THE STRAWBERRY QUESTION.

caused the several varieties to be engraved, and an account of them published by John S. Skinner, Esq., in the American Farmer of that year, in which he makes the following bold, though patriotic asser tion:-" I venture, without any hesitation, to assert that, the individual or individuals who succeed in first landing in the United States a pair of the sheep hereafter described, would not only be compensated in a pecuniary sense, equal to their most sanguine expectations, but would render a greater service to our country than if they introduced all the mineral wealth of Peru." Notwithstanding the opinion, so positively advanced, it does not appear that an importation of any of these animals has ever taken place, except an occasional individual for the use of a menagerie or some strolling show.

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THE STRAWBERRY QUESTION. As much has been written on the Strawberry Question, I shall express my views by setting forth certain positions, from which I shall make deductions and amplifications, sustaining all by facts and arguments.

Postulates.-1st.-A normal strawberry blossom, be it of what character it may, never changes, and all the runners from each parent plant being component and identical parts of the original, serve only to perpetuate its primitive character.

2d.-Normal blossoms of the strawberry are of three forms; first, perfect, having fertile stamens and pistils; second, staminate, having sterile or abortive pistils; third, pistillate, devoid of perfect

stamens.

4th. Staminate and pistillate varieties (absolutely so) never vary under any circumstances whatever; and those who advocate such change might with equal justice assert that male and female animals transpose their sexual characters.

5th. The flowers of two only of the normal forms produce fruit, the perfect and the pistillate; the staminate is invariably barren; the pistillate is also barren, except when attended by plants of one of the other normal forms.

The importance of some movement to introduce 3d.-Plants of the perfect character sometimes the Alpaca into the United States, both at the produce a few of their earliest and latest blossoms North as well as the South, is manifest, from the so weak as to be without stamens, or with very imfact that our climate, particularly in mountainous perfect ones, which is caused by weakness or exdistricts, as along the entire range of the Allegha-haustion, in the same way as numerous other plants nies, will be well adapted to their natures, and that produce occasional imperfect flowers, and as ever is they may also prove a source of national wealth. the case with some double-flowering plants, which The cloth manufactured from their wool is now produce single flowers from the same cause; but well known, and is in general use. Ata late meet-this in no wise affects the general character of the ing of the British Association for the Advancement plant, which is always maintained in all vigorous of Science, Mr. W. Dawson stated that six years blossoms. before, he brought before that Society a subject that received its countenance in an especial manner; which was to induce manufacturers to exercise their ingenuity to discover means for consuming a wool of a silken texture in a manufactured state, and also to prepare the landed gentry and farmers to naturalize the animal called the alpaca, a species of sheep, eating that which the cow, the horse, the common sheep, &c., reject. He added, "The manufacturers have succeeded beyond my most sanguine expectation, and the naturalization also. The former has created a national wealth of £3,000,000 to £5,000,000 per annum; the latter is progressing rapidly. I have proved that these mountain rangers can be domiciled in our own 1st." Hovey's Seedling," whatever assertions country, though brought from beyond the Andes may have been made to the contrary by various mountains, in Peru. I have tried the experiment persons, without proper scrutiny, was, in the origiin my own lands on the west coast of Ireland, innal, is now, and ever will be, a distinctly and the wildest districts of the county of Kerry, and perfectly pistillate plant;" and consequently no already a company is on the tapis to bring over Hovey's Seedling has ever produced, or ever will 10,000 of these animals for the national good." produce fruit, without the aid of some variety posHe said that the race was nearly extinct in Peru, sessing stamens. and therefore it was desirable to bring it over to the British Isles; their wool approaching silk, and their flesh being improved by English air and pasture. The Queen and Prince Albert were wearing royal robes from the wool of some bred in Windsor Park. And he gave it as his opinion that in ten years these animals will add £20,000,000 per annum to the national wealth.”

To SUBSCRIBERS.-Have you carefully cut the leaves and preserved your numbers of the Agriculturist. If so, get them bound for future reference. We would rather supply a lost number gratis, than you should neglect to do this. The size of cur paper is a convenient one, and the expense of binding is trifling to compare with that of a folio or even a quarto form. We have made arrangenents with our binder to do up the volumes handsomely, in cloth, for 25 cents each.

Deductions.-The fertility of any variety cannot be positively tested and decided upon, when other varieties that may affect the result, exist in proximity.

