and his Method of forcing Stra^isoherries. 373 



beings if allowed to accumulate, it certainly appears to produce 

 no bad effects on plants, for a more luxuriant crop of strawber- 

 ries than that in Mr. Joyce's forcing-house we have never seen. 

 On looking over these strawberries, we observed some pots 

 rather later than the others ; and Mr. Joyce having previously 

 informed us that they were all put in on the same day, we could 

 not help enquiring what he considered the reason. This led to 

 our requesting from him an article on his mode of forcing straw- 

 berries, and he has sent us the following : — 



" The size of pot which I find to be the best is No. 48. I fill 

 the pots with good strong soil, tolerably rich, and I press it into 

 them rather firmly. This is done in the beginning of August; 

 and 1 then get the strongest runners I can find, of the same 

 year's growth, of Keen's seedling. I plant one runner in each 

 pot, and then plunge the pots in the open garden, in an airy 

 situation, keeping them well watered when the weather is dry. 

 Here they remain till wanted to be taken into the house for 

 forcing. I may remark that, when the runners are taken up 

 later than the very beginning of August, the blossoms do not 

 come nearly so strong the following season. 



" When the time for forcing arrives, I prepare my shelves by 

 nailing laths along their edges, so as to form a ledge on each 

 side, about an inch high, so as to retain a thin layer of mould. 

 After covering the shelves with mould, of the same kind as that 

 in which the strawberries are planted, I take up the pots from 

 the open garden, and set them on it. I find the roots come 

 through the pots, and grow vigorously in this thin layer of 

 mould, which is kept constantly moist by the water which escapes 

 through the pots. I have tried the mode of placing the pots in 

 saucers, and always keeping some water in them ; but I find a 

 layer of mould, such as I have described, greatly superior. 



" Instead of planting the runners in the pots, I have tried the 

 mode, very generally recommended, of plunging the pot, and 

 training the runner over it, so that the young plant might root 

 into the centre of the pot before it was detached from the mother 

 plant. This method produces apparently very strong plants, 

 because they have both the nourishment from the parent plant 

 communicated through the runner, and the nourishment ab- 

 .sorbed by the plant itself through its fibrous roots : but such 

 plants, when they are forced, I find to be invariably a fortnight 

 later in ripening their fruit, than those which have been planted 

 in the manner I first described ; and I find, also, that they run 

 much more to leaf, and that, if the plants be turned out of the 

 pots to examine the roots, though these are stronger than those 

 of the transplanted plants, yet that they are invariably much less 

 numerous. From this I conclude, that the cause why the transr 

 planted plants are so much more prolific, and so much earlier, 



BB 3 



