386 STRAWBERRIES. 



sary, as three, four, five, or six canes from the same stool 

 may be tied together on their tip-ends : this may be done 

 so as to give each cane a bow-hke direction, which will give 

 much more room for their laterals to grow than if tied up in 

 a more perpendicular manner. 



As a succession of this very favourite fruit must always 

 be desirable in the dessert, it may be prolonged considerably 

 beyond its usual time by cutting down some of the stools 

 wholly to within a few inches of the ground, instead of leav- 

 ing the canes at four fifths of their length. 



This operation may be practised upon both the Red and 

 the Yellow Antwerp, as well as upon several of the other 

 varieties, from which good crops of fruit may be obtained in 

 August. 



The double-bearing varieties should have every alternate 

 stool cut down annually : these will furnish an abundance 

 of fruit so late as September, and in a fine warm autumn even 

 to a later period. 



As the finest and best of these fruits are, in all cases, the 

 produce of strong and well-ripened canes, it becomes neces- 

 sary that the stools should have every advaiitage aflx)rded 

 them. This may be readily effected by causing all the for- 

 mer year's canes to be cut down to the ground as soon as 

 they have produced their crop, instead of allowing them to 

 stand till the winter or spring : this removes an unnecessary 

 encumbrance, and at a season when sun and air are of in- 

 finite importance to the young canes, consequently to the 

 succeeding crop of fruit. 



CHAPTER XV. 



CULTIVATION OF STRAWBERRIES. 



CttUivation. 



As early in the summer as the young runners of Straw- 

 berries have taken root, they should be taken up and planted 

 out in nursery beds, at a distance of five or six inches from 

 each other. These, in the course of the summer and au- 

 tumn, will make fine, large, well-rooted plants, and many of 

 the kinds will be sufficiently strong to produce fruit the fol- 

 lowing summer 



