Scpiombei- 17, 187-lL ] 



JOtJRNAti OF HORTICOLtDRE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



their now dirty grey surface a coat or two of any oil colour 

 will firmly adhere. Our labels are painted black, and when 

 dry the names of the plants are written with white oil colour, 

 and immediately sanded with fine white sand. The sand will 

 dry with the white colour, and become compact. As before 

 mentioned, the first labels prepared with this composition were 

 written in 1871, and show not the slightest eiiects of the 

 weather." 



A NEW drug from Brazil has appeared in France under 



the name of Jaboranih. It consists of the leaves and small 

 branches of a shrub growing in the interior of some of the 

 northern provinces of Brazil, and from specimens which have 

 come into the hands of Professor Baillon, it seems that the 

 plant is the Philocarpus pinnatus, Linn., belonging to the 

 RutacejE. It is stated that this drug has been used with great 

 success in France, and that it is looked upon " as an imcom- 

 parable diaphoretic and sialogogue." Dr. Gobler expresses 

 the belief that " it wUl bo the first indisputable example of a 

 diaphoretic truly worthy of the name — that is to say, a medicine 

 having the power of provoking dh'ectly by au electric action 

 the secretion of perspiration." — (ilcdico-Pharniaccutical 

 Abstract and Bcvicw.) 



JOTTINGS ON STKAWBEEEIES AND 

 STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 



In reply to many inquirers who honour mo by asking my 

 advice as to the length of time they should keep their beds, 

 and other points of culture, I can confidently assert that the 

 plan of digging-up the plants every year, whatever persons in 

 high places may say, is perfectly unnecessary, and only re- 

 sorted to by those who do not properly prepare their ground 

 in the first instance, and, moreover, know very little about 

 Strawberry-growing, or the habits and requirements of the 

 plant. 



British Queen is acknowledged by many good growers to be 

 as difficult as most kinds to grow successfully ; but here, in 

 a light soil with a gravelly subsoil, I find this sort do better 

 the longer in season it is allowed to remain. I am aware that 

 this rule will vary to some extent with soil and situation, as 

 well as with the proper preparation of the soil, but in the 

 main the proposition holds good. My beds of five and six 

 years' standing have done so well and borne such quantities 

 of fine fruit, that I have had them dressed to fruit the sixth and 

 seventh years, and I shall not be surprised if they do not in- 

 crease in productiveness till they are nine or ten years old, the 

 ground having been trenched at the outset from 2 to 3 feet 

 deep, and plenty of good farmyard manure, chopped turf, and 

 old mortar rubbish having been well incorporated in the pro- 

 cess. The ground was then allowed to stand some time "to 

 pitch," as the old-fashioned blue-aprons say, and before plant- 

 ing was firmly trodden. A spade was never afterwards allowed 

 to be used. 



The beds are occasionally cleared as early as possible of any 

 runners which have been overlooked, and the straw, tanner's 

 bark, or whatever is used to protect the fruit, is also cleared 

 away directly the plants have done fruiting, so as to expose 

 the soil to the full influence of sun, air, and moisture, whether 

 of rain or dews. The first year or two the beds only require 

 to be slightly but carefully forked over. After the second 

 year, when it may be supposed that the original supply of 

 nutriment is getting exhausted, a Uttle short rotten manure 

 is carefully pointed-in with a fork, and this is done as early in 

 the autumn as possible, a few of the outside leaves only being 

 first removed to make all neat and to get a clearer field for 

 the operation. In this way I manage to grow as fine Straw- 

 berries as most gardeners who talk very large in print about 

 the sorts they have grown at their place, and who dictate the 

 only sorts which should be grown, and those which in their 

 opinion are worthless, however disparaging to the efforts of the 

 raiser, and should therefore be condemned ; forgetting that 

 where the very best varieties fail in any particular locality, they 

 succeed just as well in others, but freiiuently fail either from 

 neglect, wilful or otherwise, or from some want not supplied in 

 the cultivation. 



As to the distances plant from plant, or whether in beds or 

 lines, all is a matter of taste. The plants, whatever system is 

 adopted, should not be closer together than from '21 inches to 

 2 feet, and many of my plants after the third year are at least 

 a yard apart, and the plants when in fruit are nearly a yard 

 in diameter, and require two of Paxton's crinoUnes — that is, 

 four hall-circles per plant to support the fruit. Next year I 



am thinking of having crinolines made to fit the plants, a foot 

 in diameter for the inner circle, and 2 feet (i inches for the 

 outer ; they will then accommodate plants measuring a yard 

 in diameter. 



