MONTHLY CALENDAR. 469 



as rooted, placing them 18 inches apart in rows three feet apart. This is a 

 clean and expeditious mode, and I find they bear the following year better 

 than old plants. This is also the best mode of obtaining potted plants for 

 forcing the following winter or spring. If for this purpose, they should not 

 be dissevered from the old plants till they are well-rooted. They should then 

 receive good culture till the autumn, when they may be stored in frames. 

 Strawberries are sometimes grown on permanent beds four feet wide, and 1 

 have known them bear well for several successive years on heavy soils in this 

 manner. Another method is to have them in narrow beds, two feet wide, 

 with two-foot alleys between. When they have ceased bearing, the runners are 

 allowed to trail over the alleys, and when they are well covered, the old beds 

 are dug in. Next year the same is repeated : thus a succession of young 

 plants are kept in bearing with very little trouble. Another mode is given in 

 a former page, which is equally effective. 



1428. There are times when the earth about the roots of fruit-trees, &c., 

 becomes parched, so that the fruit is not properly nourished in the process of 

 swelling or stoning. In dry seasons, this is a fertile cause of fruit being small 

 and ill-flavoured. The following mode of remedying this evil, especially in 

 the case of vine borders, cannot be too strongly recommended : — Perforated 

 pipes are laid about a foot or 18 inches below the surface of the soil, — in the 

 case of strawberry-beds, about six inches ; from these a tube is carried to a 

 convenient place for filling with water or liquid manure, with which they are 

 charged twice a day, or as often as it is considered necessary. By this means 

 a thorough moistening of the roots is effected, greatly to the improvement of 

 the crops of fruit. 



§ 6.— Flower-Cultivation under Glass. 



14-29. Conservatory. — The "sere and yellow leaf" is now apparent here: 

 the work of decay has commenced ; exotic bulbs have nearly finished 

 flowering, and require now to be in a state of rest ; those whose stems 

 are still green should have water, in order to mature the bulbs. When 

 done flowering, keep them in dry earth or sand, and in a warm situation, 

 to ripen. Cinerarias and calceolarias require as cool an atmosphere as the 

 house admits of; those which have flowered, cut down, and plant out in a 

 light loamy border : sow seeds of both for flowering in spring. Cuttings of 

 geraniums and most greenhouse shrubs may now be struck, and forwarded by 

 plunging in a gentle hotbed, taking as cuttings only strong and healthy shoots 

 three to five or six inches long, according to the size of the plants. These 

 cuttings should be planted in pans, boxes, or pots of rich light comiDOst, a few 

 inches apart, moderately watered, and placed in a frame shaded from the mid- 

 day sun till they are rooted. Soft-wooded plants like the geranium hardly require 

 such delicate treatment, although they strike sooner under it. Cactuses, 

 euphorbias, and other succulent plants of similar habit, can now be struck 



