54: FORCING. 



according to his object being quality or quantity; but 

 we, desiring fine fruit in preference to number, only 

 place one of the strongest or two of the weaker in one 

 pot, using enriched melon soil or turfy loam. Place 

 them, when potted, in a situation where they can be 

 readily shaded for a short time, and receive regular 

 supplies of water if necessary. About the latter end 

 of July, or early in August, these pots will be filled 

 with roots, when the plants must be repotted into flat 

 thirty-two-sized pots, usually termed strawberry pots, 

 and at this time plunged in old tan or coal ashes. The 

 best manner of plunging them we find to be, forming 

 beds wide enough to contain five rows of pots, when 

 plunged, upon a hard or gravelly surface, to prevent 

 them rooting through, the sides supported by slabs of 

 the same width as the depth of the pots, and filling 

 them up with old tan or ashes ; the plants remain here 

 until wanted to take in, and are easily protected from 

 severe frosts. It will be found an excellent plan to 

 preserve the latest forced plants, which are not much 

 exhausted, for forcing the first the next season ; these, 

 from their long period of rest, and well-ripened buds, 

 are predisposed to break earlier and stronger than the 

 others ; some of them, if the autumn is moist, will be 

 excited, and produce flowers, which must be imme- 

 diately pinched out ; they should have their balls 

 carefully reduced, and be repotted in larger pots early 



