July 28, 1870. ] 



JOURNAL OF HOBTIOOLTUEE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



57 









WEEKLY 



CALENDAR. 















Day 



ol 



Month 



Day 



of 



Week. 



JULY 28— AUGUST 8, 1870. 



Average Tempera- 

 ture near London. 



Rain in 



last 

 43 years. 



Sun 

 Rises. 



Sun 

 Seta. 



Moon 

 Rises. 



Mo»n 

 Sets. 



Moon's 

 Age. 



Clock 

 before 

 Sun. 



Day 



of 



Year. 



28 



29 



80 



81 



1 



2 



8 



Th 



F 



S 



Sun 



M 



To 



W 



Lee and Blackheath Horticultural Show. 



7 SrrNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 



Lammas Day. 



Royal Horticultural Society, Fruit. Floral, 

 [and General Meeting. 



Day. 

 76.4 

 75 5 

 75.2 

 74.9 

 75.6 

 75.8 

 74.9 



Night. 

 50.8 

 49.9 

 50.2 

 50.0 

 50.4 

 50.9 

 50.6 



Mean. 



63.6 



e2.7 



62.7 



62.4 



630 



63.1 



62.8 



Davs. 

 21 

 18 

 16 

 15 

 19 

 20 

 19 



m. h. 

 19af4 

 21 4 



23 4 



24 4 



25 4 



26 4 

 28 4 



m. h. 



51 af 7 

 50 7 

 49 7 

 47 7 

 46 7 

 44 7 

 42 7 



m. h. 



af 4 

 11 5 

 27 6 

 44 7 



4 9 

 23 10 

 43 11 



m. h. 

 10 af 8 

 41 8 

 12 9 

 36 9 

 10 

 22 If) 

 45 10 



Davs. 



e 



i 



2 



4 

 5 

 C 



m. 8. 

 . 6 13 

 6 12 

 6 10 

 6 7 

 6 4 

 6 1 

 5 56 



209 

 210 

 211 

 212 

 213 

 214 

 216 



From observations taken near London during the last forty-three years, the average day temperature of the week is 75.1°, and its night 

 temperature 50.4°. The greatest heat was 92=, on the 2nd, 1856; and the lowest oold 31', on the 2nd, 1864. The greatest fall of rain was 

 1.39 inch. 



CULTIVATION OF THE STRAWBERRY IN THE 

 OPEN GROUND. 



AVING been for some years successful in 

 the cultivation of the Strawberry out of 

 doors, I will give the mode I adopt, by which 

 a good crop is obtained every year almost 

 with certainty. I shall first describe the 

 way in which I grow the plants in the open 

 ground without any protection ; then the 

 mode in which I have grown them in the 

 open ground with protection, to forward the 

 early crop. 



I will, however, in the first place offer a few hints that 

 will be found necessary to success. Never keep a barren 

 plant ; go over the rows as soon as they are well in bloom, 

 and pull out all such plants. I am persuaded there are 

 many failures from omitting to do this. Never dig amongst 

 the plants, nor cut off the leaves at any time. If we wish 

 to grow the Strawberry well we must bestow some attention 

 on it ; if it is cultivated on the starvation system of remain- 

 ing three, four, or five years on the ground, how can one 

 expect fine fruit ? if every year a good crop can be pro- 

 duced of fruit fit for any table, either private or exhibition, 

 by bestowing no more care than, if so much as, will have to 

 be done to get a crop of good Celery, I think it is worth the 

 trouble. I have this year gathered many fruit from British 

 Queen, Lucas, Dr. Hogg, and President from 4 to 5| inches 

 in circumference off plants put out last September, many 

 of these young plants producing from 1 to li lb. the first 

 year, and very heavy crops the second, though the fruit is 

 then never so fine as on the young plants. Some sorts, 

 such as Wizard of the North and Black Prince, I never 

 again intend to cultivate longer than one year, for the 

 quality of fruit from the young plants is much superior, 

 many of the berries of Black Prince being 3 inches in 

 circumference. 



I will first describe the mode of taking the runners. 

