232 FRUIT CULTURE UNDER GLASS. 



fruits which can be forced more or less by all who 

 possess a glass-house or pit, it being a fruit that can 

 be ripened in great perfection in almost any glass 

 structure, without any artificial heat, a little before it 

 is fit to gather in the garden quarters. 



THE BEST RUNNERS. 



To be successful in forcing the strawberry early, it 

 is of very great importance to get young fresh plants 

 established and well matured in pots early in the 

 season. 



In the course of many years' successful practice, I 

 have tried various ways of getting early healthy run- 

 ners. Besides other methods I have allowed the pa- 

 rent plants to produce young runners when being forced 

 in March, April, and May. These have been rooted 

 under glass in small pots, hardened off, and grown on 

 in the usual way. Very small runners have been 

 selected from outdoor plantations in autumn, and 

 pricked off in light rich soil, and lifted and potted 

 about midsummer. I have left the runners on those 

 which ripened their fruit in April and May, planted 

 out the parent plants, carefully preserving these run- 

 ners, and layering the young plants produced in this 

 way. The last named is the best of these three 

 methods, and plenty of first-rate plants for forcing 

 are so produced. But the best way that I have ever 

 adopted, either in England or Scotland, is to make a 

 plantation of the best runners that can be had in Sep- 

 tember from those plants that were forced the pre- 

 vious spring. These young plants were planted ex- 

 pressly for the purpose of producing fine strong early 

 runners for potting the following summer. 



