256 GARDENING FOR PLEASURE. 



at what season the grapery is started for forcing, the 

 temperature should not run over fifty or fifty-five degrees 

 at night, with a day temperature of ten or fifteen degrees 

 higher, increasing ten degrees when the buds have 

 opened, which will be in four or five weeks from the 

 time of starting. In five or six weeks the fruit will be 

 set, and the temperature is to be raised ten degrees 

 more. In forcing, moisture is of equal importance with 

 heat ; for if this is not attended to, you may expect red 

 spiders and thrips, and then all your labor may be in 

 vain. To keep up this moisture, tanks are usually placed 

 on the hot- water pipes for graperies, and these are kept 

 filled with water, keeping up a continued evaporation, 

 except at the time the vines are in flower. It should 

 then be discontinued until the fruit is set. "When there 

 is no such arrangement for evaporation, dash water over 

 the floors and use the syringe. To secure fine berries 

 and bunches, one- half of the berries should be thinned 

 out when of the size of peas, using scissors made for this 

 purpose. The rules for making the border, pruning, 

 training, and general culture are the same for the forcing 

 grapery as for the cold grapery. 



CHAPTER XLIV. 

 THE STRAWBERRY. 



OF all small fruits, none stand so high in general 

 favor as the Strawberry. Its culture is simple ; and as 

 it grows freely in almost any soil, adapting itself to the 

 climate of the extreme South as well as to our most 

 Northern States, no garden of any pretensions should be 

 without it. If a choice of soil can be had, nothing is so 

 suitable as a deep, rich, but rather sandy loam, though it 

 will yield returns sufficient to warrant its cultivation on 



