Febtvuty 21, 1865.] 



JOUESTAL OF HOEXICULTUEE AND COTTAOE GAEDENEE. 



153 



eiently high to raise a gentle heat of 70°. This should be 

 done in the first week in December, and the lights must 

 remain oif as long as the weather is fail-, and only be put on 

 duiing very wet periods, and even then a current of air 

 should be afforded. Prior to this, the plants should have 

 been rested for a period of six weeks by keeping them dry 

 at the root in a cold frame, and exposed at all times except 

 during very frosty or wet weather. They should, therefore, 

 have the buds well developed by the middle of October. 



The pots being set on a bed of leaves early in December, 

 the plants will have had an inducement to form fresh roots, 

 and to get these in advance of the leaf-growth is a main 

 point. This being efl'ected, the pots should be cleaned, and 

 any old yellow leaves taken oif. The shelves are then 

 covered ^with turves, grass side downwards, and the pots 

 placed on them, the interval allowed between the pots being 

 half their diameter. Eoots will most likely be protruding 

 through the holes at the bottom, and will soon make their 

 way into the turves, increasing with the growth of the 

 plants. These should not remain so long on the bed of 

 leaves as to root into it, nor should they be taken from a 

 bed of leaves in which they have been plunged whilst it is 

 hot; for, in the one case, they wiU receive a check through a 

 leas of roots, and in the other, in consequence of a loss of 

 bottom heat. Care should therefore be taken to place the 



strawberry aheUes in Vinery. 



pots on, not in, the leaves. The temperature of the house 

 into which they are introduced should be 40° at night, and 

 from 45° to 50° by day, but the latter temperature only with 

 sun. Day and night, except in very severe weather, air 

 should be admitted, diminishing, of course, the amount at 

 night, even in mild weather, and increasing it with sun 

 heat. It is a good practice to admit air both at top and at 

 the lowest point of the house ; and if the air admitted pass 

 over the hot-water pipes or heating-surface anything like 

 chilling the plants will be prevented. The air should be 

 given as early in the day as practicable, closing .early so 

 as to catch or retain as much of the sun heat as possible. 

 For the first month a minimum of 40° is the proper tempe- 

 rature; a month after their being brought into the house 

 the temperature may be increased to 45° ; in another fort- 

 night to 50°; and a fortnight later, or two months after 

 introducing them, it should be 55°. At this the temperature 

 is steadily maintained until the flowering is past, when the 

 minimum may be increased to 60°. The maximum tempe- 

 rature will be regulated by external influences. On dull days 

 a rise of 5° above the night temperature is to be allowed 

 until the blossoms are set, 10° on days somewhat cloudy 



but with clear intervals, and 15° on bright sunny days, 

 every increase of temperature being accompanied by a cor- 

 respondingly greater amount of ventilation. 



lis 



Strawberry shelves in Orchard-housQ. 



The plants should be watered so as to keep the soil mode- 

 rately moist for the first month, guarding against extremes 

 either of moisture or dryness, for both are injurious. After 

 this, and as the plants throw up their flower-trusses and 

 make a large increase of foliage, they should be well sup- 

 plied with water, never allowing them to become dry, though 

 they ought to exhibit signs of moisture being needed before 

 any is given. A gentle syringing morning and evening v/ill 

 refresh the plants, and at the same time secure a moist 

 atmosphere in the house. After the first month syringe 

 once daily in the morning until the fruit changes colour for 

 ripening, when syringing the plants should be discontinued; 

 but let the floor, walls, &c., be sprinkled twice daily, in order 

 that the remainder of the fruit may swell well. Some make 

 a point of not syringing the plants when in blossom, but I 

 never found the flowers set any worse from a gentle bedewing 

 of water through a fine rose ; on the contrary, I fancy they 

 set better in consequence, and are not so liable to half swell 

 the fruit in some parts and not in others, resulting in poor 

 uneven-shaped fruit. 



strawberry shelves in Peach-house. 



After the fruit is fairly set every alternate watering may 

 be of liquid manure made of half-rotten cowdung, and tole- 

 rably strong, adding a peck of soot to every sixty gallons of 

 liquid. The liquid manure and all water given should be 

 of the same temperature as the house. The plants should 

 be kept well watered daily. At the time of flowering they 

 should be gone over, and any that do not promise a crop 

 had better be put outside, and their places filled up with . 

 something better. In introducing plants it is well to be able 

 to discriminate between those which are likely to afford a 

 crop and those which are not. 



