284 ON THE CULTIVATION OF STRAWBERRIES. 



inches apart in the rows, with intervals of two feet between the rows ; 

 each square yard consequently contains three plants only. I have placed 

 Downton strawberry plants, which require as much space as those of the 

 hautbois, or pine, in rows at sixteen inches distance from each other, and 

 with only eight inches distance between the plants ; which is nearly nine 

 to each square yard ; and I have found each plant at such distances 

 nearly, if not quite, as productive, as when placed with much wider 

 intervals. The old scarlet strawberry I have also found to bear admirably 

 when plants have been placed in rows of one foot distance from each 

 other, with spaces of half that distance between the plants ; and I think 

 1 have obtained more than twice the amount of produce from the same 

 extent of ground which I should have obtained, if my plants had been 

 placed at the distances recommended by Mr. Keens. My beds are, 

 however, totally expended at the end of sixteen or seventeen months from 

 the time of their being formed, and the ground is then applied to other 

 purposes. I have consequently the trouble annually of planting ; but I 

 find this trouble much less than that of properly managing old beds ; and 

 I am quite certain that I obtain a much larger quantity of fruit, and of 

 very superior quality, than I ever did obtain, by retaining the same beds 

 in bearing during three successive years, from the same extent of ground. 



There is a very large strawberry of most luxuriant growth raised from 

 seed by Mr. Williams of Pitmaston, called the yellow Chili, which will 

 alone, of those varieties which I have cultivated, require, in my opinion, 

 wider intervals than those I have mentioned ; and the distances recom- 

 mended by Mr. Keens will, I think, be found expedient, where that 

 variety is cultivated. It is a variety of much merit, and of most extra- 

 ordinary size, a single fruit, raised in my garden, in the last season, 

 having weighed 558 grains. Some plants of it were sent by Mr. Williams 

 to the Society's garden in the last spring. 



I perfectly approve of, and have long practised, the mode of manage- 

 ment recommended by Mr. Keens, of placing some long dung between 

 the rows, where it has all the good effects which he ascribes to it ; but 

 to his practice of digging between the rows I object most strongly ; for 

 by shortening the lateral roots in autumn, the plants not only lose the 

 true sap, which such roots abundantly contain ; but the organs them- 

 selves, which the plants must depend upon for supplies of new food in the 

 spring, must be, to a considerable extent, destroyed. This mode of 

 treating strawberry-plants is much in use amongst country gardeners, 

 and I have amply tried it myself, but always with injurious effects ; and 

 I do not hesitate to pronounce it decidedly bad. 



