THE STRAWBERRY. 241 



started vineries and peach-houses, where no special 

 house for them exists, and a succession of plants can 

 take their place in the pit. 



The time when ripe strawberries are required must 

 of course regulate the time when forcing should begin. 

 It generally takes three months from the time the 

 plants are started till the fruit is ripe. When forc- 

 ing is commenced very early, say the middle of Novem- 

 ber, a week or 14 days more must be taken into the 

 count. The best variety to begin with thus early is 

 Black Prince ; and plants of it introduced into heat 

 about the 14th November will ripen their fruit the 

 last week of February. Keen's Seedling, the next best 

 early variety, takes 10 days more. Unless, however, 

 there be a large stock of plants and early crops are 

 imperative, it is not desirable to begin forcing so 

 early. There is a degree of uncertainty and loss, gen- 

 erally amounting to nearly one-half the plants, in the 

 case of those set agoing in November. A full half of 

 the plants cannot be expected to set anything like a 

 crop of strawberries. In fact, those that are started 

 before the last week of December, are about the most 

 uncertain crop that can be attempted, especially where 

 there is no well-appointed strawberry-house. Under 

 ordinary circumstances, I do not recommend firing to 

 begin before January, not only on account of the uncer- 

 tainty of the produce, but because strawberries ripened 

 in comparatively sunless weather and a close atmosphere 

 are not very well flavoured. 



I will suppose the 1st of January to have arrived, 

 the time when the earliest are, in the majority of cases, 

 placed in heat. Let the required number of the best 

 plants in 5 -inch pots be selected, all the brown and 

 much-spotted leaves picked off them, their pots washed 



Q 



