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spring. Germination takes place in a month or six weeks ; the 

 young plants are transplanted into rows 2 feet apart, and all 

 runners are kept off the first season. The second or third season, 

 when the seedlings bloom, they are carefully looked over and the 

 pistillate and the perfect plants are separated and replant-ed apart, 

 so that the runners may take root without intermingling with 

 others. The plants are shaded for a few days after removal to prevent 

 wilting. When fruiting, weed out all strawberries which do not' 

 come up to a high standard of excellence. Varieties may then be 

 produced which will be better adapted to local conditions. 



Runners are the most common way of propagating strawberries. 

 To ensure their rooting, the surface of the soil should be kept loose 

 and open. Root division is seldom employed except with the Bush 

 Alpine Strawberries, which produce few or no runners. In the 

 early spring take up the stools and divide them, leaving only one 

 crown to the plant. If the old root is very long, cut off the lower end. 



Soil and Location. Strawberries adapt themselves to a wide 

 range of soil and location. To reach the top notch of perfection, 

 however, the peculiarities of the several sorts have to be studied 

 and satisfied. Too much sand or too much clay should be avoided. 

 Like the other small fruits, the strawberry needs a rich, well -drained, 

 and moist soil. In Western Australia the soil which, as yet, has 

 been found best adapted to the cultivation of the greater number of 

 varieties is the soil which, as on the slopes of the Darling Ranges 

 and the undulating country of the lower plain below, supports in its 

 natural state spear wood thickets and red gum with bracken. 

 Such a soil consists of a deep light loam, warm in colour, well 

 drained and generally moist, overlying a stiff er subsoil at a depth 

 of 18 to 24 inches ; of the various species of strawberries the 

 wild wood strawberry (F. vesca) and the Hautbois (F. elatior) do 

 well on light sandy loams. Calcareous soil of a drier nature suits 

 the Bush Alpine (F. collina), a section of F. vesca. A rich clayey 

 loam, moist, but well drained, is better suited to F. virginiana, and 

 most of the large fruit strawberries. A stiff heavy clay and soil 

 that is liable to become very dry in a short period is unsuitable, 

 and should be avoided ; on such soils once the growth of the plants 

 is checked the crop likewise suffers and is never again a 

 remunerative cne. 



As a rule, even the same sorts are influenced by variations in 

 the soil and locations. Thus, all things being equal, a strawberry 

 will ripen earlier on a warm sunny slope in light loam than on 

 heavier and moister flats, where on the other hand, the crop, if 

 later, is generally a heavier one. The practical deduction to be 

 drawn from these facts is that the experienced growers are careful, 

 in order to lengthen the season, to place early sorts on a warm 

 sunny slope, on light loam, and the later sorts on heavy moist flats. 

 Some varieties besides, which show a healthy growth on high, 

 well-drained ground and slopes, are badly affected by leaf blight 

 when struck in damp hollow ground, and conversely, by moving 

 some of the choicer and more delicate varieties, too blighted to be 



