274 THE FLOKAL WOULD AND GAKDEN GUIDE. 



strongest and best-rooted runners from the old, rejected plants. If 

 at this season the weather should be particularly hot, and the surface 

 of the ground much parched, I defer the operations of preparing my 

 beds and planting them till the ground is moistened by rain. Such 

 is the simple mode of treatment which I have adopted for three 

 successive years, and I have invariably obtained upon the same 

 spot a great produce of beautiful fruit, superior to that of every 

 garden in tbe neighbourhood. Depth of soil I have found absolutely 

 necessary for the growth and production of fine strawberries ; and 

 where this is not to be obtained, it is useless, in my opinion, to 

 plant many of the best varieties. It is not generally known, but I 

 have ascertained the fact, that, most strawberries generate roots, 

 and strike them into the ground nearly two feet in the course of one 

 season. The Pine and Roseberry succeed better than any other in 

 stiff and shallow soils, but they should always be in an open situa- 

 tion, and not, as is too commonly the practice, in shady and neglected 

 parts of the garden." 



By associating the instructions conveyed in the foregoing quota- 

 tion with the preliminary remarks, the reader will be fully qualified 

 to prepare annual beds ; and it is quite certain that yearling plants 

 can produce perfect fruit. We will now allude to the triennial course. 

 The ground is prepared and manured, and the plants provided as 

 in the former case ; it may also be understood that the planting can 

 be conducted in the form of single border-rows, or in plots, at dis- 

 cretion. If in the former, the row should have an open space of at 

 least one foot, or eighteen inches, of clear ground on each side of it ; 

 and the plants should be set by the trowel one foot asunder, securing 

 the roots firmly in the soil, the fibres being expanded so as to be 

 covered by earth in every part. If beds be adopted, the same 

 distances are to be maintained, but the rows must be two feet 

 asunder, with alleys of approach by the sides laid with coal-ashes. 

 Water must be freely given from the rose of a water- pot in the 

 evenings, till the plants stand firm and erect under the full sun. 

 After which the ground should be flat-hoed, to bring the earth close 

 around the base of each root, and obliterate the smallest weed. 



In this system every blossom shown in the following spring is 

 pinched off, not one plant being suffered to bear fruit ; therefore it 

 will be proper to leave a few old beds to bear while the plan is in 

 progress. The runners, as they appear, are cut away, and weeds 

 regularly destroyed. Throw a little fresh loam and reduced manure, 

 mixed in equal proportions, along the rows on each side, to enrich 

 the ground, while it protects the plants during winter; and in 

 March, take off the dead leaves and fork the spaces. 



This is to be the practice of each year. Suffer all the plants to 

 bear in the spring, and the crops will be in perfection ; cut off 

 runners and observe other directions. In the third year the crop 

 will be very fine ; but now the end of the course is come, and the 

 plants are to be rooted up. Therefore, to perpetuate the succession, 

 new beds or rows must be begun every year, so that there shall 

 always be a set of plants advancing through one or other of the 

 stages. To provide new plants, a sufficiency of the finest runners 



