164 FRUIT GARDEN. 



Keen, and others in the neighborhood of London, grow 

 their strawberries in beds, three rows in each, with an 

 alley between them. The market-gardeners of Edin- 

 burgh, who, in the culture of this fruit, are perhaps not 

 excelled by any, plant in rows two feet asunder, and from 

 a foot to fifteen inches in the rows. When the weather 

 is dry, the young plants are watered till they be well 

 established. As little fruit is produced the first year, 

 a line of carrots, onions, or other vegetables, is often 

 sown between the rows for one season. In May the 

 runners are cut off, with the view of promoting the 

 swelling of the fruit. During dry weather, careful 

 cultivators water their plants while in flower, and par- 

 ticularly after the fruit is set, and occasionally till it 

 begin to color. The old practice, from which the 

 fruit derives its name, of laying straw between the 

 rows to prevent the soiling of the fruit, has been re- 

 cently revived; and where there are dressed lawns, the 

 short cut grass may be employed for the same purpose. 

 As soon as the fruit season is over, the runners are 

 again removed ; the straw or grass is taken away, and 

 the ground hoed and raked. In October the runners, 

 and also the reclining, but not the erect, leaves, are cut 

 away, and the surface of the earth is stirred with a three- 

 pronged fork, great care being taken not to injure the 

 roots. Strawberries may be raised from the same 

 ground for an indefinite space of time, but the plants 

 should be renewed every third or fourth year. In the 

 garden they are generally put in a quarter by them- 

 selves, and it should" be one fully exposed to the sun 

 and air. The alpine and wood varieties may be placed 

 in situations rather moist and shady, as edgings in 

 the slips or in rows behind walls and hedges, in which 



