FRA 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



FRA 



575 



their miscarrying; ; and sometimes those which are well rooted 

 will produce a few fruit the first year. There are tome who 

 transplant them in the spring ; but where that is done they 

 must be well supplied with water in dry weather. The ground 

 in which they are planted should be thoroughly cleansed from 

 the roots of Couch and other weeds, for as the Strawberry 

 plants are to remain three years before they are taken up, if 

 any of the roots of those bad weeds are left in the ground, 

 they will have time to multiply so greatly as to fill the ground, 

 and overbear the Strawberry plants. The ground should also 

 be well trenched, and made level ; then the usual method is 

 to lay it out into beds of four feet broad, with a path of two 

 teet or two feet and a half wide between each, which are 

 necessary for conveniently gathering the fruit, for weeding 

 and dressing the beds, and for watering the plants. After 

 the beds are marked out, there should be four lines drawn 

 in each, at a foot distance, which will leave six inches' space 

 on each side, between tVe outside rows and the paths ; 

 then the plants should be planted at about a foot distance 

 from each other in the rows, in a quincunx order, being 

 careful to close the ground to the roots of the plants when 

 they are planted ; and if rain do not fall soon after, the 

 plants should be well watered, to settle the earth to their 

 roots. The distance here mentioned must be understood 

 for the Wood Strawberries only; for as the other sorts grow 

 much larger, their distances must be proportioned to tlieir 

 several growths; hence the scarlets and hautboys should 

 have but three rows of plants in each bed, which should be 

 at fifteen inches' distance, and the plants in the rows should 

 be allowed the same space from each other; and the Cliili, and 

 other large Strawberries, must have only two rows of plants 

 in each bed, which should also be two feet apart in the rows ; 

 for as these grow very strong, if they have not room to 

 spread, they will not be very fruitful. In choosing proper 

 plants the great art entirely consists; for if they be promis- 

 cuously taken, the greater part will prove barren, or, as it is 

 generally termed, blind, producing plenty of flowers, but no 

 fruit. These flowers, when examined, will be found to want 

 the female organs of generation, most of them abounding 

 with stamina, but there are few if any styles ; so that it 

 frequently happens among these barren plants, that some of 

 them have a part of an imperfect fruit formed, which will 

 occasionally ripen. This barrenness is not peculiar to Straw- 

 berries, but is common to all those plants which have creep- 

 ing roots or stalks ; and the more they increase from cither, 

 the sooner they become barren : and this in some degree 

 runs through the vegetable kingdom; for trees and shrubs 

 which arc propagated by cuttings, taken from plants also 

 raised from cuttings, are generally barren of seeds in two 

 generations. In fruit-trees, it often happens that those sorts 

 which have been long propagated by grafts and buds, have 

 no kernels. But, to return to the choice of Strawberry plants ; 

 they ought never to be taken from old neglected beds, where 

 the plants have been su tiered to spread or run into a multi- 

 tude of suckers, nor from any plants which are not very 

 fruitful ; and those ofi'sets which stand nearest to the old 

 plants should always be selected in preference, before those 

 which are produced from the trailing- stalks at a further 

 distance. The Wood Strawberry is best, when the plants are 

 taken fresh from the woods, provided they be taken from 

 fruitful plants; because they are not so liable to ramble and 

 spread, as those which have been long cultivated in gardens. 

 When these plants have taken new root, the next care is, if 

 the winter prove severe, to lay some old tanners' bark over 

 the surface of the bed, between the plants, to keep out the 

 frost; this care is absolutely necessary to_the Chili Straw- 



I berry, which is frequently killed in hard winters, where it is 

 exposed without any covering; therefore where tanners' bark 

 cannot easily be procured, saw-dust or sea-coal ashes may 

 be used ; or in want of these, if decayed leaves of trees, 01 

 the branches of evergreen trees will) their leaves upon them, 

 are laid over the beds, to prevent the frost from penetrating 

 deep into the ground, it will secure the plants from injury. 

 In the succeeding summer the plants should be constantly 

 kept clean trom weeds, and all the runners should be pulled 

 oft as fast as they are produced ; if this be constantly prac- 

 tised, the plants will become very strong by the following 

 autumn ; whereas when this is neglected, as it frequently is, 

 and all the runners are permitted to stand during the summer 

 season, and then pulled off in the autumn, the plants will nor 

 be half so strong as those where that care has been taken, 

 and there will not be near the same quantity of fruit upon 

 them the following spring, nor will the fruit be near so large 

 and fair; but where proper care is taken of the plants the 

 first summer, there is generallya plentiful crop of fruit in 

 the second spring. As this fruit is very common, and there 

 are but few persons who cultivate it with proper care, we 

 shall still further dilate upon this subject, and give ample 

 directions for cultivating them with success. The old plants 

 of Strawberries are those which produce the fruit, for the 

 suckers seldom produce any till they have grown a full year; 

 hence it appears how necessary it is to divest the old plants 

 of them, for whenever they are suffered to remain, they rob 

 the fruitful plants of their nourishment in proportion to their 

 number, for each of these suckers sends out a quantity of 

 roots, which interfere, and are so closely matted together 

 as to draw away the greatest part of the nourishment from 

 the old roots, whereby they are greatly weakened ; at the 

 same time, these suckers render each other weak, and conse- 

 quently barren. Where the old plants have been constantly 

 kept clean from suckers, they have remained very fruitful for 

 four or five years ; but it is the best way to have a succes- 

 sion of beds, lliHt after three years' standing they may bs 

 taken up, because by that time they will have exhausted the 

 ground: and it invariably follows, that Strawberries planted 

 on fresh land are the most fruitful. The next thing to be 

 observed is, to remove the strings or runners from the plants 

 in autumn, and to clear the beds from decayed leaves and 

 weeds, which should be buried in the dug-up paths, laying 

 some earth over the surface of the beds between the plants, 

 which will strengthen and prepare them for the following 

 spring; and if after this there be some old tanners' bark laid 

 over the surface of the ground between the plants, it will be of 

 great service to them. In the spring, after the danger of ban! 

 frost is over, the ground between the plants in the beds should 

 be forked with a narrow three-pronged fork, to loosen it, ami 

 break the clods, and in this operation the tan which was laid 

 over the surface of the ground in autumn will be buried, 

 which will be a good dressing to the Strawberries, espe- 

 cially in strong laud : then about the end of March, or the 

 beginning of April, if the surface of the beds be covered with 

 moss, it will moisten the ground, and prevent the drying 

 winds from penetrating, thereby securing a good crop of fruit ; 

 the moss will preserve tlie fruit clean, that when heavy rains 

 fall after the fruit is full grown, there will be no dirt washed 

 over them, which frequently happens, so that the fruit must 

 be washed before it is fit for the table, which greatly dimi- 

 nishes its flavour. The soil in which the Chili Strawberry 

 is found to succeed best, is a very strong brick earth, nearly 

 approaching to clay; in this kind of soil they have pro- 

 duced tolerably good crops of extremely well-flavoured fruit; 

 and if some care be taken to pull off the winners, there is 



