November 29, 187S. ] 



JOUBNAL OP HORTIOULTUBB AND COTTAGE GABDBNER. 



467 



great aoqaisition, being an abundant bearer and of excellent 

 quality. 



This, the twenty-sixth show of the series, has far exceeded both 

 in quality aud quantity all its predecessors. — Le Roi Cauutte. 



STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 



PitoFESsioN\L gardeners are familiar with the course of treat- 

 ment ; I shall, therefore, address myself to the amateur. 



In taking runners select the second runner ; it makes by far 

 the best fruiting crown. Prepare as many 2-ineh pots as there 

 are plants required, placing a small potsherd over the hole. 

 Sink them into the bed under the runners that have been 

 selected. Fill the pots with the soil taken from the hole where 

 they are to be sunk; press firmly the soil in the pot. Secure 

 every plant either by a pebble, or, what is better, a short hooked 

 peg made from an old birch broom. Keep the soil very moist, 

 and do not detach the runners from the parent plants until 

 they have well filled the pots with roots. 



Want of space is one of the reasons why the Strawberry bed 

 is not renewed at its proper season, the first week in July 

 being a good time to make a new plantation. If planted then 

 the plants will made good crowns before the bad weather sets 

 in ; but in July the small garden is well stocked with other 

 productions, so that the Strawberry is neglected tiU such time 

 that there is space. This neglect can be avoided by the 

 following plan : When a new plantation is required prepare 

 ground the size of the required bed by deep trenching and 

 well manuring. If the soil is light well-decayed cow manure 

 is by far the best to use, and plenty of this should be placed 

 in the bottom of the trench, and some gradually worked 

 through to within 2 inches of the surface. The bed should 

 be in the most open part of the garden. It should be prepared 

 in February, and In the following March sown with Onions 

 in drills, and in July the Onions should be bent inwards, row 

 to row, to admit of the Strawberries being planted in rows 

 between them. For a small garden 20 inches asunder and 

 15 inches from plant to plant are good distances. 



By this plan there can be a crop of Onions and a good 

 plantation of Strawberries. No bed should continue longer than 

 four years if in heavy soil ; or if in light soil, than three years. 



If there is space I should form beds for succession of the 

 following : — 



For Early Use. — 1, Black Prince ; 2, Keen's Seedling ; 

 3, President; 4, Sir Charles Napier. 



For Succession. — 5, Dr. Hogg; G.^Sir J. Paxton ; 7, Comte 

 de Paris ; 8, Eleanor. 



For Late Use. — 9, Sir Harry; 10, Frogmore Late Pine; 

 11, Cockscomb ; 12, Red and White Alpine. 



The soil will only require to be stirred deeply once daring 

 the continuance of the plantation, aud then do not use the 

 spade ; a mere hoeing is all that is required to keep the weeds 

 under. If the ground is stirred at all it should be immediately 

 after the crop has been perfected. The plants should be 

 mulched in November, and gently forked-up again in February. 

 In March put some clean straw between the rows, and also 

 between the plants, to keep the fruit from being soiled. Barley 

 straw is the best. — J. H., Gardener to Lady C. Leijge. 



THE OLD MARKET GARDENS and NURSERIES 

 OP LONDON.— No. 6. 

 London when it first began to extend beyond the city limits 

 pushed northwards. Like the stem of a plant, it grew in an 

 upward direction chiefly ; not for a good while did it strike its 

 roots southwards, and send off to the east and west those 

 gigantic runners we now see, the one so remarkable for splen- 

 dour, the other for squalidity. For convenience sake the 

 citizens cultivated ground lying towards the north for the 

 supply of fruit and vegetables to the metropolis, and thus it 

 is that we have scarcely a record until after the revolution of 

 any nurseries situate in those districts, where they sprung-up 

 so numerously daring the Georgian era. Queen Elizabeth's 

 proclamation, published July 7th, 1580, forbidding the con- 

 tinuance of the building of houses within certain limits speci- 

 fied, shows how London had enlarged itself then; and I dare 

 say the poet Daniel, who had a garden-house in Old Street, 

 near the Charterhouse just referred to, felt some satisfaction 

 in a measure which might prevent his being interfered with 

 by any meddling builder. As a part of the land he held bore 

 in Elizabeth's reign the title of " The Rose Ground," Daniel 

 may have been one of the pioneers in the course of Rose culti- 

 vation. It would be something to bis credit if he could be 



proved to have been a good gardener, since he was assuredly 

 quite " small potatoes " as a poet. Old Street was originally 

 Eald Street, possibly called after an individual. The nursery 

 continued to bo famous for many years, Oldys even going so 

 far as to assert that it yielded not the choicest fruits in Lon- 

 don, but the choicest in all England. That was in the reign 

 of James I., the occupant at that time being a John Milton. 

