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GARDENERS' CHRONICLE 



God's Best Berry 



STRA\\'BERRY propagation in a private garden, 

 whetlier the area be big or little, should be regarded 

 as a business of importance. It is in the nature of a 

 casual matter with the field grower. If the runners root, 

 well and good ; if they fail, well, better luck next time. 

 We will leave the latter to his gambling wheel of fortune 

 and consider the subject from the point of view of the 

 gardener who, as far as is humanly possible, turns the 

 wheel himself. 



Three fundamental points are : 1 . the jilant from which 

 the necessary runners shall be taken ; 2, the type of runner 

 which shall be chosen ; and 3, the manner in which it shall 

 be rooted. As a general rule the private cultivator has 

 entire control over each of these though, in some cir- 

 cumstances, he may be forced to proceed as convenience, 

 not as judgment, directs. The points may most usefully 

 be dealt with as set out. 



It is accepted that one year old plants will, in normal 

 conditions, produce the finest runners or plantlets, espe- 

 ciallv, perhaps, those which have proved their power of 

 fruiting bv giving blossoms, but which have not been per- 

 mitted to pass beyond that stage. There have been un- 

 numbered controversies to decide whether runners from 

 a barren plant (i. c, one which has never developed a 

 flower truss), will be similarly barren, but the issue has 

 never been authoritatively reached. If there were no 

 risk the question could never have come up for discussion. 

 There is a risk and it is not worth taking. Therefore, the 

 decision must be in favor of the fruitful parent, with the 

 supplemental one of choosing one year old plants, if pos- 

 sible. Should these be, for any uncontrolled reason, un- 

 available, the second choice must be from two year old 

 plants, and the third, and final, choice from three year old 

 plants. 



Apropos the runners themselves. The strigs are pro- 

 lific in the production of plantlets, and propagation may 

 be, consequently, carried to an intense degree, but this is 

 more than doubt full v wise. Healthy plants in a clean 

 plantation will send "forth so many strigs that the requi- 

 site number of voungsters will be provided by the first or 

 second planllet, or, in the event of necessity, both. 

 Should a desire be felt to split hairs, and decide whether 

 the first or second plantlet is the better, the best advice 

 that one can give is for each grower to please himself, 

 since, judging from the broad basis, there is no perceptible 

 difference in the final results. 



Now as to manner of layering, which is one of the 

 simplest forms of propagation. The strigs carrying the 

 runners extend in all directions from the parent plants 

 and manv of these will attach themselves securely to the 

 soil so that the species may be perpetuated. This is a 

 natural method of increase and the gardener adopts it 

 as the best, but wisely carries it out under a definite sys- 

 tem. He selects the' best suitable plants and the most 

 promising plantlets and runs the process as in a set of 

 harness. Three modes of procedure are popular, easv, 

 certain, and all are based on the best plants, best runners 



principle. . . , , . 



The most common way. probably because it is the least 

 trouble, and, incidentally, the worst, is to cleanse the 

 alleys of weeds, attach tlie plantlets to the soil with small 

 stones or pegs and await results. Undoubtedly better is 

 to supijlement the cleaning by surfacing with good mould. 

 as this conduces to sujierior and quicker rooting. 'I he 

 chief disadvantage occurs when transplantation must be 

 done in hot, dry weather. The soil falls from the roots 

 in lifting and the plants may. consequently, sustam a 

 check to progress. This may not be a substantial dis- 



ability in general culuire. but those who aspire to achieve 

 the finest results regaril it with suspicion and strive to 

 avoid it. 



The second and third methods are very closely akin 

 and may be treated of in association. The one is to 

 plunge 3-inch pots filled firmly with light compost in the 

 soil, and the other is to substitute 3-inch squares of turf, 

 grass side downwards, for the pots : plantlets to the nec- 

 essary number are attached to the soil in the pots or to 

 the inverted turves, as the case may be, and water is 

 given as imperative to prevent total dryness. Each is 

 excellent. The roots come rapidly and numerously, they 

 are retained within a circumscribed area and moving to 

 pots or open quarters can be done with the ball of soil 

 and roots intact. There can, then, be no cessation of 

 advance. Turves are preferable to pots for one impor- 

 tant reason. If the move to fruiting pots or rows cannot 

 be carried out at the correct moment — that is to say, when 

 the young roots are working freely round the ball — mat- 

 ting commences against the cool, porous, impenetrable 

 walls, the roots become hard and wiry in texture and 

 growth is arrested after transference. The slight, un- 

 desirable check has been inflicted. With turves this can- 

 not occur. The roots may go beyond the limits specially 

 provided, but, passing into soil, do not change their char- 

 acter and the plants do not cease to advance, even mo- 

 mentarily, after removal. 



A final word or two of insistence on the necessity of 

 instant work and the subject must be left. Early rooted 

 runners are invariably the best and giving, as they do, 

 the grower power to proceed as he wishes with them, 

 bring supreme satisfaction. Some gardeners have made 

 big strides in the task, others have just started and many 

 are waiting — for the_\- know not what. To one and all it 

 may be said : Proceed instantly, work rapidly and thor- 

 oughly to produce rooted plants ready for their fruiting 

 quarters at the earliest possible moment. 



THINGS AND THOUGHTS OF THE GARDEN 



(Contiinicd from page 4U) 



Salisbury Plain. The moors are made up of a wet peat 

 soil of a distinctly acid type, relatively poor in mineral 

 salts. This of course is practically useless from an agri- 

 cultural standpoint although it may have some value for 

 pasturage and grazing purposes. On soil of this type 

 we find C'a//;(;ia and other Ericaceous plants in abundance 

 associated with Ulcx Europcrits. 



Many of the downs are also \-alueless from an agricul- 

 tural standpoint, althou.gh some of them provide admir- 

 able pasturage for .sheep. This because of the fact that 

 the soil overlying the chalk is thin— in many cases it is 

 only an inch or two deep — and in consequence is unable 

 to su]>port any strong growth of vegetation. The pre- 

 vailing type of vegetation is distinctly calcicole in charac- 

 ter, tlie flora difYers from that of the moors and includes 

 such plants as Hcliaiitliciiiiiui Chaiiucdsliis, Aspcrula 

 c\')iancliica, and various terrestrial orchids. 



GARDENERS' CHRONICLE 



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CARDENEHS' CHRONICLE. 286 Fifth Avr . Nrw York. 



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