438 



JOUKNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



protect the blossoms from sprinp; frosts. 'Ulien the trees are 

 of small size it is uot difficult to throw a covering of tiffany or 

 gome similar material over them, which will serve to ward- 

 off the effects of a pretty sharp frost on calm nights, but it 

 is a sorry protectiou against cutting east winds. I tried 

 recently to protect a number of trees of large size by means of 

 a wooden framework fixed round the tree, and the protecting 

 material thrown over it, but the result was uot such as to war- 

 rant a continuance of the practice. I think we never had a 

 better show for fruit than this year, but our hopes are sadly 

 blighted. Peaches and Plums are almost nil. Apples and 

 Pears appear to better advantage, and of the former I think 

 there will be a crop. — J. Douglas. 



TLANTING FORCED STBAAVBEREY PLANTS. 



I WAS very glad to see in the " Doings of Last Week " 

 fpage 110), "E. F.'s" remarks on planting-out forced Straw- 

 berry plants. 



In my opinion, where StrawbeiTies are forced in quantity 

 there is no necessity for permanent plantations, which very 

 often after the second year can only be characterised as a waste 

 of ground. With forced plants we do not occupy the ground 

 more than twelve months. After forcing, the plants only need 

 to be set in the pots on ashes, and attended to with water 

 until the ground they are to occupy is cleared of the first crop 

 of the year — say early Potatoes, Peas, or Cauliflowers. These 

 crops win be off by the middle of July, and the gi-ound trenched, 

 well manured between the top and bottom spit, and imme- 

 diately planted. If, however, it be wished to plant the early 

 kinds for the chance of fruit in autumn, the plants may be 

 put out in May, so as to follow the Broccoli. I have a decided 

 objection to cover them with protectors, which are absolutely 

 necessary for the ripening of the fruit if the autumn is at aU 

 wet and cold, as doing so makes them tender, and they do not 

 fruit so well the following summer as plants that are not planted 

 imtil .July, and do not fruit in the autumn after planting. 

 There is no objection to keeping the plants in the pots until 

 July, except the trouble of watering, or a want of pots. 

 This is easily got over by turning them out of the pots, pack- 

 ing them closely together iu an open spot, and filling up the 

 interstices with soU that has been used for forcing Kidney 

 Beans, or with any kind of spent compost. Here they may 

 remain until July without much trouble as regards water, for 

 except in case of continued dry weather they wiU not need any. 



Forced plants do uot grow nearly so strong as those which 

 aje planted as runners in the first instance. I do not plant the 

 Black Prince more than 1.5 inches apart, and all the others 

 18 inches, the rows being 2 feet apart. In planting, aU the 

 runners are removed — in fact, the plants are not allowed to 

 form any — also the old leaves, leaving the young only. The 

 sides of the ball are loosened a little, and the plants are put iu 

 with the soU firmly about them. If they are diy at the roots, 

 a good watering is given prior to planting, following with one 

 after planting, so as to settle the soU nicely round the ball, 

 and the plants need no more attention beyond keeping them 

 clear- of weeds until October, when they are top-dressed with 

 manure in the usual way ; it is not pointed-iu in spring, Bor is 

 the surface afterwards disturbed, the weeds being removed by 

 hand-picking. 



After the plants come into flower I give a top-dressing, or 

 rather hand-dressing, of guano and salt — two parts of the 

 former to one of the latter — at the rate of one peck to three 

 rows each 14 yards long. I do not allow it to touch the plants, 

 but sprinkle it between the rows clear of the foliage. This I 

 put on in moist weather iu the evening. Everj- slug it touches 

 it kills. If the weather is dry, it is washed'-iu with a hose 

 pipe. The plants receive no water after this until the first 

 picking, when they are well soaked again, and afterwai'ds twice 

 a-week until the gatherings are at an end. 



The best mode of keeping the fruit clean is to place a small 

 hazel stick to each truss, and secure it with matting. This is 

 certainly tedious, but well worth the trouble for selected fruit 

 for the dessert ; besides keeping them clean, it saves them from 

 the slugs, from spotting and decaying iu a cold wet season, 

 and they ripen much more evenly and perfectly. The sticking 

 has also another advantage — it preserves the berries from mice, 

 which with me do much mischief in the Strawberry quarters 

 by eating off the seeds from the surface of the Strawberries. 

