18 THE FLOEAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



prefer spring planting. Por more than a quarter of a century I 

 have planted at all seasons, but the spring plantations have always 

 proved the best. The cause of this success lies in the following facts. 



The plants established round the stools since last summer, with- 

 out being detached from their parent plant, will be found much 

 stronger after winter than those that have iDeen separated before 

 winter, either for planting out in nursing beds, or at once in the 

 plantation. When carefully taken up with all their fibres in spring, 

 they soon take root, and grow vigorously in well-prepared newly- 

 dug ground ; and in June or July they produce as much fruit as those 

 that have been detached in a young state and planted before winter. 



On taking up some young strawberry plants it will be observed 

 that the very slender fibrous roots extend obliquely in the soil in all 

 directions round the parent plant. From this fact the cultivator 

 should infer that in transplanting he ought to extend the roots in a 

 similar oblique direction, covering them successively with soil up to 

 the necks of the plants. On examining these a fortnight after, it 

 will be found that new spongioles have been formed all along the 

 roots, a circumstance which shows the utility of preserving all the 

 fibres when taking up the plants. 



Every cultivator must be aware that strawberries push roots 

 more than a foot into the ground, provided it is deep, and rendered 

 loose and permeable by manures suitable to the nature of the soil. 

 They extend obliquely more than a foot and a half in all directions 

 round the plant. If they are planted so closely that the roots 

 entangle each other in struggling to obtain nourishment, it may be 

 easily conceived that the produce must in consequence be diminished, 

 not only in the first, but also in the second, and more especially in 

 the third year after planting. Ey some this is ascribed to the plants 

 being exhausted ; but this is an error arising from mistaking the 

 efiect for the cause. It would be more reasonable to say that the 

 elements of nutrition in the soil become insufiicient for the demand. 

 These observations show the necessity of planting widely ajDart, so 

 as to prevent the roots of strawberries and other plants from coming 

 in contact with each other if we wish to obtain fine produce. 



Those who plant exclusively with a view to crop, and to obtain 

 the fruit in full perfection, cut off the runners in spring and summer 

 as they are produced. The fewer runners a variety of strawberry 

 throws out, the easier the plantation is kept in order. A variety 

 naturally disposed to make few runners is preferred to those that 

 produce many, if in other respects it possesses equal merit, a 

 property which is becoming more and more appreciated by con- 

 noiseurs. The limited production of runners is considered a fault of 

 La Constante ; and this is a reproach thrown on this strawberry 

 which is even not well founded ; for if planted in good soil, neither 

 too dry, nor too stiff, cold, and wet, if produces runners sufiiciently 

 well. A dozen young plants which were planted out in April, 1862, 

 furnished by October 127 plants, which was at the rate of more than 

 1000 per cent. The circumstance of this variety not producing 

 a superabundance of runners is considered one ^of its meritorious 

 characters by the most intelligent cultivators. 



