146 



JOURNAL OF HORTICOLTUBB AND COTTAGE GAfiDESEB. 



1 Febrnacy 9g, 166». 



pincliing — that ie, hj pruning with the thumb and finger; 

 indeed, if it cannot be done in Bummer, in many instances it 

 is better not to do it at all, for, as I have already stated, winter 

 pruning causes greater vigour. There are some instances 

 where any amount of pinching will not induce fertility ; the 

 tree may be -weakened by incessant applications, but that is ail 

 the effect produced. I have seen cases of this sort in very 

 lioh or damp soil. Boot-pruning may be resorted to, but the 

 effect is again the same ; the tree is weakened for a time, but 

 is shortly again as vigorous as ever. With snoh examples, the 

 only practice to be recommended is to prune not at all ; thin- 

 out the shoots if necessary, but do not shorten any of them, 

 allow root and branch to grow, and abundance of tine fmit wiil 

 be the result. — AiicaAiiBAnr>. 



(To bo coDtioaed.) 



STRAWBERRY CULTURE AND SELECTION. 

 ^" H. iX. B.," Henley-upon-Thames, wishes to know what I 

 recommend to be the treatment, from January to January, of 

 his Strawberry plants well mulched last November. As soon 

 as weather permits he should carefully remove all weeds with- 

 out disturbing the superfeial roots. Many, with the view of 

 letting the sun's heat into the ground, fork their soil and de- 

 stroy these roots, or many of them ; and hence, though the 

 plants may set their fruit well and present a good prospect, the 

 benies do not come to perfection. There may bo two or three 

 moderate-sized berries on each plant, but those forming the 

 main crop will be about the size of peas. The large number 

 of superficial roots is the perfecter of the fruit. I never move 

 the soil of the Strawberry beds deeply — a mere scuffle is given 

 to kill weeds — from the time they are planted till the lines are 

 broken up altogether. If ground is to be stirred deeply at all 

 during the life of the plantation, it should be done immediately 

 after the crop has been perfected, as the roots then wholly or 

 ia part die away, and new roots are emitted from the base of 

 each plant. 



Let us suppose March is in, end the weeds are carefully 

 extracted. The next thing to do, if the new leaves are well 

 developed, is to cut out the decayed leaves ; and having done 

 that, put some clean straw (barley straw is most easily applied), 

 between the rows, and also between the plants, to keep the 

 fruit from being dirtied. If slugs abound put down Cabbage 

 leaves, fresh from time to time, and daily kill the slugs which 

 conceal themselves under the Cabbage leaves. I practise this 

 with my Peas. 



If hoar frosts set in after the Strawberry plants are in flower, 

 it is a good plan to hang " scrim " over them on sticks at 

 night, and to remove it early in the morning. After the 

 berries are set, if the weather is sultry, too much water cannot 

 1)6 put on from the lime of the formation of the benies till the 

 fruit reddens. As soon as this occurs give no more water till 

 you have had the first picking, then water the plants again 

 copiously, and so after every picking till the plants have yielded 

 their whole crop. If runners muke their appearance you must 

 out them off. If your plants are in high condition, and you 

 want to make an early plantation— early establishment is a 

 great point in this climate — you may peg two runners per plant 

 into a pot, and remove them, us soon as they have rooted, 

 into a cool place, giving them plenty of water both before and 

 after removal. 



1 presume the ground is already in good order ; still it is a 

 good plan in winter or spring, supposing the rows to be 2 feet 

 apart, to put liquid manure or guano, or guano and water, into 

 the centre space ; but be careful not to put strong fresh liquid 

 manure, or guano, or strong guano water, near the plants. 

 When the " tug of war " comes the rootlets will run out into 

 the centre space, and find a supply to enoble the plant to bring 

 to perfection a heavy crop. I do not practise this, because my 

 ground is always in the highest condition before I plant. 



Let us suppose, then, that the crop is taken, and the runners 

 (if you do not want runners keep them cut off — at any rate water 

 the old plants), pegged and watered. The next thing will be 

 to plant the new beds, which, to bear well the first year, should 

 be planted as early as possible in July. The berries are 

 largest in the first year, but the crop is the largest the second 

 year, after which the plantation should be destroyed. Planted 

 in July, the plants will then make from three or five to seven 

 crowns, according to the sort and due attention. 1 always 

 plant upon a stale fallow, after the destruction of surface weeds, 

 and after the ground has settled uaturaUy. At any rate, the 

 groxind must be trodden down, so as not to sink from the plants 



As soon 88 winter comes with severity scatter a little horse 

 litter, or other mulching, between the plants and over the sur- 

 face between the rows ; but take care to keep it flat, and do 

 not let any of it cover the crowns, or lean up against them. 