2d.-No one of the plants called Hovey's Seedling, described otherwise than pistillate by Mr. Downing and others (unless they erred as to their character), was a genuine Hovey's Seedling, but they were misled by confusing other varieties with it, in some cases the whole bed being of a different kind, and in other cases the beds must have been composed of Hovey's Seedling and some other variety, mixed. Not one of the transpositions of Hovey's Seedling that Mr. D. speaks of, took place, but he was misled by the circumstances to which I have alluded, or by others.

The error of Mr. Hovey in supposing his seedling a perfect plant, capable of producing fruit of itself, arose from the proximity of some staminate variety; and the errors of Mr. Downing, both on this and various other points at issue, have arisen from the juxtaposition referred to, one variety fertilizing the other, and also from errors in the

names, and from admixture of varieties in the same Hovey's Seedling Strawberry, without the proximity bed, as Mr. Longworth supposes; which several of any sort whatever. The same results have to our causes have prevented him from forming correct own knowledge been attained by many persons this conclusions, and have resulted in an incongruous season, who have grown large and perfect crops of mass of erroneous positions. The ideal doctrine of the same variety for the first time, in gardens Mr. Downing that "all strawberry plants in their where there has been no other strawberry of any natural state are perfect in both organs, and stami-kind, or only in distant portions of the same garden. nate or pistillate ones, chance monstrosities, produc- We have examined these plants of Hovey's Seeded from high cultivation," is a radical error, and con-ling, when in flower, and found the blossoms large tradicted by facts well known to every close ob- and perfect in stamens and pistils.”

server. And the opinion expressed by Mr. Down- NOTE. The italicising of some passages in the ing that plants however perfect will degenerate into above extract is my own, and intended to elicit the pistillate form, from over-bearing and conse-attention. WM. R. PRINCE.

ENTOMOLOGY.-No. 2.

HAVING gained a general knowledge of those forms and appearances which insects assume before they reach their perfect state, the gardener or agriculturist should next make himself acquainted with their classification.

All insects are either winged or not winged. This fact gives rise to two primary groups, viz. :— First.-Apterous Insects, or those which in no period of their existence are ever furnished with wings; as the spider, centipede, &c. They undergo little or no change; that is, they come from the egg or from the body of the parent, nearly in the same form they are destined always to preserve.

quent debility, and that Hovey's Seedling has Prince's Linnæan Botanic Gardens and done so, carries with it two absurdities. In the Nurseries, Flushing, Sept., 1846. first place, if such variation were caused by exhaustion, powerful nourishment would produce a restoration; and, secondly, the position that a plant, over-worked and debilitated, should thenceforth assume the power of being more productive than ever, is contrary to the whole order of nature. If such a rule could be applied to man and quadrupeds, the results would be vastly important and beneficial, and it is with much regret that I express my doubts. This second position, it will be also perceived, strikes directly at another opinion advanced by Mr. D., that when a plant has reached this state, it will produce finer and more abundant crops, "because the whole blossom (meaning the whole force) of the pistillate plant is devoted to the fruit itself." For however rational and correct this last Second.-Ptilota or Winged Insects, on the other position may be, as advanced by Mr. Huntsman in hand, undergo the changes already described; first, respect to plants in their natural vigorous state, it larvæ, then pupæ, and finally, full-grown, and with can scarcely be deemed by any rational mind to wings capable of flight. These are called perfect apply with equal force to varieties that have attain- insects, and comprise all butterflies, bees, wasps, ed this character from unnatural and absolute pros- beetles, dragon-flies, and ants. These last enter tration. I have waded along thus far in this ques- into this great division; for although the majority tion, although after reading several articles, and of those we see are without wings, still they are finishing with Mr. Downing's last one, I felt, as to only the neuters or imperfect ants, the true males replying, just as Mr. Webster did at Faneuil Hall, and females being each furnished with four wings. two years ago, only with the difference of a single As nearly all the insects which relate to agriculword. Mr. Webster there remarked, "Where tural and gardening operations belong to the class shall I go?" I asked myself; "Where shall I of Ptilota or four-winged insects, I shall confine begin?" All the remarks which I have ventured my remarks to these only, pointing out the leading to make in the foregoing article, were advanced divisions, and defining them in such language as without seeing Mr. Downing's strawberry beds, can be understood by the most unscientific. and are based wholly on my own investigations, The Ptilota or perfect insects, are naturally and on the unerring order of nature. I have since, arranged into five orders, and were named by Linhowever, inspected the strawberry beds in his own næus as follows:-1. Lepidoptera. 2. Hymenop grounds, and shall be able to shed some additional | tera. 3. Hemiptera. 4. Coleoptera, and 5. Neulight as to the cause of Mr. D.'s almost unaccount-roptera. able errors, which I think by making some addition Lepidoptera.-This well-known and beautiful to the suggestions already advanced, as to their cause, will be pretty fully explained.

