FRUITS. CHAP. 



behind my back, to secure an honest watering. Watering- 

 pots, when full, are heavy j the distance may be great, 

 and few men like to carry heavy things for^any long con- 

 tinuation. Just turn your back, and they merely wet the 

 ground ; and, if you return, you see that the strawberries 

 have all been watered j but (and mind this), go the next 

 day, if the weather have continued fair, and you will 

 then see how you have been cheated. Strawberries like 

 good, deep, and rich land : holding land, as the people in 

 the country call it : they will grow almost any where, 

 and will produce more or less of fruit j but, if you mean 

 to have fine strawberries, you must have good land 3 

 therefore, make the land as good as you can make it. As 

 to the sorts of strawberries, the scarlet is the earliest j 

 and some people like it : the hautbois (or high-stalked), 

 the Kew pine, the Chili, the Wliite Alpine and the Red 

 Alpine ; which two latter are vulgarly called wood straw- 

 berries. The hautboy has a musky and singular flavour 

 as well as smell, and some people prefer it to all others. 

 But, the great strawberry of all, now-a-days, is that 

 which was some years ago raised from seed by Mr. KEEN 

 of Islington, which is therefore called the KEEN'S seed- 

 ling ; and this strawberry, which is the only one used for 

 forcing in the King's gardens, has nearly supplanted 

 every other sort. It is early 3 it is a prodigious bearer j 

 the fruit is large, and very large 5 and it surpasses, in 

 my opinion, all others in flavour. I gathered some of 

 the Kew pine (for many years thought the best of all) ; 

 at the same time, I gathered some of the Keen's seedling : 

 I put the two parcels down upon the table before several 

 persons, who tasted both in order to form a judgment j 

 and every one of them said that the Keens seedling was 



