STRAWBERRIES.
Babes in the woods, in the folklore of various countries, have eaten wild strawberries, and been covered over with strawberry leaves, when their rescuers were slow to find them. The scarlet, or Virginian strawberry was transplanted from the woods and fields into the gardens of the early colonists. In the fiddle West, the pioneers found the lusty, wild Illinois variety. On the Pacific Slope two or three native kinds grow at different elevations. In Europe, the wild species are the wood, or alpine perpetual strawberry, the hautbois, or musk strawberry, and one or two beside. All these have been brought into cultiva tion centuries back. The ease of transplanting or of raising them from seed left no excuse for omitting this delightful fruit from the home gar den.
While the American horticulturist was strug gling to tame the wild strawberry of the east coast, which repaid his efforts only by running to luxurious vines instead of to fruit, a wild species, taken to England by travellers in Chili, suddenly absorbed the attention of all horticulturists. It became the parent of a remarkable line of garden varieties, through crosses with the wild and culti vated strawberries of Europe and America. The garden strawberries of this country trace their ancestry to this Chilean species. But the strange thing about it is that we cannot succeed with the Chilean plant when it is brought from our west coast, where it grows wild. It must come by way of European gardens.
The flavor and color of our own wild straw berries are deserving of perpetuation in gardens. But who can blame the discouraged gardener for dropping everything else, and grasping the new opportunities that opened to him when the Wilson variety appeared! It suddenly became possible for every garden to have a bed of strawberries with big clusters of luscious fruit. Until the Wilson came, no strawberries were seen in our city markets, and none were grown outside the special gardens of the rich. This wonderful dis covery, that everybody could have all he pleased, came about 1854.
A few people I have known were unable to eat strawberries. But it was not because they did not like them: they keenly felt the deprivation. We all think, as did Doctor Boteler in "The Com plete Angler": "Doubtless God could have made a better berry, but doubtless God never did." The name of the genus is Fragaria, meaning fragrance, one of the delightful qualities of this delicious and beautiful fruit.
Growing strawberries for market is hard and exacting work, requiring that the worker stoop continually in taking care of the plants and pick ing the fruit. To get the berries to market in the best condition requires that they be picked at just the ripe state, and kept from being roughly handled in transit. The best way to have perfect berries is to grow them. This can be made a delightful pastime, free from too much hard work. Get plants of the best possible variety and grow them to perfection. That is a job that brings its own
reward.
To enjoy the growing of strawberries one must know the habits of the plants. From the crown a thick brush of fibrous roots go down, and a number of leaves go up. Among the leaves the flower stems rise, and fruit follows the flowers. After the fruiting season passes, the plant sends up long stems that creep out in all directions, and strike root at the joints. So these looping "run ners" set out new plants, wherever they get hold of the soil. The stems between the new and old plants die, in time, and a family of vigorous, and independent youngsters surround the parent.
Another method of producing new plants is scattering seeds. Birds eat the berries, and the seeds, scattered abroad, grow the next summer into full-sized plants. From seedlings some of the good varieties have originated. The runners are like the parent plant. The seedling is likely to differ, though some varieties "come true." One of the discouraging facts about strawberry culture in the early stages, fifty years ago, was the failure of a bed to produce berries, even though it received the best care and blossomed profusely. A study of the flowers ',solved that problem.
The blossom of a strawberry plant is like a white rose, with a single row of white petals around a cone of pistils. The stamens, many or few, are set on the petals, and form a ring around the cone.
Sometimes the stamens are so few or so weak that they do not furnish pollen to fertilize the pistils. This results in the withering away of the cone. The cone grows into the fleshy berry, when seeds are set. If the top of the cone, only, fails of fertilization, that part withers, and the berry fills out only in the portion next to the calyx, or hull. Such a berry is called a "nubbin." A variety that is unable to set fruit because its flowers produce insufficient amount of pollen must be planted with one that produces copious supply, and blossoms at the same time. The wind and insect visitors scatter the vitalizing dust, and a fine crop results. Experiments have found out what varieties are best suited to be planted to gether. Before a bed is set out, a practical grower in the neighborhood should be consulted, and his advice followed.
The way to get the best plants, and the quickest crop from them, is to sink little pots of rich earth under the best rooting joints of the runners, choosing the parent plants for their vigor and the quality of their berries. If started in July, a mass of roots will fill each pot before the end of August. These independent plants may be set out in the prepared bed in September, without disturbing the roots. By the time the threat of frosty weather requires that they be covered with a pro tecting mulch they will be well-grown, and will set lusty fruit-buds in the coming spring. Some amateurs tear up the bed after this first crop is picked. Others think the second crop the best from pot-grown, fall-set plants.