THE STRAWBERRY. 233 



This autumn plantation should be made in a warm 

 situation, in a rather light, well manured and worked 

 soil, in lines 2 feet apart, and only 6 inches apart in 

 the line. This close planting I adopted simply for 

 the sake of procuring the necessary stock for potting 

 in the smallest and most convenient space, it being 

 much more convenient to lay and attend to them after 

 they are laid than when scattered over a greater space. 

 These autumn -planted runners in their turn throw 

 out beautiful strong runners early in the season, and 

 these are chosen for the production of plants for early 

 forcing the following season. In ordinary seasons 

 they are ready to lay the second week of June, which 

 is earlier than ever I have been able to get as fine 

 runners from plants forced and planted out in spring ; 

 and in ordinary cases older plantations of strawberries 

 produce " spindly " runners that never make such fine 

 plants as those produced by the method described. 



PREPARING RUNNERS FOR THEIR FRUITING-POTS. 



In preparing the young runners for their fruiting- 

 pots, I have also tried various ways such as spread- 

 ing equal proportions of loam and leaf -mould between 

 the rows, and laying them in it without pots. At 

 other times I have crocked and filled the fruiting-pots 

 with soil, and laid the runners at once into them. 

 But while both these methods can be adopted with 

 success, I prefer, as soon as the young plants begin 

 to push out roots, to lay them in 3 -inch pots firmly 

 filled with two parts friable loam and one part of 

 leaf- mould. These pots are plunged between the rows 

 of strawberries, a single runner laid on each pot and 

 gently pressed into the soil, taking care not to bury 