I have taken thus much pains in this matter from an ardent desire that the strawberry question should be settled and set at rest for ever; it having savored too much of wheat changing to chess, or rather of a worn-out bull changing to a prolific heifer. In the meantime, I shall be gratified at any facts and arguments calculated to sustain the following statements made by Mr. Downing, and also that the " many persons" referred to by him, may be named, so that their strawberry beds may be examined. Notwithstanding Mr. Longworth's incredulity, we still assure him, that two years ago, we raised a remarkably fine and large crop of

order is characterized by four wings, thin, membranaceous, and covered with a fine, powdery substance; this, on being magnified, is shown to consist of innumerable minute scales, lying one upon another, like those of fishes. Lepidopterous insects are known in common parlance as butterflies, moths, &c.; these are, in fact, natural divisions, and comprehend many thousands of species. Few insects of this order are injurious to the agriculturist, but to the gardener and the orchardist some of them are, indeed, a bane.

The insects of the numerous and splendid tribe of butterflies are well characterized by flying only during the middle of the day. In their caterpillar state they all feed upon the leaves of plants; and when

rious hymenopterous insect in gardens, the small early wasp being in a measure beneficial.

they change into chrysalides, either suspend them-petual warfare with every description of caterselves by the tail in some retired situation, or pillar. The large autumnal wasp is the only injuattach themselves to some object by means of a strong transverse thread; but they never spin a cocoon, nor undergo their metamorphoses in the Hemiptera. The chief characteristic of this ground. order, is that the mouth is in the form of a slender The hawk-moths form the second division of and lengthened proboscis, which, when not used, lepidopterous insects, and are only to be seen on is folded beneath the breast, but not coiled up, as in the wing at the rising and setting of the sun, that lepidopterous insects. The wings are four, two of is, in the former and latter part of the day. Their which are always clear, and the others generally flight is so extremely rapid, that the eye cannot dis-semi-transparent. One division of this order feed tinguish the motion of their wings, nor the colors upon insects, and consequently are not injurious to which ornament them. The caterpillars of the gardens, but the other division feed upon vegetable larger kinds are, in general, very beautiful; and juices, as plant-lice, plant-bugs, &c. are easily known from those of butterflies, and of The aphides or plant-lice, next to locusts, are other moths, by a sort of horn or curved process, the most universal devastators of vegetables. issuing from the last segment of the body. None Almost every plant is attacked by them; and their of these are found to be injurious to the gardener fecundity is so prodigious, that Reaumur has proved or farmer, and only three or four kinds of the that, in five generations, one aphis may be the probutterfly, while the moths, the third grand division genitor of 5,904,900,000 descendants; and it is of lepidopterous insects, are not only the most nu- supposed that, in one year, there may be ten genemerous, but among them we find the greatest pro-rations. The injury they cause is produced by portion of injurious and destructive species. Nearly sucking or pumping out the juices of the shoots. A all, in their caterpillar state, are external feeders, portion of them only are provided with wings, that is, they feed upon leaves. On changing into which, as has been before observed, are four in the chrysalis state, they either conceal themselves number. Some species are not so prolific as in a silken cocoon, or burrow in the earth, but are others; but those feeding upon the different kinds never exposed like butterflies. The perfect insect of pulse, and on flowering plants in general, inseeks its food during the night, generally beginning crease so rapidly and take such entire possession their flight in the dusk of the evening. Fruit trees, of whatever they fix upon, that vegetation is but more particularly apple trees, are subject to the checked, and often destroyed. The aphis meets attacks of many lepidopterous caterpillars. Inde- with a powerful enemy in the lady-bird or ladypendently of the various causes of blight, proceed-bug; for it has been often observed that when vast ing from the soil and the weather, there are others numbers of these interesting little beetles are seen, entirely originating in insects. Orchardists fre- it is where the aphides have been very plenty. Mr. quently find the tender leaves on the young apple Kirby, an English writer, states, that in 1807, the shoots have the appearance of being sown or woven shore at Brighton, and on the south coast, was together, or rolled up and withered; now it is beyond all doubt that neither heat, cold, nor fungi, have the least agency in causing these injuries; they are, in fact, entirely produced by two small caterpillars of two different species of small moth, and if the leaves are separated and carefully unrolled, these depredators will be detected. From the lamentable neglect that agricultural entomology has hitherto received, the perfect insects have never been ascertained, and even the effects which they produce have been attributed to other causes.

