|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 39
A rust similar to that which attacks the black-cap is almost the
only disease we have to contend with. The remedy is the same--
extirpation of the plant, root and branch.
After testing a great many kinds, I recommend the three following
varieties, ripening in succession for the family--the Early
Harvest, Snyder, and Kittatinny. These all produce rich, high-
flavored berries, and, under the treatment suggested, will prove
hardy in nearly all localities. This fruit is not ripe as soon as
it is black, and it is rarely left on the bushes until the hard
core in the centre is mellowed by complete maturity. I have found
that berries picked in the evening and stood in a cool place were
in excellent condition for breakfast. To have them in perfection,
however, they must be so ripe as to drop into the basket at the
slightest touch; then, as Donald Mitchell says, they are "bloated
bubbles of forest honey."
I fancy the reader is as impatient to reach the strawberry as I am
myself. "Doubtless God could have made a better berry"--but I
forbear. This saying has been quoted by the greater part of the
human race, and attributed to nearly every prominent man, from
Adam to Mr. Beecher. There are said to be unfortunates whom the
strawberry poisons. The majority of us feel as if we could attain
Methuselah's age if we had nothing worse to contend with. Praising
the strawberry is like "painting the lily;" therefore let us give
our attention at once to the essential details of its successful
culture.
As we have intimated before, this fruit as we find it in our
gardens, even though we raise foreign kinds, came originally from
America. The two great species, Fragaria chilensis, found on the
Pacific slope from Oregon to Chili, and Fragaria virginiana,
growing wild in all parts of North America east of the Rocky
Mountains, are the sources of all the fine varieties that have
been named and cultivated. The Alpine strawberry (Fragaria vesca),
which grows wild throughout the northern hemisphere, does not
appear capable of much variation and development under
cultivation. Its seeds, sown under all possible conditions,
reproduce the parent plant. Foreign gardeners eventually learned,
however, that seeds of the Chili and Virginia strawberry produced
new varieties which were often much better than their parents. As
time passed, and more attention was drawn to this subject, superb
varieties were originated abroad, many of them acquiring a wide
celebrity. In this case, as has been true of nearly all other
fruits, our nursery-men and fruit-growers first looked to Europe
for improved varieties. Horticulturists were slow to learn that in
our own native species were the possibilities of the best success.
The Chili strawberry, brought directly from the Pacific coast to
the East, is not at home in our climate, and is still more
unfitted to contend with it after generations of culture in
Europe. Even our hardier Virginia strawberry, coming back to us
from England after many years of high stimulation in a moist, mild
climate, is unequal to the harsher conditions of life here. They
are like native Americans who have lived and been pampered abroad
so long that they find this country "quite too rude, you know--
beastly climate." Therefore, in the choice varieties, and in
developing new ones, the nearer we can keep to vigorous strains of
our own hardy Virginia species the better. From it have proceeded
and will continue to come the finest kinds that can be grown east
of the Rockies. Nevertheless, what was said of foreign raspberries
is almost equally true of European strawberries like the Triomphe
de Gand and Jucunda, and hybrids like the Wilder. In localities
where they can be grown, their beauty and fine flavor repay for
the high culture and careful winter protection required. But they
can scarcely be made to thrive on light soils or very far to the
south.
So many varieties are offered for sale that the question of choice
is a bewildering one. I have therefore sought to meet it, as
before, by giving the advice of those whose opinions are well
entitled to respect.
Dr. Hexamer, who has had great and varied experience, writes as
follows: "A neighbor of mine who has for years bought nearly every
new strawberry when first introduced, has settled on the Duchess
and Cumberland as the only varieties he will grow in the future,
and thinks it not worth while to seek for something better.
Confined to two varieties, a more satisfactory selection could
scarcely be made. But you want six or seven, either being, I
think, about the right number for the home garden. I will give
them in the order of desirability according to my judgment--
Cumberland, Charles Downing, Duchess, Mount Vernon, Warren,
Sharpless, Jewell."
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|