No. 7. 



Strawberry Runners. 



221 



sprung up out of the ground. I could not 

 see one weed that was three or four inches 

 long, and this was clean farming on a large 

 scale as probably could not be seen in any 

 part of the world." 



Now I call upon our anti-scientifics and 

 of the " Good Enoughs," to e.xplain how these 

 results could have been produced under any 

 circumstances, upon such an estate as this 

 was, without the aid of the most high and 

 finished system of scientific cultivation ! 

 One field of three hundred and forty-five 

 acres producing between fourteen and fif- 

 teen thousand bushels of wheat, and four 

 hundred and fifty acres more in luxuriant 

 " turnips !" Why gentlemen, it must strike 

 the imaginations of these friends of ours as 

 more like the enchantments of fable and 

 story than sober reality. But why speak of 

 him as the most remarkable agriculturalist 

 that ever lived ! It is matter of history and 

 not to be questioned! Will you pardon me, 

 in referring to what one of the distinguished 

 writers of the day says of him and his farm- 

 ing: 



" The country and not alone the country, 

 but the world, it may truly be said, acknow- 

 ledges the benefits of Mr. Coke's exertions 

 in the advancement of the first of Arts. For 

 himself, both as regards his happiness and his 

 after reports to posterity, nothing could have 

 been more full of congratulation than his 

 early selection of such a study. To prose 

 cute with such advantage any pursuit to 

 such a period ; to enjoy so long a duration of 

 uninterrupted health; to see the patrimony 

 of his ancestors improved beyond all possible 

 computation ; to know that from his example, 

 his spirit, his skill, and his encouragement, 

 not alone his own estate, not the country 

 where he lived, not the country itself only, 

 but every civilized nation on the face of the 

 globe, may be said to owe some portion of 

 obligation to his labors; to be able to assem 

 ble the curious, the scientific, and the emi- 

 nent, in vast numbers around him; to hear his 

 just praises spoken from the lips not only of 

 men distinguished in arts, in arms, and in 

 letters, but of princes of his own and foreign 

 lands. All these together form an aggregate 

 of fortune that attends but a very few 

 among those who are born and die. Yet such 

 is the consummation (and a proud spectacle 

 it is both for the individual and for his coun 

 try) that Holkham has existed — and that, 

 under Divine Providence, Mr. Coke has 

 been made the instrument of diffusing so 

 many and such great blessings among man- 

 kind." 



And well may England place among her 

 first men, and her most beneficent benefac- 

 tors, the man who shed such a lustre upon 



her agriculture, and that of the world. He 

 did for the agriculture of England, what 

 John Hampden did for the liberties of Eng- 

 lishmen against tyranny. And if the reward 

 of popular praise, and popular honours, are 

 due to those who, guided by a wise philo- 

 sophy, and whose objects have been the wel- 

 fare and improvement of mankind, then are 

 they due to Thomas William Coke. 



Strawberry Runners. 



I BEG to give my opinion in favour of cut- 

 ting the runners off strawberry plants. Be- 

 ing a lover of this fruit, and therefore anx- 

 ious to procure information upon its cultiva- 

 tion, my attention was arrested by an able 

 leading article in the Chronicle some years 

 ago, against mowing ofl' the foliage of the 

 strawberry at the fall of the year, as also 

 against other abuses which had crept into 

 its cultivation. The directions given in this 

 article I implicitly obeyed, and have every 

 reason to be grateful for the knowledge which 

 it imparted. But the cutting oft" the runners 

 being a subject upon which that article did 

 not enter, I was induced to experiment upon 

 it myself. For this purpose I made a new 

 plantation, in which the plants were placed 

 eighteen inches apart in rows, and the rows 

 themselves two feet asunder. I have never 

 allowed a runner to exceed half a foot in 

 length upon any of these, and the conse- 

 quence has been that the plants have become 

 strong and bushy. The crop this season has 

 been abundant and the fruit individually 

 large in size. While my neighbours' plants 

 during winter seemed to be creeping back 

 whence they came, not being able to bear 

 the withering and biting blast of the season, 

 mine stood up full of freshness and vigour, 

 aud ready to start into growth at the first 

 approach of spring. So convinced am I of 

 the propriety of cultivating this fruit in se- 

 parate and distinct plants, and of cutting oft" 

 the runners, that I have this season taken 

 out a plant between each of my plantations, 

 thus making the distance between each plant 

 four feet by three. From these I am cutting 

 off" the runners with the greatest care. But 

 why huddle up strawberry plants together 

 and cultivate other fruits separately and dis- 

 tinctly ■? Does not this plant, as others, ex- 

 claim, in language not to be mistaken, "Give 

 me air or I shall AieV — Gardener's Chro- 

 nicle. 



Mahoganit is becoming so cheap in Eng- 

 land that ship builders are using it instead of 

 teak wood. The reduction in price is caused 

 by the extensive use of other woods, as black 

 walnut, oak, &c., in the manufacture of ca- 

 binet ware. 