The larva of the ghost-moth attacks and does much mischief to the roots of the hop-plant. The giant goat-moth, as a caterpillar, lives entirely within the trunk of the willow, and soon brings it to decay. A small moth eats the culm of the rye within the vagina, and thus destroys many ears; while our woollen garments, furs, feathers, and even books, are sometimes ruined by the depredations of three or four other little moths, unfortunately too well-known in our dwellings.

literally covered with these little beetles, to the great surprise and even alarm of the inhabitants, who were ignorant that their little visitors were emigrants from the neighboring hop-grounds, where, in their larva state, each had slain his thousands and tens of thousands of the aphis, known to the hop-growers under the name of the fly.

Coleoptera.-This extensive and well-defined order comprehends all those insects generally called beetles. They have four wings, but two of them assume the form of hard wing-cases, which meet close together in a straight line down the back. There are many tribes of these insects, which, both in their larva and perfect state, are extensively injurious to the gardener and agriculturist. The May-bug is one of the most destructive insects in this country. The female deposits her eggs in the ground, where, in a short time, they change into young grubs; these, when full fed, are about one and a half inches long, soft and white, with a reddish head and strong jaws. These grubs are Hymenoptera.-Insects of this order have four known to farmers as the potato-worm, from their transparent wings, and the tarsus, forming the ravages upon the tubers of this vegetable. In this third or outer division of the foot, is composed of state the insect remains four years, at the end of five joints, while the body is armed with a sting. which it digs in the earth three or four feet deeper, The insects of this order are more intelligent and and spins itself a smooth case, where it changes to more beneficial to man than any others. The nu- the chrysalis, and the following spring comes forth merous species of bees supply him with honey; in its perfect form. Various species of weevil, the ant (particularly in tropical climates) is a grand most of them very small, do considerable injury; promoter of vegetable decomposition; and the in- as all the species live, in their larva and pupa numerable host of ichneumon flies carry on a per-state, upon seeds and vegetables.

REVIEW OF THE SEPTEMBER NO. OF THE AGRICULTURIST.

Neuroptera. This order is composed of masti- not "occupy their leisure hours with as useful a cating insects, having four wings, two of which hobby." It is my opinion that this kind of fineare always transparent, the other two being in woolled sheep, taking all things into consideration, some, clear, in others, opaque. As respects their are the very best of any in the United States for wings this order may be mistaken for the Hemi-profitable wool-growing. Though, indeed, I enterptera, but the difference between the two orders may tain serious fears that, under the new tariff, that be immediately distinguished by their mouths, the branch of American industry is destined to be Neuroptera having strong jaws for devouring their prostrated. [We have no fears of the kind. We food by mastication, while the Hemiptera have will turn out American intelligence, industry, and none, but are supplied with a proboscis for suction. perseverance, in growing wool, against the whole The principal divisions are represented by the world, tariff or no tariff.]

dragon-flies, cockroaches, grasshoppers, locusts, Patent Fence.-I do abhor this disposition to &c. Dipterous insects connect the Ptilota or four-patent every new thought. In fact, this is not winged class with that of the Aptera or wingless new, and is unworthy a patent. I have thought L. T. TALBOT. and talked of the same plan years ago, but gave it up as worthless. The interest on the cost extra over wood posts, will amount to enough and more, than to pay for replacing them. I cannot discover "its cheapness." And unless made very heavy, these posts will not prove" imperishable," They are not so strong as stone; and unless very hard burnt, will rot about as soon as locust or cedar timber, and be very likely to be broken by frost. If this country must continue for ever to be taxed one hundred millions of dollars a year for useless fencing, the sooner we commence building iron fences the better. (See January No., page 171.) I mean my language to be plain enough to show that I am not " on the fence."

REVIEW OF THE SEPTEMBER NO. OF THE AGRICULTURIST.

morning, noon, or night. In fact, I may say of them what the sublime poet says of another standing dish:

Bean porridge hot, and bean porridge cold, And bean porridge best at nine days old. Dandelion Coffee.-What! that common plant that grows in everybody's door-yard? Is it a fact? Who has tried it on this continent? Anything that will help to stop the enormous consumption of coffee in this country, I shall look upon as a great blessing and saving of health and life.

