40 



JOUENAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ July 21, 1870. 



nip out the point of the shoots. They should be again shifted, 

 using 6-inch pots, in which size they should bloom the first 

 year. 



After they have finished blooming, or begin to look shabby, 

 they should be placed out of doors, and not watered much 

 for a fortnight, when they will be ready to cut down, which 

 operation should be performed with a sharp knife, cutting 

 them down like an Osier stump, and leave them outside 

 until they have broken well, when they should be carefully 

 taken out of the pots, and have every bit of the old soil shaken 

 out, and the ends of the long roots shortened. They should 

 then be potted into their blooming pots, placed in a warm 

 frame or house, and be only sprinkled until growth commences, 

 care being taken not to make them too wet, or the soil will 

 turn sour. They Bhould always have plenty of room and light, 

 and abundance of air whenever it can be given, for that is one 

 of the secrets of success. Always be on the watch for green 

 fly, and as soon as that makes its appearance give them a good 

 tobacco fumigation for two successive nights. 



Keep a very low temperature all winter, and nip out the 

 points of long shoots till February, after which time it should 

 not be done. No liquid manure should be given till the flower 

 buds begin to form, when they should have some once a-week. 

 When the shoots are long enough they should be thinned if 

 they require it, and tied out to neat straight sticks, which are 

 best made out of plasterers' laths. Watering must be well 

 attended to, for if they are allowed to become very dry they 

 soon suffer, and produce small yellow leaves, and a warm dry 

 temperature is very conducive to filth of all sorts. 



The following compost I find answers extremely well : — To 

 four barrowloads of good pasture loam I add one of old Mush- 

 room-bed dung, one of charcoal broken up fine, one of very old 

 leaf mould, and one of cocoa-nut fibre refuse, the whole well 

 mixed. I drain the pots with charcoal. 



The following varieties are all distinct, first-rate, and would 

 form a good small collection, of course plenty of others might 

 be added: — Troubadour, Piogress, Charles Tarner, Hsirloom, 

 Favourite, Viola, Hermit, Decision, Congress, Beauty of Windsor, 

 Xing of Trumps, Queen of White (Dobson's), Rob Roy, Emperor, 

 Victor, Magician, Diadem, Example, Queen of Scots, Turban, 

 Mary Hoyle, Captain John, Lord Lyon, and Lady of the 

 Lake. ^Richard Jameson, Gargravc. 



STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 



The crop generally in this district (Lincolnshire) is prolific, 

 and the most prolific of all the varieties under my immediate 

 care is President. 



In an enumeration of several varieties, with their qualities 

 and characteristics, contributed to the Journal two years ago, 

 I unhesitatingly accorded to this variety the place of honour, 

 which it continue? to hold worthily. I am inclined to think 

 that it is most at home on a rather light soil. Runners which 

 I have supplied for cultivation in gardens on heavy soil, have, as 

 a rule, been rather unsatisfactory, producing a superabundance 

 of foliage. Those, then, having a light staple of soil to deal 

 with, I advise to grow this variety, and if it serve them as 

 well as it year hy year has served me, it will be pronounced 

 worthy of its came. 



My plants, now yielding so well, are of the earliest last year's 

 runners, bearing their first crop, and I am confident it is the 

 best they will ever produce. Every year's experience tells me 

 that to insure satisfactory crops of Strawberries on soils of the 

 character of a light vegetable mould, we must secure runners 

 as early as possible, treat them well throughout the season, and 

 depend on their first efforts for the best yield. If by adversity 

 of weather or any other kind of adversity, plants cannot be 

 seeured sufficiently early for permanent planting in July, after 

 early Potatoes, it is good practice, taking into consideration 

 the economy of the general cropping of the garden, to wait for 

 very late runners — small ones — and prick them in nursery beds 

 quite at the end of September, or in October. For the con- 

 venience of hoeing, &s., the rows should not be nearer to- 

 gether than 9 inches, and the plants in the rows may be 4 or 

 5 inches apart. ECero let them remain until an early crop is off 

 in spring — say the crop of early Potatoes, which I, as rule, like 

 them to follow, but cannotalways make them do so — this year for 

 instance. I can see nothing clearer than to plant after early 

 Cabbage, but it goes rather against the grain, and I can only 

 keep a smooth surface by reflecting on a mixture I have in 

 reserve, composed mainly of old Strawberry plants and clear- 

 ings of the beds last year, kept in a separate rot heap. This, 



with a lot of old plants in their last stage of existence, and 

 which will be cleared off and put at once green into the trenches, 

 will act both a3 a sedative and stimulant, and animal and 

 vegetable — that is, myself and plants, willbe mutually benefited. 



