Dr. John H Bayne of Salubria Prince George's County, Maryland & the Cultivation of Strawberries

CULTURE OF THE STRAWBERRY.

    The production of this delicious and healthy fruit is so easy, and where grown for sale, so profitable, that it is surprising it is not found in every farmer's garden, where a small space devoted to it would ensure a supply of fruit for a long time. Any soil suitable for other vegetables, will produce strawberries, but the best soil is a deep friable loam. The best time for transplanting is in the autumn after the vines have ceased bearing, but they will succeed if planted early in the spring. Dr. Bayne, in that excellent Journal, " Hovey's Magazine of Horticulture," gives the following directions for the culture of this fruit, which can scarcely fail of success; though we may add, that if the soil is suitable, and the plants arc kept clear of weeds, and the runners stopped, there will usually be little doubt about the bearing, whatever may be the mode or distance of planting."

    " For the reception of the plants select a loamy or sandy soil i spade in a thick layer of strong unfermented manure, and thoroughly pulverize the earth; mark off the ground in rows three feet asunder, then select the strongest plants, and set them 12 inches from plant to plant in the rows. Permit the runners to lake possession of every alternate space; observing to eradicate weeds and grass throughout the season. The runners from the other space must be carefully destroyed throughout this time. By this arrangement of the plants, you will have your patch in beds three feet wide, leaving a vacant space or alley three feet wide for the gatherers to walk in. After the fruit season is over, the alleys or spaces unoccupied by the plants, may now be thoroughly worked for the reception of bearing plants for the next year. The plants of the previous year must be spaded under, taking care to leave sufficient plants in the original rows, for the production of bearing vines for the next crop. By this simple mode of reversing the beds, a patch upon the same ground may be continued productive for many years."

    In speaking of the finest and most productive varieties, Dr. Bayne adds:—" I would recommend Hovey's Seedling, Female Hudson Bay, Large Lima, Bishop's Orange, Bayne's Prolific, as being splendid varieties, and abundantly prolific. I believe every flower on the above varieties are female, anil if planted separately, will fail to field abundantly; but if planted in proximity with the Melon, or Southborough Seedling, every flower will be impregnated, and will produce enormous crops."

    On the sexual difference of the flowers of the strawberry, first brought into notice by Mr. Longworth of Ohio, and received with much favor, as accounting for the fertile and sterile beds of this plant; the conductor of the Magazine dissents from the believers in such sexual difference, and in some comments on the paper of Dr. Bayne, states his opinions at large. We leave room for only the following extracts; and the remark, that in planting strawberry beds, the intermixture of what arc called male and female flowers, can do no no hurt, and will ensure fertility.

    " That there may be fertile and sterile beds is not denied; but the cause of their sterile character is to be sought, not in a naturally defective organization of the blossom, but rather in the mode of cultivation applied to the plants. It is well known that all flowers have a tendency to become double, and when this takes place, it is also known that the stamens are transformed into petals. Now somewhat such a change undoubtedly takes place in the strawberry, when under a high state of cultivation, or forced by loo much nourishment to extend its runners too far. Repletion is fatal to the perfection of the blossom, though it may produce apparently a vigorous growth. • • • • Such has been the management of many beds of our seedling. We know of repeated instances where the beds of last year, owing to their entire unproductiveness, were given up as unworthy of any care, which the past season, produced immense crops, though overrun with weeds, and this, too, without being in the vicinity of any other kind. Many such experiments have proved conclusively, that cultivation alone creates fertile or sterile plants."

    We think Mr. Hovey has stated the case rather too strongly. Cultivation no doubt does much, but we cannot think does everything. We have had in a small meadow devoted to fruit, and which until last year has not been plowed for a long time, two patches of the common field strawberry, both of which blossomed freely every year, but while one of them always bore freely, the other never produced a solitary berry. In this case there was no mixture of the flowers, and all were sterile; while the patch of mixed blossoms was productive. The cultivation with both patches was precisely the same; and therefore this result must be attributed to some other cause.


 
The Cultivator: a monthly publication, devoted to agriculture, Volume 1. New York State Agricultural Society. L. Tucker, 1844