<)6 MODE OF MANAGING STRAWBERRIES. 



in these GO he found this practice in the garden: John Smith, the gar- 

 years., dener, well known among- his brethren as a man of more 

 than ordinary abilities in the profession, had used it there 

 many years; he learned it soon after lie came to London 

 from Scotland ; probably at the Neat Houses, where he first 

 worked among the maiket gardeners, if is therefore clearly 

 an old practice, though now almost obsolete. 

 Attended with ^ ts UkS( " U1 preserving a crop is very extensive: it shades 

 various advan- the roots from the sun ; prevents the waste of moisture by 

 tages. evaporation, and consequently, in dry times, when watering 

 is necessary, makes a less quantity of water suffice than 

 would be used if the sun could act immediately on the sur- 

 face of the mould ; besides, it keeps the leaning fruit from 

 resting on the earth, and gives the whole an air of neatness 

 as well as an effect of real cleanliness, which should never 

 be wanting in a gentleman's garden. 

 Expense of the The strawberry beds in that garden at Spring Grove, 

 practice which has been measured for the purpose of ascertaining 

 the expense incurred by this method of management, are 

 about 75 feet long, and five feet wide, each containing three 

 rows of plants, and of course requiring four rows of straw to 

 be laid under them. The whole consists of 600 feet of 

 beds, or 1800 feet of strawberry plants, of different sorts, in 

 rows. The strawing of these beds consumed this year, 1 806, 

 the long straw of 26 trusses, for the short straw being as good 

 for litter as the long straw, but less applicable to this use, is 

 taken out ; if we allow then, on the original 26 trusses, six 

 ajnere trifle. f° r tne short straw taken out and applied to other uses, 20 

 trusses will remain, which cost this year 10c/. a truss, or l6jr. 

 8c?. being one penny for every nine feet of strawberries in 

 rows. 

 The straw From this original expenditure the value of the manure 

 makes manure: made by the straw when taken from the beds must be de- 

 ducted, as the whole of it goes undiminished to the dung- 

 hill as soon as tie crop is over. The cost of this practice 

 therefore cannot be considered as heavy ; in the present year 

 not a single shower fell at Spring Grove, from the time the 

 straw was laid down till the crop of scarlets was nearly 

 smd much la- finished, at the end of June. The expense of strawing was 

 kour and water therefore many times repaid by the saving made in the la- 

 bour 



