AUGUST. 175 



gramma crispa. More might be added; but these will suffice to 

 afford an idea of the kind of arrangement I am advocating. 



In places where stones are not easily obtained, clinkers (often 

 called burrs) from a brick-field might be made to answer the same 

 purpose. 



D— D. 



CULTURE OF THE STRAWBERRY. 



FOR AMATEURS. 



The situation or locality for your Strawberry-ground (which is the 

 most important matter) should be in the most central, elevated, and 

 open part of your garden, level, or very slightly inclining to the 

 south, and quite away from the drip and shade of trees, or any sort of 

 obstruction to sunshine, which is more than any thing conducive to 

 excellence in the flavour of Strawberries, as in every other kind of 

 fruit we cultivate ; and also that the rains and frequent waterings may 

 not be drained off so quickly as they would be if they were planted on 

 a declivity. Your ground must be trenched very deep, say two feet at 

 least, and the line of your rows should be very richly manured with 

 completely rotten stable-dung the whole depth, from bottom to top ; 

 and if your soil be rather of an adhesive quality, so much the better; 

 or if light and sandy, and a good rich marl-pit happens to be within 

 a moderate distance, it will amply repay you to make it rather ad- 

 hesive. A well-incorporated and richly- manured mixture of the two 

 soils will always be found most genial for the production of tine 

 Strawberries. 



The best time to make your plantations is the first or second 

 week in July; but it may be done now, and the runners in most 

 seasons will be ready for that time, if properly managed, which is by 

 pegging down, as early as you can, the strongest runners at the first 

 joint, and stopping them from running farther by pinching off the 

 ends ; and you must consider it imperative that you select none but 

 fruitful plants to take your runners from ; all barren stools had much 

 better be dug up and thrown away, to prevent the possibility of mix- 

 ture. Having prepared your ground, and your plants being nicely 

 rooted, proceed carefully to cut the runner-strings at about an inch 

 from the plants, and dig them up with the rounded point of your hol- 

 low trowel, with as little disturbance of the soil adhering to their 

 roots as possible, that the hot weather may not flag them, and that 

 there may be no necessity for shading. Your plants will be much 

 forwarded by your particular care in this operation. 



If the weather be showery, do not waste the present moment, nor 

 depend on to-morrow, but plant them just as your taste may ap- 

 prove, i. e. either in rows of little triangles, or in double rows close 

 together, one plant alternating witli the other ; the individual plants 

 in both cases standing from five to seven inches apart ; and each 

 row of plants, whether double or in triangles, should have a space 



