MARCH. 79 



a delicate Strawberry is hopeless ; six weeks ago the wind swept oft* the 

 cowl from the top of my kitchen chimney, and on Sunday last, 23rd of 

 January, it swept oft* a 10-feet tin rarifier (a sure cure for a smoky 

 chimney) off my bed-room chimney. I heard the bits of mortar 

 come down bit by bit, then a brick or two, and at last a heavy toppling 

 fall of a 10-feet tin tunnel on terra firma. I am so used to it, that 1 

 never moved a muscle ; but think what chance a delicate Rose or 

 Strawberry can have here. W. F. R.] Your plan of top-dressing is 

 certainly first rate, as it supplies manure to the roots, without disturbing 

 them [As long as you allow your man to dig or fork among your 

 Strawberries and Raspberries, so long will you have neither. W. F. R.], 

 thus keeping them in excellent condition for several years. [I have 

 grown large crops of Victorias and Keens, four years old plants, the 

 ground being purposely trodden as hard as a turnpike road the whole 

 of the time, the fruit when formed never by any chance fails ; of course 

 they are enormously dressed with surface solid manure, directly after 

 they have done bearing, and runners carefully kept off. My soil is 

 friable loam. W. F. R.] Your suggestion, that Sir Harry may be 

 best as an Annual, strikes me. [I have no doubt that an early July 

 runner of Sir Harry, planted under a hot south wall, chopped, and then 

 replaced with new plants, and a little fresh maiden earth, or old mud 

 wall, in the very same place, will do as well with others as it has done 

 with me. It will give you on an average 40 fine berries per plant 

 (being 14 inches distant from each other), and 20 good enough for 

 jam. Under my south wall it bore ecmally well the second year. 

 Give it a year's run at two feet distance, and feed and water it 

 from May till the May following, and you will have a high stand- 

 ing bush, covered with flowers, ultimately producing from 200 to 300 

 Strawberries per plant. You will then have some idea of what Sir 

 Harry can do. Exposed in the open, and fall planted, it is not so 

 hardy as Keen ; but plant it in May, and it will defy the most rigorous 

 winter. As an annual it will beat any other for crop, if you plant it 

 June or early in July. W. F. R.] This sort being a heavy cropper, 

 it becomes easily exhausted after the first crop. Annual culture may, 

 perhaps, be adopted with many sorts, provided you can get early run- 

 ners ; plant them in nursery beds as soon as their roots touch the 

 ground [their roots cannot be too short when planted. W. F. R.], 

 water them abundantly, and finally plant them with a ball, where they 

 are to fruit. [You must not scmeeze the earth into a clayey knot. 

 W. F. R.] I am glad to see that you intend paying a visit to my 

 friend, Mr. Nicholson, in case you should go to the north. You will 

 see Strawberries grown in a first rate manner, and make an acquaintance 

 with a man of the right sort. 



Wood ashes, soot, and peat charcoal with me also are favourite 

 manures [I told him that I planted many of my Strawberries with 

 peat charcoal, that I thought wood ashes good, and that I soot all my 

 Strawberries heavily once every year at least ; and that for that reason 

 I am never troubled with May bug, or red spider, and very little with 

 slugs. W. F. R.], especially for pot culture. We have had fine 

 open weather, with frequent rains up to the 31st ultimo, and since 



