304 On the Cultivation of the Strawberry. 



but we say that there is not then sufficient room to hoe and 

 dig- between the plants, to gather the fruit without injuring 

 the vines, or to afford sufficient food for the roots. It is 

 only from the established and invariable rule among the 

 English gardeners, of setting their plants at greater distances 

 than we do, that they are enabled to raise fruit that will 

 weigh over an ounce each. Mr. Keen, the nurseryman who 

 raised the famous Keen's seedling, says, in a communication 

 in the Horticultural Society's Transactions of London, that, 

 "these large distances I find necessary, for the trusses of 

 fruit, in my garden ground, are frequently afoot long." 



About the middle of August, let the piece of ground, where 

 it is intended to set the strawberries, be prepared as fol- 

 lows : — let every thing be cleared from the spot, and the 

 whole raked even ; if it is very rich, it will not need much 

 manure; but if ordinary garden soil, it should have about 

 three inches of half decomposed cow or horse manure ad- 

 ded ; the soil should be eisrhteen inches or two feet deep, 

 on a good sub-soil. After the manure is spread, the piece 

 should be trenched to the whole depth ; beginning at one end, 

 and finishing at the other : if, however, the bottom soil is of 

 a very inferior quality, it will be best to put the middle spit 

 at the top, and the lower in the middle. The whole should be 

 left to settle a few days, or until about the first of Septem- 

 ber : it should then have added about two inches of well 

 rotted manure, spread on the ground, and dug in lightly with 

 the spade ; it will then be ready for planting. The beds 

 should be marked out, and the distances of the plants. We 

 recommend the following dimensions, but they can be varied 

 at the option of the cultivator. The beds should contain 

 three rows, and should be six feet in width, and the alleys 

 between each, three feet ; the first row should be set one 

 foot from the edge of the bed, the next two feet from that, 

 and the other corresponding with the first ; the plants to be 

 eighteen inches apart in the rows. Select good strong plants 

 from the nursery bed, with bold buds ; choosing the first 

 runners, nearest the old plant, rather than those at a dis- 

 tance ; if they are well transplanted, they will need no 

 farther care except watering, hoeing, and weeding, until cold 

 weather. 



Upon the approach of frost, if the Keen's, they should 

 have a little straw, leaves, or old haulm strewed over them ; 

 if this is done to any of the kinds, the first season, they will 

 be benefitted by it. It is not, as every reader is probably 

 aware, the extreme cold that does the damage, but the 

 freezing and thawing, which is continually going on, in the 

 months of February and March ; the great heat of our 

 scorching sun, causing the surface of the ground to thaw, 



