ABOUT FRUITS, FLOWERS AND FARMING. 285 



receive the plants for the crop of the ensuing year, taking 

 care to select for that purpose the strongest and best-rooted 

 runners from the old rejected plants. If at this season the 

 weather should be particularly hot, and the surface of the 

 ground much parched, I defer the operation of preparing 

 my beds and planting them till the ground is moistened by 

 rain. Such is the simple mode of treatment which I have 

 adopted for three successive years, and I have invariably 

 obtained upon the same spot, a great produce of beautiful 

 fruit, superior to that of every other garden in the neighbor- 

 hood. Depth of soil I have found absolutely necessary for 

 the growth and production of fine strawberries, and when 

 this is not to be obtained, it is useless, in my opinion, to 

 plant many of the best varieties. It is not generally known, 

 but I have ascertained the fact, that most strawberries 

 generate roots, and strike them into the ground, nearly two 

 feet deep in the course of one season. The practice of 

 renewing strawberry plantations every year, and even of 

 using runners of the current year for forcing, is now become 

 very general among gardeners. Mr. Knight generally 

 adopts this mode, and, notwithstanding the increased labor 

 attending it, it is even adopted by some market-gardeners 

 about London for their earliest crops. It is invariably 

 found that by this mode the fruit not only comes larger, 

 but somewhat earlier. It must always be recollected, how 

 ever, by those who intend practising it, that almost the 

 whole of the success depends on bringing forward the 

 earliest runners, by encouraging them to root. This is 

 done by stirring the soil beneath them, hooking them 

 down, or retaining them in their proper places by small 

 stones ; or, when the object is to procure plants for forcing 

 rooting them into small pots." 