 Crowns bleached like Celery will not bear well. The Straw- 

 berry is very hardy, and if it could speak would sometimes say, 

 " Save me from my friends." Do not keep sorts that want 

 coddling in winter and shielding in summer. We have plenty 

 of excellent sorts that want neither. 



I give a list of the sorts here. They are Eivers's Eliza, 

 Lucas, Mr. Eadcljffe, Dr. Hogg, Cockscomb, Wonderful, Frog- 

 more Late Pine, Bioton Pine, Boyal Hautbois, old Eed and 

 White Alpine, Galande, and lied Alpine, the best. 



I am surprised, so fond as many people are of Strawberries, 

 that they do not cultivate largely and more generously the 

 Alpines, which begin before any other, and keep on till Sep- 

 tember and October with a little assistance and abundance of 

 water. They do well in a bed, commonly called a " lazy bed." 

 1 like them better than any other, as the flavour is fine, and 

 they never cloy one. I like them when dead ripe pur et simple ; 

 but they are extra delicious when eaten with sugar and our 

 rich vale cream, accompanied by a glass of sherry. — ^W. F. 



EADCLYrFE. 



ACCUMULATED HEAT. 



Some time ago 1 wrote an article under this heading in " onr 

 Journal," which I know attracted some attention. I was told 

 by one of the best architects in the midland counties, that he 

 not only believed my theory correct, but that as far as he 

 knew it was oiiginal. I cannot without much trouble refer to 

 the article in question, but I tiied to prove that where a fine, 

 kept hot night and day, passed through a space surrounded by 

 non-conducting materials, this space must become dangerously 

 hot; then, again, that wood constantly subjected to heat 

 became in time so altered as to become highly inflammable ; 

 and, as a consequence, that many mansions where flues were 

 covered by boarded floors and carpets must be unsafe, and 

 were, in fact, often bunit down from this cause, months and 

 years after the flues were first used. After giving several 

 instances which had come under my own observation, I sug- 

 gested that the fire in the Crystal Palace was in all probability 

 caused by accumulated heat. 



The more I have thought of this subject the more clearly it 

 appears to me woiiby of attention. What limit can we place 

 on the accumulation of heat if constantly produced and unable 

 to escape as heated air, or by radiation ? Water, if prevented 

 from forming steam, may be made red hot. If a hot flue be 

 placed in an almost air-tight passage and surrounded by non- 

 conductors, how is the heat to escape ? If the fire be kept up 

 night and day, must the flue not become hotter; and if the 

 surrounding air cannot freely escape, will it not become equally 

 hot ? Under such circumstances the " over-heating of flues " 

 becomes a necessary consequence, not necessarily the con- 

 sequence of carel^sssness ; but when the house, the family 

 pictures, the hundreds of things which belong to home, and 

 which can never be replaced, are consumed, the poor man who 

 had charge of the fire is not in an enviable position. Some 

 one of your numerous readers may say. All this you ventilated 

 before, why write again on the same subject ? The importance 

 of the subject would, I think, be a sufficient excuse for re- 

 iteration, but my object is to carry the theory farther. 



When writing the first article the idea struck me that, if the 

 arguments were worth anything, even a pipe constantly filled 

 with very hot water or steam might give rise to the danger of 

 fire, and 1 could see no reason why it should not do bo, but I 

 durst not write it ; nay, I even anticipated this being raised as 

 an objection to my theory. I expected some one would say, 

 " If the theory of heat accumulating to a dangerous extent be 

 true, then a steam or hot-water pipe might give rise to a fire." 

 This, of course, would by many be considered as a sufficient 

 refutation of my argument. I little thought that I should see 

 proof of the power of both steam and hot-water pipes to pro- 

 duce fire within one day. I have a large Orange house 100 feet 

 long and 30 feet wide. To the boiler of this house are attached 

 1500 feet of 4-inoh pipes, and as 400 feet of these pipes pass 

 under beds in which Vine eyes are growing, the flow-pipe is 

 always very hot. This flow-pipe, at about 20 feet from the 

 boiler, rises through the end of the bed to supply the top heat 

 of the house, and in doing so passed through a mass of cocoa- 

 nut refuse in which the Viue ejes were plunged. On Monday 

 night last (February loth), my foreman, on entering the house 



