ON THE CULTURE OP STRAWBERRIES. 291 



recommend the kind of plants above mentioned to be selected, and to be 

 treated in every respect as if they were to be placed in pots for forcing ; 

 except that their roots should be made to extend as deeply as practicable 

 into the soil in which they are planted. In summer planting I have also 

 found great advantage in using the runners of the preceding year : these 

 had been planted with a dibble within three inches of each other, in rows, 

 and with intervals of only six inches between the rows, till the ground in 

 summer was ready to receive them ; a very small space was thus found 

 to afford plants enough for a large plantation ; and these having acquired 

 greater strength, with more strong and more numerous roots, afforded a 

 much more copious produce in the following season than could possibly 

 have been obtained from younger plants. By placing the plants ulti- 

 mately near each other those of the large varieties within six inches of 

 each other in the rows, and with intervals of fourteen inches between the 

 rows ; and those of the smaller varieties within four inches of each other 

 in the rows, and with intervals of a foot only between the rows as large, 

 or nearly as large, a weight of fruit may be obtained, I think, from any 

 given extent of ground, as by planting early in the spring, provided water 

 be supplied in the spring in sufficient quantity ; but the fruit will rarely 

 rival that which will be produced by plantations made early in the 

 preceding spring either in quality or size ; it will, nevertheless, excel 

 both in quantity and quality the produce of the preceding year's runners 

 either in the open air or forcing-house. 



Whenever strawberry-plants are wanted for very early forcing, it is 

 advantageous that their roots should have been well established in their 

 pots in the preceding autumn, and well preserved through the winter ; 

 but for late forcing I have obtained very good subjects by the following 

 means : Plants which had produced one crop of fruit were taken up as 

 soon as all their fruit had acquired maturity, and were planted at nine 

 inches apart in soil which had been manured superficially only, and their 

 roots were spread horizontally near the surface of the soil ; late in the 

 autumn the roots were as much detached from the soil as would have 

 been requisite if they had then been to be planted in pots, but they were 

 replaced in the soil till the end of February ; being at that period placed in 

 pots, they produced an abundant crop of very fine fruit. I found, under 

 this mode of management, pans without any apertures to permit the 

 escape of the water to be preferable to pots, apparently owing to the 

 finely-reduced mould having more perfectly closed round the fibrous roots 

 in the form of mud in the pans than in pots of the ordinary construction. 

 In giving water to plants which grow in vessels from which it cannot 



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