Runners should not, as a rule, be allowed to root on the fruit- 

 ing beds. They not only smother the fruiting plants, but 

 seriously impoverish the soU. The best plan is to grow a few 

 plants, according to requirements, in lines for the special pur- 

 pose, and to remove the blossoms as they appear. Runners 

 will then be plentiful and early. Any barren plant should bo 

 at once removed. It would probably bloom the following year, 

 but it is as well not to propagate from non-blooming plants. 



1 shall be glad to show those old-standing beds next season 

 to anyone who doubts the results. If the season is a fair one 

 for Strawberries in general, I do not doubt it in the least. I 

 shall also be happy at the same time to show my various seed- 

 lings, several of them also of four and five years' standing, and 

 notably Early Prolific, Duke of Edinburgh, Enchantress, Sir 

 John Falstaff, Excelsior, Scarlet Pine, Bonny Lass (late seed- 

 ling). Fair Lady, Ac, and to prove beyond doubt that the first 

 two, though I cannot grow them so well as some of my neigh- 

 bours, are amongst the best early Strawberries grown, and 

 only to be beaten, all points considered, by Early Crimson 

 Pine, now in course of delivery ; whilst of the others, together 

 with Alpha, Amy Eobsart, &e., as new early sorts, I will leave 

 any visitor who may honour me to form his own judgment. 



i am quite confident, both from my own knowledge and from 

 the testimony of others, that Early Prohfic is one of, if not the 

 best of the early forcing kinds we at present possess, and the 

 comparison with it of such sorts as Black Prince and Keens' 

 Seedling is simply ridiculous. President is also a most excellent 

 forcer, and makes a good succession ; whilst as to Duke of 

 Edinburgh, which I had not proved as a forcer, I was quite 

 astonished to receive early in April last, from a near neigh- 

 bour, a basket of the handsomest fruit I ever saw, which had 

 been grown in pots under glass to be sure, but with little or uo 

 artificial heat. The colour and flavour were excellent, while 

 as to the beauty of the fruit, partaking of the joint character 

 of La Constante and British Queen, no very early Strawberry 

 can excel it. I have no experience of it in stronger heat, 

 therefore will not pretend to say how it behaves, but if it will 

 throw off such large, handsome, fine-flavoured fruit as 1 saw 

 in April last, with little or no fire heat, I say, despite the 

 opinion of one at least of our would-be advisers, it is not a 

 sort to be hurriedly discarded ; and with regard to the general 

 character of Early Prolific, I would rather accept the opinion 

 of such men as De Jonghe of Belgium, and Gloede of Ham- 

 burgh, the former of whom says it is a masterpiece of skill, 

 and the latter has so often sung its praises, even within tho 

 last three weeks in " our Journal," that I need scarcely quote 

 his eulogia; whUst at tho late "election of Strawberries," 

 under the auspices of the Rev. C. P. Peach, Early Prolifiu 

 gained the first place as an early Strawberry. 



I have not jotted down these remarks merely to extol my 

 own productions, but simply to state as the result of my own 

 experience what I know to be the truth, and also to ehcit fair 

 criticism, which appears to be the more necessary when we 

 find persons credited with a general knowledge of gardening 

 who speak of the qualities of the various kinds of fruit only 

 from their own point of view, whether indirectly interested or 

 not it is difficult to say, and who certainly do not make Straw- 

 berry-growing amongst other things a speciality. When I hear 

 of Strawberries being cultivated so badly that the beds are de- 

 stroyed annually, I begin to doubt the ability of such critics to 

 form an accurate judgment of the value of any new kind, 

 especially when such bygone sorts as Black Prince and lieens' 

 Seedling are accounted the two best early sorts we have in 

 cultivation. 



Whilst on the subject of Strawberries, I may remark that 

 I have been for some years trying to raise a good large-fruited 

 varU'ijated sort. I thought I had succeeded some few years 

 ago in a seedling I then named Pandora, but which I coiild 

 not allow my gardener to introduce, because on further trial 

 and observation I found that it failed to set its fruit properly, 

 and this appears to me to be the chief difficulty with variegated 

 sorts. I hope now, however, thanks to Enchantress, that I 

 have overcome that difficulty. I have a seedUng from that 

 excellent high-flavoured variety which bore fruit this last 

 season equal in quantity and quaUty with its parent, whilst 

 the foliage is handsomely variegated in pale green and yellow, 

 with here and there a dash of crimson. I have preserved a 

 nice little stock of runners, which are growing and variegating 



