An improved method of cultivating the Alpine Strawberry.——The strawberry is a fruit which is agreeable to the palate of so many persons, and which disagrees with the constitution of so few, that any means of improving the culture of it, and of prolonging the season of its maturity and perfection, will be acceptable to the Horticultural Society: I am therefore induced to send an account of an improved method of cultivating the Alpine Strawberry, that is, I believe, little if at all known, and that I have practised with the best possible success.
Though the flavour of the Alpine varieties is generally approved, they are not much thought of while the larger varieties continue in perfection, and are valued only as an autumnal crop. I was therefore led to try several different methods of culture, with a view to obtain plants that would just begin to blossom when the other varieties cease; conceiving that such plants, not having expended either themselves, or the virtue of the soil, in a previous crop of fruit, would afford the best and most abundant autumnal produce. Under this impression, I sowed the seeds of the best Alpine variety that I had ever been able to obtain, in pots of mould, in the beginning of August, the seeds of the preceding year having been preserved to that period; and the plants these afforded were placed, in the end of March, in beds to produce fruit. This experiment succeeded tolerably well; but I was not quite satisfied with it; for though my plants produced an abundant autumnal crop of fruit, they began to blossom somewhat earlier than I wished, and before they were perfectly well rooted in the soil. I therefore tried the experiment of sowing some seeds of the same variety early in the spring, in pots which I placed in a hotbed of moderate strength in the beginning of April, and the plants thus raised were removed to the beds in which they were to remain in the open ground as soon as they had acquired a sufficient size. They began to blossom soon after midsummer, and to ripen their fruit towards the end of July, affording a most abundant crop of very fine fruit. The powers of life in plants thus raised, being young and energetic, operate much more powerfully than in the runners of older plants, or even in plants raised from seeds in the preceding year; and therefore I think the Alpine strawberry ought always to be treated as an annual plant.
OILING FRUIT TREES.
Sir George M'Kenzie has discovered that oil rubbed upon the stems and branches of fruit trees destroys insects, and increases the fruit buds. Mr. John Linning has added to the discovery, by using it successfully upon the stems of carnations, to guard them against the depredations of the ear-wig. The coarsest oil will suit, and only a small quantity is required.
CULTURE OF FOREST TREES.
Sir Watkin Williams Wynn has planted within the last 5 years, in the mountainous lands in the vicinity of Langollen, situated from 12,000 to 14,000 feet above the level of the sea, 39,000 oaks, 63,000 Spanish chesnuts, 102,000 spruce firs, 110,000 Scotch firs, 90,000 larches, 30,000 wych elms, 35,000 mountain elms, 80,000 ash, and 40,000 sycamores, all of which are at this time, in a healthy and thriving condition.