 Having at this time of year plenty of empty pots out of 

 which bedding plants have been turned, I have as many 

 washed clean as I require ; any size from 3 to 5 inches 

 in diameter will do. I then mix about equal parts of 

 rotten dung (generally from an old Mushroom bed) and 

 loam ; this mixture is put through an inch sieve, and the 

 rough part is used for crocking. The soil is pressed into 

 the pots rather firnilj', and a small peg, cut from old birch 

 brooms during the winter, put into each pot ; the pots are 

 then watered, carried to the rows, and a runner pegged into 

 each, generally the first runner from the plant. If the 

 weather is dry they are watered a few times with a rose- 

 watering pot, and the runners will be rooted in from twelve 

 to sixteen days. I have 1100 that were layered on June 

 27th and 28th, taken off rooted on July 13th. They are 

 then set on a hard walk in the full sun, each sort by itself, 

 till the ground is at liberty for planting, which is often not 

 till late in September. 



The plants are then planted thus : — Supposing the 

 ground has borne a crop of Onions or Peas, the usual way 

 would be to trench it over, instead of which I dig out a 

 No. 487.— Vol. XTX., New Series. 



trench the depth of a spade and as wide, as for Celery ; I 

 put in 3 or 4 inches of good dung, return the soil, and 

 tread it quite hard. I treat all the rows the same, making 

 them 2 feet from each other, till I have as many rows as 

 I require. The plants when turned out of the pots have a 

 mass of roots, and are planted with a trowel at 18 inches 

 apart in the rows, not making the hole too large, and are 

 pressed in very firmly. If the weather is dry they are 

 watered, otherwise they seldom have any water during the 

 time they are on the ground. During the winter they are 

 mulched with rotten dung from an old hotbed, if it can be 

 spared — the two-year plants always. 



I plant every year about half the plants intended to 

 produce the main crop, say from 100 to 150 square yards, 

 so that if one part of the bed should fail I never miss 

 having a crop. For the last three hot summers the berries 

 have been splendid ; this I attribute to the firmness of the 

 ground and the depth the roots go down. The hoe is used 

 once or twice in spring to cut down weeds and to keep the 

 fruit free from soil, &c, and a layer of clean straw is put be- 

 tween the rows just as the plants begin to show their flower 

 stalks. After I have secured the runners I require, the rest 

 are cut off, and cleared off along with the straw from the 

 young plants ; the other plants are done away with. - No 

 digging nor cutting off leaves is practised. I do not find 

 any injurious effects arising from the runners being 

 allowed to remain while the plants are fruiting, as I have 

 taken as many as a dozen this year from young plants 

 which have borne equally well with those which had the 

 runners cut off. 



I will now describe the mode of cultivating the Straw- 

 berry in the open ground, with protection to forward the 

 early crop, by which this year I was enabled to ripen a 

 good crop three weeks before the main crop was ready for 

 use. Wanting some Strawberries last year early in June, 

 and not having any plants in pots, I covered part of a bed 

 of two-year-old plants with lights used for Vine and Peach 

 borders during the winter. The plants did so well that I 

 determined to make a bed specially for this year. The 

 plants were turned out of pots late in September in ground 

 that had borne a crop of Onions, a dressing of dung being; 

 trenched iu, and at only 1 foot apart each way. I could 

 not plant in trenches. They had a top-dressing of rotten 

 dung about November, and were covered with lights on 

 the 7th of March. The lights are 7 feet 9 inches long by 

 3 feet G inches wide, covering fourteen rows of plants, and 

 forming a span-roof 15 feet wide, and 15 inches high in 

 the centre. ■ —=-■■ , - : -. ; 



It is a very simple affair, not taking more than an hour 

 to construct; there are a few pegs driven into the ground, 

 leaving them 15 inches clear above it ; then some boards, 

 9 inches wide, which are used for shelves during the winter, 

 are fastened to the pegs with two or three nails, and form 

 the ridge. The bed slopes from north to south. The 

 lights are put on the east side first, resting on the ridge, 

 and those on the west side resting on them. A piece of 

 slate is put under the ends of the lights to keep them 

 off the ground, and a short peg is put in to keep them from 

 shifting. Some thin boards are put to each end, not by 



Ho. 1189.— Vol. XLIV., Old Series. 



