306 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GDIDE. 



cuttings of Araucarias, Euphorbias, Valiea guniuiifera, and sucli 

 plants, he plunges them in a pot, in damp earth, not pressed down, 

 ■with their lower end upwards, so that the latter only is exposed to 

 the air, the whole head being buried. By this means he dries the 

 wound, without allowing any of the water of such cuttings to 

 escape. After leaving them for twenty-four or thirty-six hours, or 

 even more, he wipes the end, so as to remove the gummy matter 

 that has exuded, and then puts them in again in the usual way, 

 when they take, and the more freely according as the wound i» 

 neatly made. 



CULTURE OP STRAWBERRIES. 



fEW gardens, however small, are without a spot devoted 

 to the growth of this favourite fruit, although very 

 many persons fail of securing an adequate produce. 

 This disappointment is attributed to many causes but 

 the right one, which is, in general, an ignorance of the 

 habits and wants of the plant. In most instances we find a bed 

 appropriated to the strawberry, as ancient as that given to Aspa- 

 ragus, the treatment of which has been annually the same for 

 probably fifteen or twenty years. The following is the routine 

 generally practised by those who prefer " the wisdom of our 

 ancestors " to abundant crops of fruit : — The young plants are set 

 pretty closely in the first instance ; the runners go where they 

 please, and by the following autumn have formed a net-work all 

 over the bed. The whole of the foliage is then moved or cut down, 

 and a layer of dung thrown over the denuded plants prepares them 

 for the coming spring. As there is no rule without exceptions, and 

 nature will often be prolific, in spite of untoward circumstances, it 

 happens that the owners of such beds sometimes tell you they have 

 abundance of fruit. The rule, however, is, that under such dis- 

 cipline the strawberries grow " small by degrees and beautifully 

 less," until the gardener is compelled to have recourse to remedy, 

 and begin this ten or twenty j ears' course over again. Now the 

 fact is that the strawberry, although capable of an indefinitely pro- 

 longed existence, by the production of offsets from the old stools, 

 will bear well for only a very limited period, and the renewal of the 

 beds every third or fourth year is the practice of all experienced 

 gardeners. It is strongly recommended to amateurs to make a new 

 plantation every year, and to dig up the beds every fourth season. 

 Thus, if at the present time your garden has been arranged on this 

 four-year principle, the following will be the state of your straw- 

 berry beds : — One is about to be dug up and planted with some- 

 thing else, or, what is far better, has been dug up since July, and is 

 now covered with some growing crop ; the second is just planted : 

 the third is two years, and the fourth three years old. By this 

 method a supply is secured without the loss of a year, as is the 

 case when the whole stock is destroyed at once, and as by proper 



