The Strawberry Book. 41 



suits than to force them at once. This rest may be 

 taken through the month of December, and the plants 

 brought into the green-house the first of the new year. 



The pots can be put in any part of the house until the 

 vines start, and they should be watered at first very spar- 

 ingly. It is of much importance that the start the plants 

 make should be very gradual. 



As soon as the plants begin to grow, the pots should be 

 brought close to the glass. This is important, as they need 

 all the light they can get ; and if away from the glass they 

 will grow up towards it weak and spindling. Water 

 the pots carefully with guano water, made by dissolving 

 four or five pounds of guano in a barrel of water. Keep 

 the runners cut oft", and if the red spider appears, syringe 

 the vines early and late, when they are not in blossom. 



If the aphis -appears, he will have to be destroyed by 

 fumigation with tobacco. When the vines are in blossom, 

 give them a little more air than at other times. A tem- 

 perature of seventy-five degrees by day, and ten or fifteen 

 degrees less by night, will be found about right. The crop 

 will be ripe in from ten to fourteen weeks after the vines 

 are brought into the green-house. 



For forcing, a one-sided house with a very steep roof 

 will be found best, the whole roof, or rather the whole 

 house, being occupied by a steep stage, close to the glass, 

 each step of the stage holding one row of plants. The 

 plants are examined and handled from a walk behind them. 



A very good autumnal crop may be obtained from the 

 plants that have been forced, by turning them out into a 

 bed in the open ground in April. The Triomphe de Gand, 

 in particular, will do well in this way, and will make enor- 

 mous stools if the runners be clipped during the summer. 