This plan of manuring Strawberries with Strawberries is aa 

 good in practice as it is in theory, and was the secret of success 

 of an amateur cultivator, a clergyman in this neighbourhood, 

 who for years produced off the same ground magnificent crops 

 of fruit by this system of manuring. I have also tried it my- 

 self, and have not found it wanting — in fact, it is the root of 

 the matter over which at present my President presides so 

 worthily. 



Plants treated on the plan described, other things being 

 favourable to their well-being, are sure to bear splendidly — 

 qnite as well as, perhaps better than, plants from early runners 

 encouraged and planted at once in the fruiting-bed for the nest 

 season's bearing. But why not plant out sooner ? some may 

 ask. Why wait until the end of June, or till July ? Simply 

 this, by planting good plants of Strawberries in March or 

 April, as is frequently done, you insure good crops' the follow- 

 ing season, but by waiting two or three months longer you 

 insure not only a good crop of fruit, but also a good crop of 

 early Potatoes, off the same ground. Putting this against the 

 planting of fine early runners in the permanent beds at once, 

 a season is certainly lost ; but when once fairly in the system 

 the loss dwindles away, and the only disadvantage it has, 

 looked at in the general economy of cropping, is the bit of 

 ground occupied as nursery beds for the half year beginning in 

 October. The principal point to be attended to, is the plant- 

 ing runners small and late, or they will be drawn and injured 

 by remaining in the nursery bed so long. 



Strawberries on soil of this nature do not, as a rule, give 

 more than two fine crops. I sometimes let them bear three, 

 but the last has never yet satisfied me. I do not " bury cart- 

 loads of manure ;" I bury the refuse above mentioned, and 

 then point in the surface 2 or 3 inches of yellow loam, if I 

 can obtain it mixed with old hotbed manure, just to give the 

 plants a start ; but the principal amount of manure is put on 

 not in the ground. After planting, which is not done until the 

 ground is well firmed to give it " body," the best substitute for 

 " heart," the whole surface is well covered, and kept covered. 

 The surface of the ground is never bare summer nor winter, 

 and is not disturbed by fork cor spade. The manure used for 

 this purpose is not decayed, but is in a comparatively green 

 state, and by the washing of rains, and exposure to the weather 

 nothing is seen but strawy material, clean and close, for the 

 fruit to lie on, co fuither attention being required in this 

 respect. 



It is to this surface dressing arresting evaporation, that I 

 mainly attribute success in Strawberry culture on light soils. 

 Undoubtedly, on some soils, Strawberries will yield productive 

 crops for four or five years, or by carefully thinning the crowns 

 even ten years; but for soil of the character I deal with in this 

 paper, the system of long-standing plantations breaks down ; 

 st least, this is my experience. For such soils plant frequently, 

 mulch, and mulch continually, ever bearing in mind Mr. Rad- 

 clyffe's advice, always sound, Do not pack the mulching closely 

 round the hearts to blanch them, or farewell Strawberries. — 

 J. W. 



EARLY versus LATE PLANTING RIBBON 

 BORDERS. 



Concluded from page 3.) 



In continuation of the above subject, although I practise 

 early planting, it is, as I have already remarked, often from 

 necessity rather than choice. Forcing houses and pits become 

 overcrowded, and the othermeans of shelteiing the plants being 

 insufficient, we are often reluctantly compelled to thin them 

 out ; for, supposing the plants in single pots were only wanted 

 to plant the two borders described in my former article, and 

 that twenty rows of plants, each about 200 yards in length, 

 were wanted, these alone would make upwards of two miles 

 and a quarter of single row, too many for tho accommodation 

 we have, and as we have other beds and borders as well, an 

 easy way of accomplishing the object has to be adopted. 



The management of Calceolarias is easy enough ; cuttings 

 put very thickly into a cold pit in October or November are 

 thinned out very often in March, and the plants left are quite 

 large enough for turning out by the end of April ; if the ground 

 is in tolerable condition, and the site not too much exposed to 

 east winds, they will often succeed well. At all events, they 



