164 WHYTOCK—THE CULTIVATION OF 
pots for fruiting forced strawberries. Pots six inches in diameter 
are now considered the best for the whole quantity to be forced ; 
seven-inch pots for the latest batches are considered to take less 
watering, but I am doubtful about it. Both six-inch and seven- 
inch when the season is advanced will require saucers, and six- 
inch with saucers will produce fruit quite as good as seven-inch 
pots. All the pots should be carefully washed and carefully 
crocked. Cover the crocks with moss, and over the moss sprinkle 
soot, which is a manure and a preventive against worms, Straw- 
berries require a heavy loam, but this very often cannot be got. 
Get the best fibrous loam you can, chop up in small pieces, mix 
a six-inch potful of bone-meal to every barrowful of soil, and also 
add some fresh horse-droppings passed through a half-inch sieve. 
The soil and pots now being in readiness, take the young straw- 
berry-plants carefully out of the three-inch pots, put them in the 
six-inch in such a way that the top of the three-inch ball will be 
half-an-inch below the rim of the six-inch; fill in the pack firmly 
round the ball, finishing by leaving quarter of an inch under the 
rim to hold water. The plants should be watered with a rose 
immediately after potting, and stood for a few days in a shady 
_ place where the full day’s sun will not reach them; after this ~ 
they should be stood in a warm sheltered place where the full 
sun reaches them. I have always found the plants grow better 
standing on boards, coal-ashes, or dry bottom, much more so 
than standing on the ground. Of course, wet and dry localities 
make a great difference in this ; ina dry place on gravelly subsoil 
they will do well standing on the gravel walk ; in a wet locality 
with damp, cold subsoil the plants do much better raised from the 
ground, 
When the plants are growing they must stand sufficiently 
apart from one another to allow full development of the foliage, 
and if they show a tendency to develop several weak crowns to 
a pot, remove all but one to make a good strong crown. If the 
weather is dry through the autumn, they must be carefully looked 
to twice a day for watering, and when the roots reach the side 
of the pots, clear manure-water should be given them ; soot-water 
being one of the best for strawberries. Keep the pots carefully 
weeded, and do not allow runners to get ahead on them. By 
the end of September the pots will be well filled with roots, and 