 These mice are very crafty ; they will not take poison ; I can- 

 not trap them. They are the short-tailed field mice,' perfect 

 Esiniatures of the water rat, about twice the size of the ordi- 



nary house mouse, and a much more fat, well-proportioned, even 

 handsome animal. WOl anyone help me against these ? 



As soon as there are runners on the Strawberries they are 

 layered in .3-inch pots sunk in the ground between every alter- 

 nate row of Strawbeiries, and this permits of the fruit being 

 gathered without interfering with the pots, and I have nets 

 that will just cover two rows. After the fruit is gathered, when 

 the runners are well rooted they are detached, placed in a 

 shady spot for a few days, potted iu a week or ten days, the 

 old plantation, just ayear old, chopped up, and the ground dug 

 and planted with Broccoli, Cauliflower for a late supply, or 

 other winter greens. 



By this mode the Strawberry plantations are annual, and 

 as " E. F." says, "there is no plan that will equal this for 

 obtaining large crops the first season after planting." This 

 may partly be owing to their not running much to leaves, nor 

 forming runners plentifully ; but I think it is also a result of 

 having plants of known f L-rtUity, for there is not one barren 

 plant amongst them. It is not worth while to leave them for 

 a second year's produce, though they will yield fruit more or 

 less plentifully for preserving. 



The varieties I grow are Black Prince ; it is still the best for 

 early produce, and fine for preserving. Sir Joseph Paxton is 

 nearly as ef r'y as Black Prince, a better setter, not liable to 

 mildew, and has a firm fle ih — of some consequence when the 

 fruit has to be sent nearly three hundred miles by rail. Sir 

 Joseph Paxton, as I have it, is just the Keens' SeedUng of a 

 quarter a century ago, nothing more nor less. Not one in 

 ten of the Keens' Seedlings of the present day is the old true 

 sort. The variety has either degenerated or got mixed up 

 somehow. President follows Sir Joeeph Paxton, then Dr. 

 Hogg, British Queen, and Cockscomb. Frogmore Late Pine 

 is an admirable late sort, and the Red and 'White Alpine suc- 

 ceed and fruit in autumn. — G. Abbey. 



THE TIME TO PLANT OUT THE DAHLIA. 



One of the gravest aud most frequent mistakes which take 

 place among Dalilia growers is being in too great a hurry to 

 plant out. This, too, is the error which just now they are 

 most liable to make, and the one, too, against which to-day we 

 offer what, we trust, is a word in season as well as a caution. 

 And here we may remark, in passing, that as regards other 

 planting out, as well as that of DahUas, our friends will lose 

 nothing by staying their hands a bit. The present is at all 

 times a treacherous month, and he exercises a wise discretion 

 who is not too prompt to expose stock wintered under cover to 

 its fitful and trying vicissitudes. Our present May has been 

 of the most winti-y character. It is far better to exercise a 

 little patience and wait till the end of the present, or even the 

 beginning of next month, than be rashly hasty and venture- 

 some in planting out, as have been some of our friends, who 

 we see, notwithstanding the uninviting character of the weather, 

 have not hesitated to expose their uurshugs to its ungenial 

 influences, and to a most certain and undesirable check, if not 

 worse. 



But to return to the Dahlia. One of the most important 

 points iu its management is that it shoidd have no check 

 whatever from the time it is jjlanted. Yet growers, with rare 

 exceptions, ignore it — nay, invite the consequences so much to 

 be deprecated, by the very general practice of planting out too 

 early. Very often, too, the plants thus early exposed are some 

 just received from the nursery, and transferred at once from 

 the pots iu which they have been propagated and grown in 

 heat, to the open ground, without a thought of repotting or 

 gradually hardening to give them vigour, and prepare them for 

 the change. In this last case we would not expect or look for 

 other than the most unfavourable results. But, even in cases 

 where propagation is carried on at home, and repotting and 

 hardening-oS attended to, bad consequences are sure to follow 

 planting out too early. AMien this is done the plants receive 

 a check to growth, become hard and wiiy, and are at a stand 

 for, perhaps, two or three weeks, and when they do take a 

 start, even then in many cases the progress is far from satis- 

 factory. In fact, Dahlia planting should not take place until 

 June, when the weather is soft, warm, aud settled, and the 

 plants can, without check or hindrance, start into growth at 

 once. Our advice then is, 'Whether you have the plants at 

 home or from the nursery, repot, and that more than once, if 

 time permits, and keep them on a dry bottom, in a cool frame, 

 or under a temporaiy shelter, formed of hoops, over which 

 canvas or matting can be stretched in case of frost. When 



