468 Memoirs of the Caledonian Horticultural Society. 



This scarificator has a blade at each end; one for the stems 

 of large trees, about half an inch long ; and the other for 

 small trees, in length about a quarter of an inch. 



43. Notice of an improved Garden Hammer, (fig. 91. in Gard. IMag., 



vol. vi. p. 469.) 

 The use of the fulcrum is to facilitate the drawing of nails, 

 without the risk of bruising the adjacent shoots. 



44. Description of, and Directions for using, a New Preservative 

 Frame for saving Wall Fruit from being destroyed hy Wasps, 

 Blue Flies, or Birds, "when it is ripe ; and also for protecting the 

 Blossom in Spring from Frost, and insuring a Crop of Fruit. 

 By Mr. John Dick, Gardener to William Trotter, Esq., of Bal- 

 lendean. Read April 6. 1826. 



Already described in the London Horticultural Transactions, 

 and the Gardener's Magazine, vol. iii. p. 54. 



45. On the Cultivation of Straivberries. By Mr. John Middleton, 



Tillychewan. Read Dec. 13. 1814. 



Every gardener knows that it is a common practice to cut 

 over strawberry plants in the month of October, " in order 

 to make them push anew, and cover themselves, as it is 

 termed, before winter. This part of the management I have 

 been induced, from experience of its bad effects, to omit. I 

 was at first led to this change from observing that a plot of 

 strawberries which, through the hurry of business, I did not 

 get dressed in autumn, produced very well next season; it 

 immediately occurred to me, and in the same sentiment I now 

 write this, that strawberries, and, in general, any herbaceous 

 plants resembling them in habit, must be very much weakened 

 by being made to produce two crops of foliage in one season. 

 The winter residences of the shoots, which are to come forth 

 next spring, must be thrown open, and the whole plants con- 

 siderably weakened, by being forced to exert themselves in 

 sending out a numerous and weakly set of autumnal leaves ; 

 and by these means a very sensible effect must be produced 

 on the crop. I therefore make it a rule, after the crop is 

 gathered, to cut away all the runners, and to clear the beds 

 of all weeds ; but I never touch the bodies of the plants in the 

 way of cutting. I observe that during winter the shoots of 

 next year are seen strong and healthy, under the shelter of 

 the decayed foliage, from which they no doubt receive much 

 protection." 



Mr. Middleton, at the suggestion of Mr. Lang, gardener 

 a1^ Balloch Castle, never digs betwixt the rows of strawberries 

 in autumn ; because such a practice, " by cutting large quan- 

 tities of the fibres at that season, must have the effect of 

 injuring the plants almost as much as if they were . trans- 



