STRAWBERRY FORCING. 



BY WILLIAM COLE, HEAD GABDENEJR, EALING PAKE. 



l~N the remarks which I intend offering, I shall not attempt 

 an elaborate treatise upon strawberry forcing. The 

 season for that is now past. I shall therefore confine 

 myself to a few seasonable hints that may be useful just 

 now. It must, however, be understood, that unless the 

 plants are strong, and have large, well-ripened crowns, it is of very 

 little use to incur the trouble and expense of forcing them, for there 

 will be but little fruit to repay the cultivator. At the same time, 

 there are plenty of people who can manage to grow very good plants 

 through the autumn, but fail in ripening a good crop of fruit in the 

 spring ; for this class of cultivators my observations are more espe- 

 cially intended. 



In forcing, whether fruit, flowers, or vegetables, a little thought 

 ought to be bestowed upon what occurs oiit-of-doors at the time 

 when vegetation begins to start into active life, uud then to a certain 

 extent we must imitate those conditions as far as practicable. We 

 find that a gradual increase of temperature takes place throughout 

 the spring, and not a sudden leap from winter to summer, such as 

 some growers suppose to take place. When strawberry plants are 

 brought out of the open air, and put into a strong heat at once, the 

 flowers go blind, and the plants, instead of fruit, produce an abund- 

 ance of lanky foliage. In the first place, all strawberry plants ought 

 to receive shelter from the frost and rains throughout the winter, 

 for when exposed to alternate soakings of rain and sharp frosts, they 

 are in anything but a favourable condition for forcing. A cold pit 

 is undoubtedly the best place for them, though there are many con- 

 trivances that can be extemporized with but little trouble that will 

 do nearly as well. The best place for forcing strawberries is a good 

 pit, or a house erected on purpose, with shelves close to the glass. 

 My houses for strawberry-growing are nice little span-roofed struc- 

 tures, with a walk down the centre, and shelves close to the glass on 

 each side. The advantage of houses over pits is this — the plants 

 can be watched and attended to without having to uncover and 

 expose them to the cold, chilling influence of the external air. Good 

 crops are grown annually in peach-houses and vineries ; and I have 

 not a word to say against its being done, but I prefer separate 

 structures for the purpose. 



When the plants are first brought into the house, the whole of 

 the dead and decaying foliage should be trimmed off, and the pots 

 washed, to make everything have a clean and tidy appearance. It 

 is also a very good plan to remove the loose surface soil, and fill the 

 space with thoroughly-decayed manure. The exact temperature for 

 starting with depends a little upon the time of year. For instance, 

 those started in the early part of December should not have more 

 fire-heat than is necessary to bring the temperature up to an average 

 of 45% to begin with, whilst plants introduced into heat towards the 



