JOUENAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



I Angnst 2, 1877. 



reply. For all the to-do arose from someone having borrowed 

 that necessary article for a few minutes. 



And as judges, what various kind of treatment do we meet 

 with from exhibitors and the public gen "-ill} ! The leading 

 nurserymen look round when the judging of their exhibits is 

 over. " A rather close thing between us and Cant ; but I 

 think you are right," remarks the champion on one occasion. 

 " Nothing to find fault with to-day," says another giant. But 

 go to some provincial show where some third-rate nurseryman 

 stages a seventy-two and meets Mr. Crauston or Mr. Turner, 

 and hear his remarks on the judging. I remember once at a 

 show in Staffordshire being so abused that I felt very happy 

 that I was not personally maltreated. " You call yourself a 

 judge !" said a man from Nottingham, " and place me third ! 

 Why, when I uncovered my boxes thiB morning all the ama- 

 teurs said I was first, and then I came in to the show and find 

 you have placed me third. Why, a ghost of an amateur could 

 see who was first if he rode round the room. Hole I know, 

 and Pochin I know ; but who are you ?" 



Contrast this with the calmness of others who are content 

 to take the second, or even the third or fourth place, or even 

 to be left out in the cold altogether, when they know they 

 have not disgraced themselves. I remember one year staging 

 in every class at the Crystal Palace, and taking not a single 

 prize. When my old man came home next day with the boxes 

 I greeted him with, " Well, we have done nothing this time." 

 " No, sir," said he quite cheerily ; " no, and no one down our 



way has. D got ne'er a prize, and C did not either, 



not even for decorations." 



It is not often that an amateur beats a nurseryman in the 

 large classes. Sometimes in Teas or in twelve of a sort this 

 happens ; but very rarely in the forty-eight or seventy-two. 

 Yet I remember Mr. Baker beating Mr. Keynes and others at 

 Exeter for forty-eight, and now the Rev. Canon Hole has 

 secured the greatest of victories over Mr. Cranston and two 

 other nurserymen. I wish I had seen that fight, it must have 

 been a grand one ; but the Secretary of the Nottingham Show 

 did not Bend me a schedule till the Show was over, and bo I 

 knew nothing of it. [Neither did he send us a schedule. — 

 Eds.] As Mr. Cranston, from the way he showed at the Aqua- 

 rium the day before, must have been in splendid bloom, this 

 feat of Canon Hole's is a very great one, and I do not suppose 

 that amid all the triumphs of his life there is any that he will 

 value more highly, and much do I congratulate him on bis 

 great success. We in the west and south are so much earlier 

 than our friends in the midland counties that we rarely meet 

 at the shows. Even the 4th of July, the day the National show 

 was held, was too early for Canon Hole, so that it was no small 

 success on his part to obtain third honourB there. Next year 

 if a show is held in the north or midland counties I expect he 

 will have it all his own way. 



And now the Rose show season is over, and as I look back 

 upon it I cannot but remember with gratitude how much 

 brighter it has turned out than at one time appeared likely. 

 At the preliminary meeting of the National Rose Society the 

 Secretary gave a most gloomy account of show prospectB. He 

 told us that neither the Aquarium nor the Alexandra would 

 have a show, and the Crystal Palace would reduce their prizes ; 

 but each Show was held, and the only one that appears to 

 have succumbed is that of Birmingham. If next year the 

 Royal Horticultural Society have a Rose show of their own, 

 besides having one at their provincial meeting, and the National 

 hold not only a London show but a country one as well ; if 

 Birmingham decides to give the public one more chance of 

 supporting Rose shows, then next year we Bhall indeed have a 

 feast which will even satisfy a — Wyld Savage. 



STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 

 A short time ago Mr. Douglas suggested that there were 

 possibly some cultivators who doubted the soundness of the 

 advice that has been given when it has been recommended to 

 plant Strawberries annually. The advice may be and is per- 

 fectly right, but those who follow it must do so exactly, or 

 failure will most likely result. Not, be it noted, because the 

 advice has been wrong, but because it has not been fully and 

 precisely carried out. When Strawberries are planted annually 

 and good crops are produced the first year after the runners 

 are planted it is of vital importance that good runners are ob- 

 tained and planted early in good soil, and then, if proper 

 cultural care is given to them, they will form crowns and pro- 

 duce crops as certainly as will plants which are grown in pots 



and forced. It will not do to defer the planting of runners 

 until September or October, and then plant them of the same 

 small size as they were in July ; such runners will not produce 

 a good crop until the second year. If well-prepared ground is 

 not ready early in August, and very strong and well-rooted 

 runners are not also ready for planting at the same time, it is 

 as well to plant later runners in nursery beds, removing them 

 to their fruiting quarters as soon as they show signs of growth 

 in the spring. Such plants will have a whole season of growth 

 before them, and ought to produce a splendid crop the year 

 following. But the more economical plan, and especially 

 where the soil is rather light and the plants lake hold of it 

 quickly and grow freely, is to plant strong well-prepared run- 

 ners in their fruiting quarters as early in August as possible. 

 If they can be planted in July all the better, but they cannot 

 always be obtained then, and especially during a rather late 

 season like the present. 



I have for some years had two gardens " under my eye;" 

 the soil of one garden very light, the soil of the other very 

 strong. Strawberries are grown in both of them, and most 

 people who see them consider that they are grown well. 

 Several years of experience have proved that the mode of pro- 

 cedure best for one garden is not the best for the other, which 

 plainly proves that no one rule is applicable to all cases, and 

 herein is the sequel of the doubts that Mr. Douglas referred 

 to that his practice was not reliable. It is perfectly reliable 

 if carried out properly and the conditions are favourable — 

 that is, if really strong plants are really planted early, and the 

 ground is sufficiently free for their speedy establishment and 

 quick progress to maturity. 



In my "light soil" garden the runners arrive at maturity 

 the first season, and yield splendid crops within a year of being 

 severed from the parent plants. They are planted if possible 

 on ground from which the early Potatoes have been dug. If 

 the runners have been layered in pots they are planted as 

 recommended by Mr. Douglas in rows 2 feet apart, or rather 

 more, and 18 inches between the plants ; but if they have not 

 been prepared in pots they are planted " a foot apart all ways." 

 I have never been able to determine which plan produced the 

 best crops, but by both modes they are as good as I can desire 

 them. When the latter plan is adopted (and both plans are 

 carried out every year) every alternate row is chopped up im- 

 mediately after the first crop has been gathered, and the re- 

 maining rows remain one year longer and no more. When I 

 say the alternate rows are removed immediately after the fruit 

 has been gathered I mean what I say ; that term as I employ 

 it does not extend over a period of two or three months. The 

 mode of preparing the plants in pots is perhaps the more cer- 

 tain, and a less number of runners are required, but the other 

 plan is often the more convenient. It is satisfactory to know 

 that both modes answer the purpose intended, and I adopt 

 them simply because I have a fancy in every possible operation 

 for having " two strings to my bow," and as a consequence I 

 have found that I have sometimes " hit " with a given crop 

 when my neighbours have " missed." A good general always 

 preserves a line of retreat, and has his van well supported by 

 reserves. 



Previous to planting the soil is liberally manured and deeply 

 dug. In addition to the manure fully 2 ozs. of common salt 

 are spread over each square yard, and the ground, being light, 

 is made firm before planting. The plantB are afterwards 

 watered as required, and the surface of the bed ia mulched 

 with short manure, or, failing that, lawn mowings. The salt 

 in the soil and the mulching on it are of much service in re- 

 taining the moisture. The first crop iB nearly always better 

 than the second ; a third crop in such soil cannot be relied od. 



In the other, the " heavy soil " garden, a different mode of 

 culture is necessary. The plants in this garden, if planted iu 

 August, do not beoome established sufficiently quickly ana 

 make sufficient progress to produce anything like a fnll orop 

 the following year ; but when they are established they bear 

 prodigiously and continue bearing satisfactorily for at the 

 least three years, and if the crowns are thinned out good 

 crops are produced by the same plants for five or six years. 

 In this heavy-soil garden it is found advisable to prepare the 

 plants by planting them in nursery beds early in September, 

 placing them in their fruiting quarters as soon as growth com- 

 mences in the spring. There is then no necessity for hurry- 

 ing the ground into condition — indeed, heavy soil cannot be 

 profitably hurried for any crop, but it is well prepared by being 

 roughly dug and thrown into ridges, these ridges being broken 

 as often as is convenient when they are crusted with frost. 



