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encircle one side of a strawberry plant, and may be made with an 

 arc of about nine inches. The appliance is pushed down on one 

 side of the plant, and then on the other side, thus cutting all 



A fruiting branch of gooseberry. J. WRIGHT. 



runners spreading around. Where the ground is moist the leaves 

 of the strawberry plants are mowed clean off in the winter, then 

 gathered up with a rake and burned. This checks the spread of 

 the leaf spot disease. The same purpose is at times attained by 

 spraying the beds with a solution of sulphate of iron. 



PRUNING THE TOMATO. 



If large-sized, early tomatoes are required, the plants should 

 either be forced and planted out early, or sown towards the end of 

 August, and protected from frost by means of a light mulching. 

 One stalk only is allowed to grow, and lateral leaf shoots pinched 

 off, the terminal shoot alone being allowed to remain. The fruit 

 bearing laterals are left on the plant, and will soon set to fruit. 

 The plant is trained either along short stakes or along a trellis, 

 made of wire stretched between two short posts stuck at each end 

 of the rows. This will keep the plants off the ground, and make 

 the operations of spraying and picking easier. The tomato rot 

 is not so severe on staked vines as on plants crawling over the 

 damp ground, whilst by training the plants it is easier to get at the 



