With a liberal allowance of sugar and cream, it makes a
dish much too good for an average king. It is also the best
variety for preserving.
It should be remembered that all strawberries, unlike pears,
should be allowed to mature fully before being picked. Many a
variety is condemned because the fruit is eaten prematurely. There
is no richer berry in existence than the Windsor Chief, yet the
fruit, when merely red, is decidedly disagreeable.
The reader can now make a selection of kinds which should give him
six weeks of strawberries. At the same time he must be warned that
plants growing in a hard, dry, poor soil, and in matted beds,
yield their fruit almost together, no matter how many varieties
may have been set out. Under such conditions the strawberry season
is brief indeed.
While I was writing this paper the chief enemy of the strawberry
came blundering and bumping about my lamp--the May beetle. The
larva of this insect, the well-known white grub, has an insatiable
appetite for strawberry roots, and in some localities and seasons
is very destructive. One year I lost at least one hundred thousand
plants by this pest. This beetle does not often lay its egg in
well-cultivated ground, and we may reasonably hope to escape its
ravages in a garden. If, when preparing for a bed, many white
grubs are found in the soil, I should certainly advise that
another locality be chosen.
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