160 THE ORCHAED AKD FRUIT GAEDEN. 



and Merveille des Quatre Saisons Jaune ; both are large, 

 bear abundantly in autumn, with long spikes of fruit, 

 and are excellent in flavour. 



Large Orange is a handsome fruit, of peculiar flavour. 



I believe the usual price of canes is from Is. 6d. to 6s. 

 per dozen. There are but few kinds as dear as the last 

 price ; excellent common sorts are Is. Qd. and many 

 new choice ones 3s. and 4s. Carter's Large Orange is, I 

 believe, Is. a root. 



CHAPTEK XXIX. 



STRAWBERRIES. 



POSSIBLY the main thing which makes strawberries the 

 especial favourites they are is their earliness. Unless 

 we are lucky enough to possess the best-keeping sorts 

 of apples and pears, they come upon us when home- 

 ripened fruit has been for months unknown at our tables, 

 and when the first warm weather renders their refreshing 

 deliciousness doubly acceptable. In themselves, how- 

 ever, without this favourable introduction, they have 

 quite merit enough to make them welcome, and the ad- 

 ditional advantage of being plentiful and cheap, as well 

 as choice and excellent. The earliest luxury of the 

 season to the gardenless Londoner is his pottle of 

 strawberries, bought for sixpence or so, whereas as good 

 a dish of almost any other fruit would cost much more. 



Although the strawberry is rather an uncertain crop, 

 most owners of a garden can compass the growth of a 

 small supply, and there is no fruit that better repays the 

 grower, on account of its superior excellence when fresh 

 gathered, to the finest the market can supply, if only a 

 day old. 



Strawberries like a good loamy soil of some depth. If 

 the soil be loose and sandy, it must be made firmer and 

 more stable with a mixture of marl or clay, and if it be 

 too heavy, it should be rendered more open by mixing 