 In Old Street Road was the well or spring of St. Agnes-le- 

 Clere, deriving its name from the clearness and briskness of 

 the water ; and between St. Agnes-le-Clere and Hoxton was an 

 enclosed garden belonging to Charles Stuart, King of England, 

 and sold with other Crown lands by the Commonwealth. All 

 around it were open fields, and seemingly for pasture. And 

 here it may be as well to make a statement which may serve 

 to prevent a ludicrous misapprehension. The " nursery " in 

 Moorfields was not a nursery for plants, but a training school 

 for embryo actors, originated in the reign of Charles II. by 

 contrivance of Von Killegrew, and here common plays were 

 acted. Singularly enough there was a similar one in Hatton 

 Garden, managed by Davenant. In neither case did the ex- 

 periment turn out satisfactorily. 



Pentonvilleis contiguous to Clerkenwell, almost a part of it, 

 and here some gardens and orchards are named by old writers ; 

 indeed, it was all open land until a comparatively recent date, 

 the only historic house being the White Conduit House. Owen 

 Row and Street occupy the site of a large field called the 

 Hermitage Field, cultivated by one of these eccentrics to whom 

 I have alluded, who had most probably nothing more than a 

 shed or shanty to live in. I presume this is the same person 

 mentioned by a more modern author as the occupier of a plot 

 of ground in the rear of Myddleton Place. Perhaps he had to 

 change his location through some interference with his garden- 

 ing projects. Not far from this spot there also lodged for 

 awhile Charles Lamb, whose letter to B. Barton lets us know 

 the fact that early in this century there was a promising 

 nursery garden at the back of Colebrooke Row, close to the 

 New River; and the amiable Charles, though no gardener, 

 was delighted therewith, and declares that " the Vines, Pears, 

 Strawberries, Parsnips, Leeks, Carrots, and Cabbages would 

 gladden the heart of old Alcinous." This is now the site of 

 several streets between the City Road and High Street, Isling- 

 ton. Islington, however, though not to appearance at all un- 

 promising for garden cultivation in its soil and position, was 

 principally devoted to pasturage while it was rural. 



There can be no doubt that an impediment in the way of 

 the formation of market gardens in the district was the vehe- 

 ment opposition made by the Londoners to the enclosure of 

 sundry fields which they considered were lawfully theirs to 

 disport in. It was hardly to be expected that gardeners would 

 plant and sow on laud which was unfenced and liable to be 

 shot over, or marched upon, by the train bauds and volunteers. 

 In the reign of Henry VIII. there was a riot because the in- 

 habitants of Islington, Hoxton, and Shoreditch had enclosed 

 the fields with hedges and ditches, also they unceremoniously 

 turned off all intruders, young and old alike. A party of 

 citizens went out with the cry, " Shovels and Spades 1" and 

 having torn-up the hedges they flUed-in the ditches ! They 

 were too numerous to receive punishment. Again, in the 

 eighteenth century the Artillery Company in a determinate 

 manner opposed attempts at enclosure, and on August 12th, 

 1781, the regiment pulled down a great portion of a fence with 

 which Mr. Samuel Pitt had surrounded land planted as gar- 

 dens — conduct, I should say, rather unreasonable. So old 

 Islington, instead of becoming horticalturally famous, was 

 renowned for its cheese and custards, there being large grass 

 farms in the hands of a few proprietors. The chronicler of 

 Islington brags about their ability in the art of haymaking, 

 but it seems the cowkeepers did not rely upon hay only as 

 food for their cattle ; they brought to Islington from a con- 

 siderable distance quantities of Turnips and Potatoes at some 

 cost. This they must have done, I suppose, at a time when 

 they might at least have grown for themselves Buoh vegetables 

 as these without risk. — C. 



EARLY WRITERS ON ENGLISH GARDENING. 



No. 9. 



CHARLES COTTON. 



There are some men who to have as friends is a guarantee 



that you are worthy : such a man was Isaac Walton, of whom 



it was well said by Ashmole, the historian and his contemporary, 



" He was a man well known and aa well beloved of all good 



