES.
There are thousands of varieties of
strawberries in the wild state. They
grow and flourish in almost every sec
ton of the country. They are found
on the snow clad hills of the North,
as well as in the sunny wales of the
South; on the great prairies of the
Middle West, as well as the f1owery
plains of California, and while undoubt-
edly they all belong 10 the same great
family, yet upon a critical examination
you will find that nearly every patch
is different variety and has some dis
tinguishing mark, even in the same vi
cinity, either in shape, color or flavor
of berry, or in shape or color of foliage
As with the wild, so it is with the Gull
tivated. There are hundreds of varie-
ties divided into two classes-the perfect
or bisexual, the imperfect or pistillate
flower, commonly called male and fe-
male. The bisexual, or male, is self
pollenizer, the pistillate, or female, has
few or no stamens and produces no
pollen. Therefore, in order to insure
crop it is absolutely necessary, when
setting the female or imperfect varieties,
to set every third or fourth row-say
from nine to twelve feet-a male or
perfect Towering variety At that dis
lance the wind and insects will readily
carry the necessary pollen from the per-
feet to the imperfect flower and thus
a fine crop will result; but if this be
neglected although the bloom may be
ever so promising, the yield of fruit
will be far from satisfactory-in fact
woefully disappointing nubbins or but
tons instead of we'll developed speci-
mems. The imperfect Towering varieties
are claimed by some culturists to bear
greater crops than the perfect, but ex-
perience has porved to my own salts
faction that such is not the case. / have
always found that while from five to
six days the yield of fruit will be more
on an imperfect variety, the perfect will
hold out longer and in the end even UP,
as it were.
Again, fruit of the best imperfect va
riety is in no way superior to that of the
best perfect variety In fact | have
never known any of the imperfect varie-
ties to equal in size or flavor the Belt,
Marshall, or Nick Dinner. Again, while
some varieties will thrive and yield SPLEEN
did berries in one section of the country,
it will be almost worthless in another.
The Jessie, for instance while it did
we'll in the North and West in its time,
and was much thought of and quite
popular, try my best I never could get
the successful culture of strawberries,
great deal depends upon the soil and
climate as we'll as the variety planted
quire of those raising berries in his
HCtSIDOiIOOQ Wildl tdlICLlCS QO DCSt.
Then by planting those recommended he
he knows very little about the culture
of the plants But the want of knowl-
edge need not deter him; let him try
and he will find that the necessary skill
to insure a fine crop will come with
experience
PROPAGATION.
rTba~o Of
strawberry plants, either by seed or
runners. If you wish to originate
new variety you must do so by sowing
seed-just as you would cabbage or to-
matoes and while the plants raised
from seed will perhaps bear some little
resemblance to the parent, yet in almost
every particular it will differ and be a
new and distinct variety This is not
only SO as to the parent stock, but you
will find that every plant thus grown
will differ from all the others. In other
words, if you raise a hundred plants
from the same sowing, although all
the seed sown may have been gathered
not only from the same variety but from
the same plant-you will get at least a
hundred different varieties and, strange
to say, perhaps not single one of the
new varieties will be as good as the
variety from which the seed was OBJ
tanned. Thus you see the chances of
improving varieties from the process
der; so much so that while hundreds of
horticultists have been engaged for a
great number of years in the effort to
improve the strawberry, very many of
the leading varieties in cultivation are
what are called chance seedlings; that
is to say, the seed from which the orig
inal plant sprang was dropped by bird,
or found its way to the place where it
grew in some other way than by the
hand of man. By transplanting runner
plants you can continue the same variety
for years, but like the potato, in time
it runs out, the plant loses its vigor,
the fruit becomes smaller and the flavor
inferior; consequently no matter how
good variety you have, or how much
you may prize the same, you will event
ually be compelled to make change.
The leading varieties during the last
thirty years have been the Hovey, Will
son, Monarch, Agriculturist, Sharpless,
Dowing, Crescent, Cumberland, Lady
finger, Bubach and Haverland, and many
others that do not recall now, all ex-
cellent berries in their day. But their
day has passed and their places are now
filled by the Marshall, VIM. Belt Mich
els Early, Johnson's Early, Tennessee
Prolific, Glen Mary, New York, Nick
Dinner, Senator Dunlap, Challenge,
Brandywine, Candy Climax, Superior,
Corsican and many others.
LOVE OF STRAWBERRY Gull
TURE
Indeed the love of strawberry culture
grows upon one, as it were You set
out your plants and from that day your
interest begins. AS the plants grow
and flourish, SO does your interest in
them, and in little while you find your
self studying their every characteristic
and are delighted to see them respond
to your attention. And when the buds
begin to swell and the blossoms come
forth in all their glory, you begin to
revel in the anticipation of bountiful
supply of fruit You picture to your
self splendid cluster in all the stages
of luxuriant growth, from the little
green nubbin peeping out from its crown
of flower to the magnificent specimen
blushing into ripeness, touched by the