THE FLOEAL WORLD AND GAEDEN GUIDE. 



243 



first instance, been taken in a thin 

 slice off a loamy pasture, and sub- 

 sequently stacked up till the whole 

 mass has become like an elastic felt ; 

 one part clay which has been a long 

 time exposed to the atmosphere, and 

 the top crust of which has pulverized 

 into small crumbs, and these top 

 crumbs to be preferred to the stiff 

 material underneath. Lastly, half a 

 part of bricks, tiles, or charred rub- 

 bish, broken to the size of horse 

 beans. This mixture is well chopped 

 over, and used in a sufficiently moist 

 state to become solid with pressure, 

 yet is not sticky to the fingers ; better 

 a little too dry than a little too wet. 

 The next necessity is a wooden ram- 

 mer. The best rammer we ever used 

 was the stump of an old box tree burnt 

 at one end into a round knob, and at 

 the other made neater for handling 

 by a binding of tarred cord. The 

 pots, the compost, the rammer, and 

 the plants being ready, we give a lad 

 the task of putting in the crocks and 

 filling the pots two-thirds full of soil. 

 The crocking must be done with care, 

 for, if the drainage is not perfect, the 

 plants vrill make no return. We 

 prefer two inches of drainage, but 

 can do with one good hollow crock 

 fitting nicely over the hole, hollow 

 side downwards. We take one of 

 these pots, partially filled with the 

 compost, and ram the soil quite hard. 

 The exact amount of soil to allow 

 room for the ball of roots must be 

 learnt by experience, and about that 

 there will be no difficult}^. The plant 

 is turned out upon the hard bed of 

 soil thus formed in the pot, and the 

 pot is filled in with the left hand, 

 while with the right the rammer is 

 plied all round till the plant is at last 

 embedded in a sort of earthen wall, 

 and there will be in the six-inch pot 

 as much soil as is usually put in one 

 double the size. 



Though to tell this much has oc- 

 cupied some space, the doing of it is 

 a very simple matter, and it is almost 

 the only serious task in the whole 

 routine of growing a crop of straw- 

 berries in pots. When potted the 

 plants are all set in a frame, liberally 

 sprinkled with water, but not to wet 

 the earth ia the pots quite through, 



and are then shut up and kept shaded 

 for a few days. The object of shut- 

 ting them close is to prevent them 

 feeling any exhaustion by the potting 

 process, a very important matter as 

 regards the crop ultimately, for I 

 have found by experience that plants 

 that ha,ve never felt a check gave 

 much finer frxiit than those that have 

 been carelessly dealt with in some 

 part of their growing career. If 

 showery weather follows a few days 

 after the potting, take the lights off and 

 expose the plants to it ; the soil in 

 the pots will thus get saturated much 

 more effectually than can be done by 

 means of the waterpot, and in little 

 more than a week from the time of 

 potting the plants will show, by their 

 improving appearance at the crown, 

 that the roots have begun to push 

 into the soil that was rammed ai-ound 

 them. After ten to fourteen days' 

 stay in the frame, remove the pots 

 to an open position where all the 

 winds of heaven wnll blow upon them. 

 The best flooring is one made of laths 

 or spars placed an inch apart, and 

 kept firm by means of cross pieces. 

 Worms will never get into the pots 

 while they stand on such an open 

 bottom, neither will the roots work 

 through the bottoms of the pots. 

 When lacking a convenience of this 

 sort we have plunged them in a bed 

 of coal-ashes or cocoa-nut dust, in 

 which position they do not so fre- 

 quently require water ; but the other 

 method is preferable, the heat of the 

 sun on the pots — provided they never 

 suffer for want of water — causes the 

 formation of plump crowns, and with- 

 out plump crowns there will be no 

 plump fruit. 



In a very short time after the pot- 

 ting the leaves of the plants will 

 begin to meet across, and weeds will 

 make their appearance amongst them. 

 As soon as the leaves of any two plants 

 touch, the whole stock should be 

 looked over, all weeds removed from 

 the pots, and more room allowed. If 

 the weather is hot and dry mere 

 watering will not suflSce to keep them 

 in health, they must have frequent 

 syringing underneath the foliage to 

 keep down red spider, and to encou- 

 rage a vigorous growth. As we sup- 



