May.] The Fruit Garden. i 47 



Sfra^vberries. 



Drefs the flrawbcrry-beds if they were not done in the 

 former month ; the plants will now begin to pufh apace, 

 and the fooner this is done the better. 



Clear the beds from weeds, and the plants from firings, 

 and other litter ; atid if the main plants are crowded with 

 young ones from the lall year's runners, let them be 

 thinned accordingly ; for it is. the befi method to keep thefe 

 plants in fnigle bunches as it were, and clear of each other, 

 jb that there may be room to dig round them with a narrow 

 fpade or a trowel. 



The beds being cleared from litter, loofen the earth be- 

 tween the plants ; and if you add a little frefli earth to the 

 beds, it will ftrengthen the plants, and they will flower 

 ftfong, and produce large fruit. 



Strawberries may now be planted where required, Ob- 

 ferve the fame method as mentioned in i\\z former month, 



A further fupply of pots of bearing ftrawberry-plants 

 may iliil be placed in hot-beds and hot-houfes, &c. to 

 produce a fucceffion of early llrawberries to fucceed thofe 

 of the former months, and to ifford a fupply of ripe fruit 

 till thofe in the open ground ripen in June, 



For Ling J^riiit-trees^ 



Continue the care of fruit-trees now forwarding in hot 

 walls, forcing- ho ufes for early fruit, fuch'as peaches, 

 nedarines, apricots, cherries, \'ines, &c, let the fires be 

 made every evening ; admit air in funny days, and give 

 occafional \vat<;rings ; each of which by the rules explained 

 in the laft months. 



The Pleasure, or Flower Garden"* 



Pricking out early Anmuils^ 



IF any tender annuals were fowed the two former months, 

 make a new hot-bed towards the middle or latter end 

 of this, in which to prick them, to fcrward their growth. 

 Let the hot-bed be about two feet or thirty inches 

 high, and make the top even ; then fet on the frame ; and, 

 H 2 when 