The Alpaca.-This is a very interesting article, in which much useful information is conveyed in a concise form; and if passed over by the reader might as well be referred to again. By the by, what of the project for importing alpacas? Will it fall through for want of funds? I shall feel ashamed of my country if such is the fact. It does not seem probable to me that the alpaca or any cross from them will ever be used in this country as beasts of burden. Although very useful in the mountains of Peru, where it is necessary to carry packages over regions entirely destitute of roads, I do not think they would suit this railroad region of go-a-head-i-tive-ness, where every man has, or may have, a good carriage-road by his door. Though I must acknowledge that many of said roads are very rough ones, and show that the dwellers thereon are but a small remove above the uncivilized Hama-drivers of Peru.

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Mr. Editor, differ very widely in our appreciation of the benefit likely to be derived by American farmers by this act of Great Britain. As a philanthropist, I rejoice to think that the half-starved English and Irish slaves may partake of some of the blessings enjoyed by our American slaves. For, among the latter, suffering, for lack of food, is almost an unknown thing. I most sincerely wish that the British starvelings could have a goodly share of the eatables of this country that daily go to waste; or, the good, rich food that our hirelings turn up their noses at, and would utterly refuse to live upon. I do not dispute your axiom that there is a tendency to produce a surplus of grain in this country; but I do say, that it would place this country in a far more prosperous condition if there was sufficient inducement for that portion of the population which tends to create that surplus, to engage in other pursuits to an extent that there would be a home consumption of all the agricultural products of our fertile soil. If the cultivators of American soil are only to look to a foreign market for their surplus productions, it will take more millions than there are in your arithmetic to compensate them for their loss of a home market. Again, all the exports of agricultural products, even should it (which I doubt) amount to $20,000,000 a year, will be returned to us in the manufactured products of pauper labor, such as every country should always make at home. While it is recollected that those engaged in the carrying trade are "consumers," that a goodly number of them are foreigners, and that a very much larger number of consumers would be engaged in carrying the surplus coast-wise, for the home consumption of home manufacturers of home-grown raw materials, into fabrics to export, instead of exporting the raw material and food for others to use to gain a power to level the agriculturists of this country down to the same level as the serfs of overgrown British land monopolizers. "Hence the disastrous effects" can and will be as "great as apprehended by some;" To Prevent Smut in Wheat.-It is truly strange and while " many of our farmers will grow richer that smutty wheat should ever be grown, when it by the sales of their produce" to English manufaccan so easily and certainly be prevented. The turers, many, very many more, will grow poorer in most expeditious way to wash a quantity of wheat consequence of the repeal of our own and British is, to have a large trough full of brine; let the tariff laws. We shall see. [We think our correwheat be in a tub or basket at one end, where the spondent has slightly misapprehended the tone of washer can dip it up conveniently into a sieve, a our article. We simply congratulated the Amerismall quantity at a time; plunge the sieve suddenly can people, and those of Great Britain and Ireland, down into the brine, and nearly all of the smut will upon the repeal of the odious duty on corn. rise up and float over; then empty the wheat into stating the advantages of enlarging a foreign, we another tub of brine, and the remainder of the smut, said nothing of the home market, of the importance if any, will float; brush away to the other end of of which no one has a higher estimation than ourthe trough the floating smut, and repeat the opera-selves; and we would do everything which we tion until your second tub or trough needs empty- thought just and honorable to extend it. Do we ing. I don't think it will need to stand and soak, understand Reviewer to assert that enlarging the and I don't think you can grow smut from wheat so foreign is likely to curtail the home market? If so, treated. Dry your seed as directed, with lime, we should be pleased to know how this is to be ashes, or gypsum. accomplished. We are of opinion that taking off Side-hill Plows.-Ruggles, Nourse & Mason, the late duty on corn, in Great Britain, will add at manufacture a very strong and easily worked im- least five cents per bushel to its average value in plement, which needs only to be seen to be appre- this country, for the next ten years to come. Admitciated. There are fifty thousand of them needed at ting the product now to be 400,000,000 bushels, this moment in Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, this would be a gain to the country of $20,000,000 and Missouri, upon the soft easily washed side-hills per annum. Previous to the duty being taken off of of those states. cheese, in Great Britain, in 1841, we exported to Repeal of the British Corn Laws -You and I, the United Kingdom next to nothing; and the price

Manure.-Will manure deteriorate if kept under a shed, or if well piled up out of doors? If lime, gypsum, ashes, or charcoal, were mixed with the heap, will it "undergo a degree of combustion and become dry rotten, mouldy, and useless?" In using fresh, hot stable dung, I never have found any difficulty if plowed in deep. The best way to do it when much mixed with straw, is to spread it upon the ground before the plow, and then let a boy follow with a rake and rake into each furrow the width of the next.

In